Reuters: Cyprus could ditch euro if bailout terms unbearable

21 September 2012

Cyprus may have to consider an exit from the eurozone if international lenders impose excessively painful austerity measures as a condition for a bailout, the head of its ruling party said.

Andros Kyprianou, whose AKEL party is the primary backer of the left-wing government led by President Demetris Christofias,  said such a strategy could be considered if austerity becomes unbearable. "If the troika insists on very painful measures to remain in the eurozone, should we dig our heels in and say we won't leave the eurozone because this is important, and (that) we will remain, however painful the measures may be?" Kyprianou said in a video interview.

Kyprianou, whose party had tried to shake off perceptions in the past that it was eurosceptic, acknowledged that AKEL had "reservations" about the island joining the bloc. They were overcome, he said, on the premise that membership would be a catalyst for solving the island's long-running ethnic division, and that it would safeguard interests of "workers". A solution to Cyprus's division has not transpired yet, he said, and said there were also "negative developments" as far as workers' rights were concerned.

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