Friday 29 October 2021
Varoufakis threatens to visit
Merkel: I am aware of the unreasonable demands for Greece
The Greek crisis is one of the greatest challenges that Chancellor Merkel still had to face. Now she is on a farewell visit to the country and takes stock. Meanwhile, ex-finance minister Varoufakis believes the country’s euro rescue has failed – and attacks the chancellor sharply.
During her farewell visit to Greece, Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the difficult phase in relations between the two countries during the euro crisis. “The bottom line is that dialogue has always been the key to the solution,” said Merkel at a meeting with Greek President Ekaterina Sakellaropoulou. She was “very personally” aware of “the unreasonable demands and challenges” that were associated with the stabilization of the euro for the people in Greece.
“But in the end we succeeded in finding a way in which Greece has not only been in the European Union for 40 years, but Greece is also a member of the euro,” said Merkel in Athens. “There were moments when we felt very alone,” confirmed President Sakellaropoulou, referring to the Greek financial crisis, in which the country was on the verge of bankruptcy and exit from the euro.
However, this difficult time also ensured that relations with Germany improved and that we understood each other better. Merkel is a great politician, said Sakellaropoulou – she hopes that the Chancellor will remain active in the future. Greece was threatened with national bankruptcy and could only be rescued and kept in the euro zone with international help under strict conditions. During this time, many Greeks sharply criticized Merkel for her policies.
“Germans will pay and pay and pay”
Probably your strongest critic was and is Yanis Varoufakis, who was the country’s finance minister at the time of the Greek crisis. Shortly before Merkel’s arrival before Athens, Varoufakis settled in the “Bild” newspaper with the German financial policy to save Greece: “Unfortunately, the German workers and medium-sized companies will pay and pay and pay.”
A euro bailout for Greece was “doomed to fail,” continued Varoufakis. “Ms. Merkel, to paraphrase Tacitus, you managed to turn Greece into a desert and then you called it peace,” Varoufakis told “Bild”.
During her visit, Merkel also commented on the EU’s corona reconstruction program. Accordingly, close cooperation and financial support for southern European countries are necessary. “I was absolutely convinced of it and therefore also approved this recovery plan or next-generation EU program from the bottom of my heart,” said Merkel. The corona pandemic is a “very, very big disaster” for everyone, but especially for the EU countries that have gone through a long phase of reforms and spending cuts.
Therefore it is “now a requirement of fairness”, European cohesion and the functioning of the European internal market that countries like Greece, Portugal, Italy and Spain are now given the opportunity to invest in the future.