Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the liberal group in the European Parliament and Belgium's ex Prime Minister, warned during his parliamentary speech that Europe “is sleepwalking towards a Grexit”.
Verhofstadt rebuked Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras for not coming up with detailed reforms.“You talk about reforms, but we never see concrete proposals for reforms,” he said, followed by loud applause in the room.
He outlines his plan for reform by proposing the end of privileges in Greece, “The privileges of the ship owners, of the military, of the Orthodox Church, of the Greek islands, and of the political parties, who receive funds from banks who are in fact bankrupt.”
He also said that the clientèlist system in Greek politics (i.e. exchange of goods and services for political support) should be brought to an end and that Greece should downsize it's public sector.
“Put all of this in a package and put it on the table in the coming days. I assure you we will find a solution” Verhofstadt said.
“There is never such a prime minister in Greece who has such a strong mandate as you” he said referring to Tsipras who has shored up his domestic position by winning last week’s anti-austerity referendum with 61 percent of the vote.