Alexis Tsipras

By Alexander Görlach

Greek and EU officials met for talks Saturday ahead of a high-stakes show-down over Athens' demands for a radical restructuring of its massive international bailout programme.

"It is not a negotiation but an exchange of views to better understand each other's position,» an EU official said of the final huddle before next week's crunch meeting.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras expressed his optimism on Friday over the outcome of negotiations between the Greek government and the country's international creditors, speaking to his Cabinet on Friday.

During the five-hour meeting, which ended well after midnight, the ministers were briefed on the developments that occurred at the Eurogroup meeting and the EU Summit a day earlier.

The United States interest for the developments in Greece was confirmed once again on Friday afternoon, just three days before the critical Eurogroup meeting on Monday.

The EU has approached the Greek debt problem as a technical one up until now. Greek governments used to share that perspective. No more. Alexis Tsipras and his Radical Coalition of the Left (Syriza) puts politics front and center. Why? Because the purely mathematical approach of debt dynamics turned out to be a disaster.

According to government sources Mr. Lew stressed over the phone that the “US supports the success of Greece’s talks with its European partners for an agreed exit from crisis program and the importance that this development has to financial stability in Europe “.

It is expected that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will name his party?s candidate for president this weekend.

The process of electing a successor to incumbent Karolos Papoulias has been delayed due to talks between government officials and their eurozone counterparts.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras chaired a meeting of his cabinet on Friday night to brief ministers on the state of talks with the eurozone but also to assess his own room for maneuver ahead of Monday?s Eurogroup.

So much for the much ballyhooed "south Europe axis" and professed solidarity amongst bailed out eurozoners.
Spanish Prime Minister Marianno Rajoy caused a stir late on Thursday, at least amongst some Greek "twitterati", when he Tweeted a photograph of the EU Summit's "family portrait".

The new Greek government appears satisfied over negotiations so far in both Eurogroup and EU summit settings, or at least that is the press “spin” emanating from the ubiquitous “government sources”.