Any extension of an automatic spending cuts mechanism, dubbed the "cutter" by the opposition and media, will be considered an extension of the third bailout memorandum, a spokesman for main opposition New Democracy (ND) party was quoted in an interview over the weekend.
In statements published by the weekly "RealNews", former minister Vassilis Kikilias emphasized that ND leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis "wants and can" succeed where current leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has failed, as he claimed.
Kikilias also took an indirect swipe at the country's institutional creditors, pointing to a responsibility for the current uncertainty over the Greek program "by those who are possessed by ideological obsessions, fanaticism and behave without taking into consideration the facts concerning the Greek economy and European acquis," he said.
The ND spokesman also told the weekly that "none of the creditors" is exerting pressure or criticism on Mitsotakis for his standing demand for snap elections in the recession-battered country.
The spending cuts mechanism was agreed to by the leftist Greek government prior to May 2016 to achieve a first review of the Greek program (third bailout). It envisions automatic spending cuts to the budget in case fiscal targets appear failing.
