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ATHENS — As pressure grows on Greece to reach a deal with its international creditors and avert fears that it will default on its huge debt, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said Sunday that his government would not seek an extension of a stringent bailout program and would carry out its campaign pledges to roll back austerity, but gradually.
雅典——希腊正面临着更大的压力来与国际债权人达成协议，减轻外界对其巨额债务将出现违约的担忧。在这样的背景下，该国总理亚历克西斯·齐普拉斯(Alexis Tsipras)周日表示，其政府不打算延长一份严苛的救援计划的期限，并将兑现削弱财政紧缩措施的竞选承诺，但这一过程将逐步进行。
In laying out his program in a speech to Parliament, Mr. Tsipras sought to satisfy coalition lawmakers and supporters that his government would honor the anti-austerity pledges that brought it to power last month while reassuring creditors that it is prepared to move toward a compromise that keeps the economy afloat without further burdening European taxpayers.
齐普拉斯在对议会发表演讲时提出了自己的此番计划。这是为了让组成联合政府的党派的议员及支持者相信，政府将兑现反紧缩的承诺——正是这些承诺让齐普拉斯在上个月赢得了大选——同时向债权人保证，它已经准备好了达成一个折中方案，让经济维持下去，而不会进一步为欧洲纳税人造成负担。
Greece’s creditors — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — want the new government to seek an extension beyond Feb. 28 of the European portion of the country’s bailout of 240 billion euros, or $270 billion. The government, however, has said that despite dwindling cash reserves, it is not interested in the latest portion of the bailout, a loan of 7 billion, because of what it sees as onerous conditions. Instead, it has said it wants a program between now and the end of May to bridge the gap and permission to raise short-term funding by issuing treasury bills.
希腊的债权人——欧盟委员会(European Commission)、欧洲央行(European Central Bank)和国际货币基金组织（International Monetary Fund，简称IMF）——希望新政府将该国2400亿欧元（约合1.7万亿元人民币）的救援计划中的欧洲部分在2月28日到期之后继续延长。然而，希腊政府已经表示，尽管现金储备不断减少，但它对救援计划的最新内容——也就是一笔70亿欧元的贷款——没有兴趣，因为它认为贷款的条件十分苛刻。相反，希腊政府表示，它寻求达成一个从现在到5月底的项目来填补空当，并希望获得许可得以通过发行国债进行短期融资。
Mr. Tsipras said extending the bailout would be tantamount to continuing the “mistakes and disaster” of the past, and he said his government needed “fiscal space” for discussion on restructuring of debt.
齐普拉斯称，延长救援计划的期限将相当于延续过去的“错误和灾难”。他还说，政府需要讨论债务重组的“财政空间”。
“We only have one commitment: to serve the interests of our people, the good of society,” he said, noting that it was an “irreversible decision” of his government to fulfill its promises “in their entirety.”
“我们只有一项使命：服务于我们民众的利益，还有社会公益，”他说，并指出，“彻底地”兑现承诺，是他的政府做出的一个“不可逆转的决定”。
Mr. Tsipras also pledged to replace a hated unified property tax, which combines several levies, with a new tax on large property and to increase the tax-free threshold on annual income to 12,000 from the current 5,000. Cracking down on tax evasion and corruption were also underlined as priorities.
此外，齐普拉斯保证要取消一个结合了多项税费的引发严重不满的统一房产税，取而代之的是一项针对大型房产的新税。他还承诺把所得税的免税门槛从目前的年收入5000欧元提高到1.2万欧元。打击逃税和腐败也被作为首要任务加以强调。
Immediate action will be taken, he said, to restore collective wage bargaining, bringing unions back into negotiations on workers’ salaries and working conditions. He also pledged to gradually restore the minimum wage to 751 a month from 586.
他说，将立刻采取行动，恢复集体工资谈判，让工会回到关于员工薪酬和工作环境的谈判当中。他同时许诺逐步将最低工资从每月586欧元恢复到751欧元。
As a jab at Germany, which has been leading the austerity drive in Europe, Mr. Tsipras said it was Greece’s historical duty to seek war reparations and the repayment of a loan it was forced to make to Germany in World War II.
齐普拉斯还把矛头指向了一直在引领欧洲财政紧缩行动的德国。他说，寻求战争赔款，要求德国偿还在第二次世界大战中强迫希腊提供的贷款，是希腊的历史性责任。
The Greek authorities have already met with resistance, even in France and Italy, whose governments have pushed back against austerity measures. A tour of European capitals last week by Mr. Tsipras and Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis failed to win firm support for Greek ambitions to write down a 320 billion debt burden and to revoke some of the most severe cutbacks. And approval for issuing treasury bills must come from the European Central Bank, which has said it will no longer accept Greek bonds as collateral for liquidity, increasing the pressure on the country’s banks.
