SYRIZA government

By Marius Zaharia

Greece's new SYRIZA government spent its first week in power trying to make friends with European policymakers and wary investors. The firm that says it is one of Athens's largest private creditors is already on board.

Berlin wants to see the Greek government back down from its anti-bailout promises and return to the agreed-upon reforms and policies, all signed with its predecessor ND coalition government. This “line of defence” is reportedly listed in a document, according to Reuters, put together prior to the Euro working group meeting on Thursday.

Germany wants Greece's new left-wing government to go back on anti-austerity promises made in its first days in office and revert to economic policies its predecessors' agreed with international lenders, a document showed on Wednesday.

Greek yields rose on Wednesday as a media report that the ECB was unwilling to approve Athens' proposal to raise the ceiling for its treasury bill issuance cooled optimism that a compromise debt deal may be reached.

 ANEL leader says his MPs have right to vote according to their conscience

In the first sign of a disagreement within the new SYRIZA-led government, the leader of junior coalition partner Independent Greeks (ANEL), Panos Kammenos, indicated that the party?s 13 MPs would not back a bill granting citizenship to the children of immigrants living in Greece.

A circulated “non paper” — by the government itself – in tandem with an official statement by government spokesman Gabriel Sakellaridis that a SYRIZA government will not “flip flop” on the debt issue attempted to allay scrutiny on Tuesday of an “about face” in terms of policy.

The “non paper” made the following points, in telegraph fashion:

Greece?s proposal to swap its foreign debt for growth-linked bonds is a disguised form of debt forgiveness, the leader of Germany?s Euroskeptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) party told Reuters on Tuesday.

"We will witness the end of the crisis in June. We can do it. Everyone in Europe just needs to calm down", stated FinMin Yanis Varoufakis to Italian journalists shortly before his meeting with Finance Minister of Italy Pier Carlo Padoan.

By Nikos Chrysoloras

Greece's opposition Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras said his party will respect European Union fiscal rules and commit to targets on eliminating the deficit, in a further olive branch to the country's creditors as he moves closer to winning power.

With just a few days to go before critical snap elections, the two main parties are battling for undecided voters and the center ground, with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras expected to emphasize the risks of a SYRIZA government in campaign speeches Wednesday.