Greece’s stay in the eurozone is non negotiable, main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Antonis Samaras said in an interview with Sunday’s Kathimerini newspaper.

“Greece’s exit from the eurozone,” he said “it would have serious repercussions.”

Samaras also stressed the importance of changing policy. “We can still get out of that impasse,” he said “by implementing reforms, speeding up privatisations and reducing the state instead of imposing new taxes.”

In that framework, Samaras proposed “great national consensus.”

The former prime minister also attacked the government accusing it of “having received a country with surpluses and on recovery course, but it lost valuable time and plunged the economy again in deficits and recession while it cannot resist the creditors’ demands.”

“It downgraded its negotiating position,” he stated. “It managed to isolate Greece,” he said adding that now it is faced with the dramatic dilemma of a really bad agreement or a devastating default.