On the 10th anniversary of the turbulent 2015 bailout referendum, former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras demanded the release of secret minutes from a critical meeting of political leaders that followed the vote, a request that the President of the Republic swiftly rejected.
The move by Mr. Tsipras on Friday sought to reopen one of the most divisive chapters in modern Greek history, when the country overwhelmingly voted “No” to international creditors’ austerity terms, only to see his government reverse course days later to avoid a catastrophic exit from the eurozone.
In a formal letter to President Konstantinos Tasoulas, Mr. Tsipras argued that releasing the minutes from the July 5, 2015, meeting would shed crucial light on the positions taken by all party leaders during the peak of the crisis. He claimed it was a matter of historical transparency.
The rejection from President Tasoulas was immediate and unequivocal.
In a public statement, his office said the council of political leaders is an informal body, not a constitutional one, and its discussions on sensitive national issues are confidential.
“What is discussed in the Council is confidential,” the statement read, adding that the minutes are not communicated to participants and remain with the Presidency.
The 2015 referendum, called by Mr. Tsipras’s then-ruling Syriza party, plunged Greece into a period of extreme turmoil.
To avert a banking system collapse as negotiations with creditors broke down, the government imposed capital controls and shut down the nation’s banks.
Despite the public rejecting the proposed bailout terms with a resounding 61.3% “No” vote, Mr. Tsipras’s government ultimately agreed to a new, even harsher bailout package to secure the country’s place in the single currency.