This is the second time that it is being claimed, IMF’s representative for Greece, Poul Thomsen, is going to be replaced. Economic news portal Capital.gr wrote in fact that he has been already replaced. By deputy mission chief for Greece, Mark Flanagan. An IMR-technocrat who worked out the Memorandum of Understanding for Ireland.
Is Flanagan “the better” Thomsen? Hardly, then the IMF sticks to its bailout programmes as if with super strong instant glue.
Flanagan has said that Greece has to further decrease wages by 15% until 2015 to achieve competitiveness, stressed Capital. A measure that even the former PASOK-Nea Dimocratia government has opposed.
Greece was allegedly unhappy with Poul Thomsen, and Greek media had claimed in the past that Athens had even requested his replacement. Foreign media had also claimed that Poul Thomsen wanted to be replaced also.
Whether the Greece-Thomsen divorce is mutual or not is irrelevant. Most important is to know, whether the IMF considered Thomsen as not particular successful…
The Troika has suspended visits to Athens until a government is formed after June-17 elections.
UPDATE 11 pm : The IMF denied the replacement of Thomsen (and I wasted my time to write this post lol)
PS “Troika” is the nick name for Greece’s lenders representatives from European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank.
LOL! But there is a lesson here: Thomsen is a civil servant and therefore not important at all. The policies of the IMF can be executed by any number of employees and who that is is of no consequence. It might be good for a lot of people to realize that it works that way in a lot of countries and a lot of organisations where top-level civil servants are not changed with every (cabinet) reshuffle, because they will execute loyally any policy. Even opposing ones.
it’s psychological, Antonis.