Greek PM Alexis Tsipras races to restart talks after vote win

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was heading Tuesday to Brussels for an emergency meeting of eurozone leaders, where he will try to use a resounding referendum victory to eke out concessions from European creditors over a bailout for the crisis-ridden country.

Tsipras is set to reveal fresh proposals to creditors that he hopes will kick-start negotiations. Tsipras needs the bailout talks to make rapid progress so Greece can get access to money that will prevent the banks going bust and safeguard the country’s euro future.

Greece’s financial distress became more acute late Monday when the European Central Bank refused to increase assistance for Greek banks, which are not due to reopen until Thursday.

A hastily arranged meeting of eurozone finance ministers, which will be Euclid Tsakalotos’ first as Greek finance minister, is slated for the afternoon. A full summit of leaders will then follow.

There were few signs of movement in the run-up to Tuesday’s meeting.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker tempered expectations of a swift solution.

“Were we to come up with a solution today, it would be an overly simplistic solution,” he told European lawmakers in Strasbourg, France. “What we’re going to do today is talk to each other, understand each other, show tolerance to each other and restore order to the situation.”

The upcoming meetings follow Tsipras’ bigger than expected win in Sunday’s bailout referendum, when 61 per cent of Greek voters rejected the measures creditors had proposed in exchange for loans.

In a sign he may be willing for compromise, Tsipras appointed a new finance minister to lead talks with creditors.

Tsakalotos, a 55-year-old economist, has replaced Yanis Varoufakis, who constantly clashed with his peers.

“I won’t hide from you that I am very nervous and very anxious,” Tsakalotos said after being sworn in Monday. “I am not taking over at the easiest moment in Greek history.”

Greek banks are running out of cash even after the government placed limits on how much depositors can withdraw.

Normal commerce is now impossible in Greece. Small businesses, lacking use of credit cards or money from bank accounts, were left to rely on cash coming from diminishing purchases from customers. But Greeks are holding tightly onto what they have. And suppliers are demanding that businesses pay cash up front.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said that if Greece is to remain part of the eurozone, it needs to enact reforms that will spur economic growth and pay off its debt.

“We’re inclined to help Greece but Greece must follow Europe’s rules,” he said in an interview on Spain’s Telecinco evening news program.

Tsipras has previously indicated he’s willing to raise taxes and cut some spending provided the country gets some debt relief.

“The prime minister is … committed to starting a fundamental debate on dealing with the problem of sustainability of the Greek national debt,” a Monday statement signed by the government and three pro-European opposition parties said.

Greece, after years of crippling recession and spiralling unemployment, has already been granted 240 billion euros ($266 billion) in loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund. But the spending restraint demanded as a condition for the loans hit growth, and reforms have been slower than hoped.

European officials remain split on Greece’s demand for easier debt repayment — with lead eurozone lender Germany still reluctant.

James Nixon, chief European economist at Oxford Economics, said there’s “a narrow trajectory from here that sees an emboldened Greek parliament accepting the need for reform in return for a debt write-down.”

“The next 48 hours will be crucial.”