Roundup: Greek Left marks 2 years in office amid mixed reviews

Greek party Syriza on Wednesday passed the two-year mark in office with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras ruling out the prospect of a new round of austerity measures in return for further aid by international creditors.

And while government officials presented a positive assessment of the two years in power, opposition parties and critics gave negative evaluations of the government's performance.

In an interview with "Efimerida ton Syntakton" (the Editors' Journal) printed on Wednesday, Tsipras said he was proud of his government's achievements so far, pointing to positive fiscal indexes showing that the ailing economy was returning to growth and initiatives aimed to support social cohesion.

He reiterated his administration's determination to continue the struggle to pull Greece out of the debt crisis by correcting mistakes of the past and implementing reforms to ensure sustainable development and social justice.

The Greek leader stressed that Athens would not accept "even a euro's worth" of additional austerity measures beyond those included in the current bailout agreement his government signed with international lenders in the summer of 2015, the third since 2010 for Greece.

However, as his government is still at odds with lenders since autumn over the terms of the release of further aid money to Athens, skepticism prevails.

According to recent opinion surveys, an overwhelming majority of Greek citizens appear dissatisfied with the government's performance and are concerned about the future.

Meanwhile, the main conservative opposition party New Democracy (ND) retains a significant lead.

On Wednesday, Tsipras once again defended the bailout he accepted in the summer of 2015 as a necessary evil to avoid the worst -- disorderly default and Grexit.

According to pollsters, Greeks were worried Athens would be forced to agree again on more pension cuts and tax hikes if under pressure by creditors.

Seventy-five percent of households endured significant income drops during 2016, according to a survey released on Tuesday by the Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants (GSEVEE).

Thirty-seven percent of Greek households today live on less than 10,000 euros (10,745 U.S. dollars) annually and almost one in two are surviving on pensions of the elderly, as 25 percent of the workforce is jobless, the survey showed.

A quarter of respondents expressed fear they would not be able to meet their tax and security contribution burdens in the future, as they already have outstanding debts to banks, the tax office, and social security funds.

"All social groups are in a worse position today than in 2014," ND chief Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday addressing a party meeting in Athens.

The conflicting views on the two years of the Syriza administration were also reflected in headlines on the front pages of the Wednesday edition of Athens' top selling newspapers.

"Two years of Syriza governance cost Greeks 93.1 billion euro in losses" read the main headline on the front page of Eleftheros Typos (Free Press).

"The death of the middle class" was the title of the editorial of Imerissia (Daily).

Avghi (Dawn) daily newspaper's front page read: "Hope remains in the Left" in reference to the main slogan of Syriza's pre-election campaign in the winter of 2015 "Hope is coming." Endit