ATHENS, Greece (AP) – Greece’s new government is “radically opposed” to the privatization of certain businesses, particularly in the energy and infrastructure sectors, a senior cabinet minister said Wednesday as reforms talks with creditors were due to begin.
Selling state-owned enterprises is one of the actions Greece has been asked to take to raise funds and reduce debt in exchange for rescue loans from the eurozone and International Monetary Fund.
Talks between Greece and its creditors were to start on a technical level in Brussels later Wednesday to cement a series of reforms Athens must implement in order to get the remaining bailout funds released and avoid bankruptcy.
“We are radically opposed to the privatization, particularly of the strategic sectors and businesses of our economy, and primarily in the sector of infrastructure and energy,” said Panagiotis Lafazanis, the energy and environment minister and a government hardliner, at a conference in Athens.
Lafazanis added that “honestly, I haven’t understood why for some schools of thought, privatizations have become synonymous with reforms.”