Tsipras Mandate Main Barrier to Greek Deal, Scicluna Says

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s mandate from the Greek people is the biggest stumbling block to a deal with the country’s creditors to help avert a default, according to Maltese Finance Minister Edward Scicluna.

Tsipras’s government was elected on a platform of ending austerity tied to bailout payments, yet Scicluna and his fellow euro-area finance ministers insist that aid cannot flow without some adherence to the reform agenda. Allowing too much flexibility to Greece would risk sending the wrong message to other states, he said in an interview in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, on Friday.