News Analysis: Greece wins time with Eurogroup deal, more tough challenges ahead

ATHENS (Xinhua) - Greece won some time and breathing space pushing away scenarios of an imminent Grexit with the bridging arrangement reached on Friday with its euro zone interlocutors, but more tough challenges lie ahead, according to political analysts in Athens.

"A battle was won, the war continues," the newly elected Radical Left Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras acknowledged in his address to Greek people on Saturday, after the initial celebratory comments by cabinet ministers about the dawn of a new era.

After two weeks of dramatic consultations with lenders on the terms of their cooperation after the expiry of the four-year bailout program on Feb. 28 that had fuelled agony over a possible clash which could leave debt-laden Greece with no support to sink to default in springtime, the government agreed to the extension to May of the bailout it had strongly opposed to.

The first assessment of Friday's deal in Brussels was mixed in the Greek capital on Saturday.

"Yesterday we made an important step, leaving behind austerity,  the memorandum and troika," Tsipras said.

"The memorandum is over, the program is here, troika is dead, and institutions take over. Shall we move forward after the funny game of name changing? The government did indeed manage to postpone for a few months the implementation of more austerity measures... What they won from euro group was time," political commentator Yannis Pantelakis said.

He noted however that the result, the content of the agreement,  was essentially far away from the pre-election promises made until the January 25 elections, since Athens was forced to accept the de facto review of its policy program and lenders' supervision in exchange of vital financial assistance to stay afloat.

In the next few weeks, if everything runs smoothly in the first test on Monday and euro group accepts the list of reforms Athens will submit under the deal, the major wager for Tsipras will be to achieve two conflicting goals, according to Pantelakis.

The government will have to convince creditors that with the implementation of his government's policies there will be no derailment from fiscal consolidation and they will get their money back eventually in order to ensure the disbursement of more funding.

In parallel the new administration will have to convince its voters to be patient until Greece clinches a final deal with lenders on the resolution of the debt crisis in the summer and hopefully have the means to implement a growth plan that will give some relief to austerity-hit Greeks.

"What happened yesterday was a major defeat for the Radical Left SYRIZA party, but a success for the SYRIZA- led government. Pre- election illusions were diluted ... But this is a success for the country," Karelias argued.

He elaborated commenting on Friday's deal that Greece was saved from entering a new adventure. "Liquidity shortage fears recede, stability is restored for a few months and the Grexit specter is pushed back from the front stage ... Now the government must work to maximize the positive elements of the agreement and minimize the negative," he stressed.

Which were these positive and negative elements of the deal? For Sotiris Nikas of "Kathimerini" (Daily) newspaper the major gain for Athens was euro zone partners' agreement to the lowering of primary budget surplus targets which could free up some funds for social cohesion measures.

The biggest thorn on the other hand was, according to Nikas and other analysts, that Friday's deal does not resolve the liquidity problems of the Greek state in March and April at the moment.