Deputy Transport Minister Michalis Papadoulos dropped a bomb-shell that exploded in the face of the Troika and also expressed the frustration of many officials in the Greek coalition government. Referring to the often absurd demands tabled by the chief auditors controlling Greece, Papadopoulos blamed the Troika for blocking an overall agreements and accused the representatives of the country’s lenders for “serving interests of the private sector”.
” The troika has obsessions that are not reasonable and are derived from the logic been created by its technical teams,” Papadopoulos told radio Athens 9.84FM on Tuesday morning. “They are like a corner shop, where everyone who passes leaves something [a demand, I suppose] and then the Troika comes and says “Ah, do this as well! I send you an e-mail and we also have this issue that is still open. of course, no issue is open…” (newsit.gr)
KTG understands that what Michalis Papadopoulos said was that while there is a list of Troika demands that the Greek government tries to fulfill and comply with, the private sector tables additional demands to the Troika like changes in the labor market and salaries, for example, and then the Troika adds additional demands to the already long list that the Greek government has to deal with.
“Deputy Transport Minister Michalis Papadopoulos accused the troika on Tuesday of adapting its demands of the Greek government to suit the needs of private groups with which it comes into contact.
“The troika has certain obsessions that are groundless and are part of the way of thinking created by its technical teams,” he told Athens 984 radio station. “They are like a corner shop, where everyone who passes leaves something and then the troika picks up on it and says: “Ah, yes! You have to do this as well”.”
When asked whether he though that the troika was looking after specific private interests, Papadopoulos launched another rebuke of Greece’s lenders.
“There are institutional bodies, Greek and foreign, who pass by the troika and say: “Do this as well”,” said the deputy minister. “The troika has adopted a way of thinking that involves them serving particular interests.” (ekathimerini)
Michalis Papadopoulos made this statement 24 hours before the return of the Troikans who are due to make a final evaluation round of Greek government achievements.
Papadopoulos is a Minister from Samaras’ Nea Dimokratia.
PS to tell you the truth – and after having followed the signed loan agreements (MoU) and the extraordinary demands sent to Greek government per e-mail over the last four years, I do not think Papadopoulos accusations are out of the blue.
Maybe Papadopoulos is a communist or he wants Greece to remain 50 years behind and have closed professions. He is a selfish Greek politician after all, hardly an angel.
The Troika reforms are for the good of the people, it will just take some time to be positively felt in Greece. Things may be hard now, but that’s not the Troika’s fault, its the Stalinist policies of Andreas Papandreou that sank the country.
1) they are not angels on earth
2) if there are any, they are not politicians
3) any exact date when the positive impact of Troika-angels’ reforms will be felt in Greece?
I would say within the next 5 years. They are already being felt a bit slowly slowly, with taxes being paid online instead of seeing the miserable people in the tax offices! It is no longer a crime to ask for a receipt when buying something. Credit cards are acceptable everywhere. No more cash over 500 Euros. Crime slowly falling.
All this without half of the reforms of the troika. With the other half and better legal systems, I think Greece will turn into a tourism paradise.
Things are not perfect, but at least Greece is living in reality, not its own little bubble that has nothing to do with reality.
Some people are suffering a lot, but I hope if the economy picks up eventually, their suffering will be less.
As for the many Greeks who drank coffee all day and collected rent from their properties, well its time to go back to work!
Any convincing proposal about how people – the unemployed, for example – will survive the period of 5 years to happily enjoy the impact of the Troika reforms?
For the low-pensioners and the chronic-ill we know the answer: they will enjoy the Troika goodies in their next life. So far they’re are struggling with the Troika badies like property over-taxation and severe health care cuts.
I think you see the tree and not the forest. This is myopic view of what happens in real terms. Greek people and especially the mid-class (that have always worked and paid tax sustaining and/or developing the real economy of the country) are the first victims of criminals that have already subdued honest and hard working people in other parts of the planet (e.g. USA). Troika proposes solutions to fake problems because their real problem is that their friends in Wall Street must monetize on their criminal financial actions. On the other hand Troika in order to tap big real economy holes created by their criminal friends (called ironically “Entrepreneurs”) must make somebody pay. And guess who had to pay the bills of criminal bankers and other mafias! us, the hard working people that they pay tax out of their wage check every month or each time we buy something .By sending people home without work yes you save some money but you certainly destroy the economy!in Greece as the things go the next two years nobody will be at work (especially the young people) so Mr. Troika who is going to sustain taxation? who is going to produce? who is going to consume and thus create new jobs? With their stupid measures have sentenced to death the Real Economy!Public Service if it is done well it isn’t a parasite economy.The rules must change not the people by sending them home.From all solutions, Troika has chosen the most stupid and unproductive one or should I say the middle class Robbery solution?
..and another thing. Troika is there to get as much money as they can and as fast as they can…afterwards if some thousands of people actually die who cares? as a matter of fact this way they can get also the “saved” pension money that these people legitimately had to get if they weren’t dead and gone. So Troika’s proposed “Reforms” are for laughs because they don’t seek economic development but economic shrinkage as long as they get the money for the criminal “investors” of poisoned and risky investments back in the City and Wall Street (on which I can admit some last moment stupid politicians had believed and exposed the country).
