Eurozone bonds suffered one of their most volatile days since Greece’s left-wing government was elected five months ago, as mounting fears that Athens would not agree a bailout deal at tomorrow’s high-stakes finance minsters’ meeting sparked talk of an emergency weekend EU summit.
In a speech televised live from parliament, Alexis Tsipras, Greece’s prime minister, angrily denounced a compromise plan presented by his country’s bailout monitors as “humiliating for our people” and accused the International Monetary Fund of “criminal responsibility” for the country’s economic woes.
The strident language, coupled with published remarks by Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance minister, that he did not plan to bring new proposals to the finance ministers’ meeting, has sped up preparations for a possible Greek default, according to eurozone officials.