希腊政府已经遇到了抵制，甚至在法国和意大利也是如此，尽管这两个国家的政府反对财政紧缩措施。上周，齐普拉斯和财政部长亚尼斯·瓦鲁法基斯(Yanis Varoufakis)走访了欧洲多国首府，但未能赢得对希腊雄心勃勃的几项目标的坚定支持，包括减计3200亿欧元的债务负担，以及取消一些最严厉的减支计划。发行短期国库券必须获得欧洲央行的批准，而后者已经表示，将不再接受将希腊债券作为流动性的担保——此举增加了对希腊银行的压力。
This week promises to be even tougher for Mr. Tsipras. His radical leftist coalition, with 162 lawmakers in the 300-seat Parliament, is expected to secure a confidence vote on Tuesday. But his foreign audience will be harder to win over. A day before Mr. Tsipras faces his European Union peers at a summit meeting on Thursday, Mr. Varoufakis will meet eurozone counterparts in Brussels and is certain to be pressed to seek an extension to Greece’s bailout. The International Monetary Fund’s managing director, Christine Lagarde, and the European Central Bank’s president, Mario Draghi, will also attend, increasing the pressure.
本周对于齐普拉斯来说将更加难熬。他的激进左翼联盟，在议会的300个席位中占据了162席，预计周二将赢得一场信任表决。不过，更加难以说服的将是外国的听众。齐普拉斯计划在周四的峰会上与欧盟国家的领导人会面，而此前一天，瓦鲁法基斯将在布鲁塞尔与欧元区国家领导人会面，毫无疑问会面临延长希腊救援计划期限的压力。IMF的总裁克里斯蒂娜·拉加德(Christine Lagarde)和欧洲央行行长马里奥·德拉吉(Mario Draghi)也将出席，进一步对希腊施压。
The Greek debt issue is also expected to figure on the Group of 20 finance ministers agenda on Monday and Tuesday amid growing concern about the implications for the global economy.
越来越多的人担心希腊债务问题会对全球经济造成影响，在这一背景下，预计该议题还将出现在周一和周二的20国集团财长会议中。
“We don’t intend to threaten stability in Europe,” Mr. Tsipras told Parliament. “Greece remains a focus of international interest,” he said, but this time “as a protagonist, not as second fiddle.”
“我们不打算威胁欧洲的稳定，”齐普拉斯对议会表示。“希腊仍然是国际关注的焦点，”他说，但这一次是“作为主角，而不是次要角色。”
“The problem is not just Greek. It never was,” he said. “The crisis is not just Greek; it is European.”
“问题不只是希腊的，从来不是，”他说。“危机不光是希腊的；而是整个欧洲的。”
After the speech, the opposition party New Democracy expressed concern about whether the negotiations would be successful “after all that was heard today,” an apparent reference to the government’s insistence on revoking some austerity measures and not seeking a bailout extension.
在演讲之后，反对党新民主党(New Democracy Party)表示，在“今天听到了这些东西之后”，他们对谈判是否能成功颇为担忧。这明显指的是政府坚持取消一些紧缩措施，而且不打算延长救援计划。
Already Athens is being squeezed. After last week’s decision by the European Central Bank on Greek bonds, Standard & Poor’s cut its credit rating on Greece further into junk status, to B-, and warned of a possible default or an exit from the eurozone in “the worst case scenario.” Moody’s followed suit, saying it was placing Greece “on review” for a downgrade.
雅典已然举步维艰。欧洲央行上周对希腊债券做出决定之后，标准普尔(Standard & Poor)将已属垃圾级的希腊信用评级进一步下调至B-，并警告，在“最糟糕的情景下”，希腊可能会违约或退出欧元区；穆迪(Moody’s)也采取了同样的做法，宣布将把希腊放入可能下调评级的负面“观察”名单。
Greece is expected to return to growth this year after a six-year recession that has pushed unemployment above 25 percent and slashed household incomes by a third. Last week, however, the European Commission lowered its growth forecast for Greece to 2.5 percent, from an estimate of 2.9 percent in November.
预计希腊今年将恢复经济增长。此前，连续六年的衰退已将该国失业率推高到25%以上，并导致家庭平均收入大幅减少了三分之一。然而上周，欧盟委员会把对希腊的经济增长预期从11月份估计的2.9%下调到了2.5%。