The Troika need to be kicked out once and for all. Not only are their policies based around a concept that is faulty by design (austerity), but they’ve also been proven to dramatically impact the health and wellbeing of the countries they are implemented in. Except, it seems, that of certain bodies who have the Troikans’ ear. And pockets.
How one can still put the fate of a country in the hands of these vultures, despite all the proof of the harm they cause, is beyond me.
Communistbuster..you are a wankwr and a troll..so what you are saying is the end justifies the means and all the suicides and the rise of the death of new born babies, generation owned homes being reposessed, cancer patients dying with extreme pain because of no medication and the list goes on is good for the future??..go snd F#^&K yourself and take the Troika with you..you are nothing but a low life yourself and I hope uou burn in hell.The majority of the greek people we fine before it got raped by the one’s you ass kiss..Sadistic Fool
come on, the “Communist-whatever” needs to justify his/her salary…
Let people express themselves :)))
I hear you loud and clear KTG :))
Communist Ross! You seem like a Tsipras kinda guy.
You sound like one of those public servants who have wasted my taxpayer money! (Yes I do pay tax in Greece).
So instead of critizing me, you should have been more responsible during the ‘good days’ as you say so Greece would never have needed the troika in the first place.
The troika may be evil, but its the necessary evil. It was Greece’s fault they needed the troika in the first place, the cancer patients and jobless have people like you to blame for their suffering, not the troika who just came to help Greece out of the mess that Greece themselves created, not the troika.
I wont tell you to burn in hell, you already seem to be there.
A troll is one who criticizes others, I am just expressing my views, something you don’t seem smart enough to understand.
although this message not addressed to me, I must say: tsk tsk tsk
You are right KTG. Mr. Papadopoulos accusations are certainly not out of the blue. One of the repliers on Facebook stated: “-on the other hand has red tape killed the private sector long ago -” And she is right, isn’t she? Mr. Papadopoulos is just fighting to keep the privileges of his cronies and his voters in the public sector intact. How many people by now have really lost their cosy jobs in his beloved public sector? And how many in the private sector?
eh… I think 4000 in public sector and more than 1,300,000 people in the private sector. Yes, Antonakis (Samaras, not you) wants to give some pre-elections incentives to civil servants (active+pensioners). But we don’t talk about it.
I have read some comments and my question is, from where all you people come from? have you ever heard that Island was the first to go bankrupted? Greece is only the beginning! not the end! As far as I’m concerned Greece should get out of the Euro, return to a face value of a heavy coin (lets say gold and silver drachma so the next sub-prime thieves won’t be able to play anymore with “ghost” money and numbers in a computer), plan and extract its gas and oil (1.3B€ worth)and hell with Troika, Bankers of Wall Street and German austerities that save only the German banks and create unjustified surpluses (250B€) for the German economy(which now many EU countries oppose). The Greek Minister in the article, angel or not, he is perfectly right. The money from CEB go to the PRIVATE banking system and not to the people (State)since private banks substituted the old Central Banks. Central Banks of Eurozone don’t have anymore the authority to issue money (unlimited) as before and who lend the money are private banks that get tons of money from the European Central Bank which by the way is private. The Crisis of Sovereign debt doesn’t regard only Greece but the whole world.The crisis of the Emerging Economies (Cina, Brasil, Turkey etc.) already has started! get the news instead of concentrating all your effort on the Greek crisis. Wake up! we are at the start of the New World Order (if you ever heard about it) and nobody is immune!! so people look further than your nose and start considering that the Greeks will soon be joint by billions around the world in despair and poverty. We must come out of our “convenient” blindness and fight back otherwise ourselves and our children won’t have a world to live in.
people come mainly from Western Europe + USA or expats living in Greece.
I am also an expat (W.Europe) but not blind because I see here where I live the same signs of crisis as in Greece 2010. You cannot have a common currency (Euro)serving (in my modest opinion) only the private interests of an elite without having firstly established unified politics, law, justice, defense, labor regulations, no geographical borders etc. that erect the foundations of a real union. “EU”, as it is, is a “monster” on which we have superficially placed our hopes and future upon. The Europe we have today is somehow the same of prewar times where some European countries wanted to subdue the rest of Europe. US Americans are right to say that we are the Tribes of Europe. Greece never had strong economy considering the size and the workforce of the country but always (with its sovereign Central Bank and State) had come out with dignity. This crisis, in my poor view,is designed by some financial elite groups to destroy the middle productive classes that always had in hand the riches of a country and they were the backbone of every real economy few years ago. Thus the middle class had the real and effective political power of a country because had the economy on its hands.But this mid class economy was spread on a wide base so all citizens had a dignified life. So with this move the restricted financial elites and conspirators have stolen the life savings of millions of middle class families and with one bullet killed two birds; 1) they became extremely rich from one day to the other making the majority of middle classes almost poor and 2)with the stolen riches from the middle class they can exercise political power as new dictators over the subdued economically countries. This is what I see and that is why I commented as I have.