Huh!? We have a saying in Greek, I will reveal it to you at the end of the post… Dutch Finance Minister and Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem warned the Greek government that Europe is prepared for any outcome to the standoff between Greece and its creditors.
Of course, Dijsselbloem did not pick up the phone and warned his Greek counterpart Yanis Varoufakis, Of course, not. It needs guts to do something like that. No, he said what he said at the Dutch Parliament. .
Asked by Dutch lawmakers whether there is a “plan B” in case Greece should be forced out of the euro zone or defaults on its debts, Dijsselbloem said:.
“(Is) the eurozone prepared for eventualities, the answer to that is: ‘yes’,” Reuters reports
Dutchman Dijsselbloem could not hide his satisfaction over Varoufakis’ sidelining.. He said that he hoped that discussions with Greece would become more productive after Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras reshuffled his team of negotiators discussing a resumption of the country’s current bailout program, sidelining Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis.
“Hopefully we were able to make a kind of new start this week,” Dijsselbloem said adding “I say ‘hopefully’ because of course the result has yet to be seen.”
And then the incredible happened! The boy still in search of his Master degree dared to criticize the elected Prime Minister of a sovereign country. He criticized Alexis Tsipras and Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis for …giving interviews !In his latest film “From modest agriculture accountant to shining Euro chief” Jeroesn Dijsselbloem said:
“I wish that less time would be given to interviews, and more on extraordinarily conscientiously working on keeping Greece from the threatening abyss.”
Varoufakis’ ghost will always haunt Dijsselbloem till the end of his days. Oh, and Schaeuble!
PS Never mind the saying… about a cheering wh*re… It’s too vulgar and I have good manners 🙂
Hey – you forgot to give us the quote where the guy critizes them for giving interviews…
Hey – check the rueters link , also in Greek media
To be honest, I don’t think anything is too vulgar to use as a comment on these incompetent and arrogant pieces of excrement who hold power across Europe. The quality of Europe’s political class has not been so low in living memory, and these clowns have the cheek to complain about Varoufakis talking to them about macroeconomics.
The biggest clown is the Dutch idiot; and the biggest menace is the cripple in the wheelchair, whose bitter and twisted outlook on life he has been foisting on all of Europe.
Agrred. These guys are the definition and personification of vulgar.
EVENTUALITIES
is not the correct work here
PROBABILITIES
is the correct word
Dutch Finance Minister & Eurogroup head the Gorgeous Dashing Dasterdly Dijon Mustard Bloem has got voters to account to.
Mr. Mustard Bloem could be voted out at the very next election.
And there goes his lucrative & powerful career as head of the Eurogroup – “POOF” up in the air like a puff of smoke.
Mustard Bloem, like Varoufakis will be a nobody again after the next election.
R Davis: “Mustard Bloem, like Varoufakis will be a nobody again after the next election”
I would offer a correction here. Varoufakis has an earned PhD from a respected university and comes from a successful career as an academic economist. I am sure that more than one respected university would be happy to offer him a faculty position.
Diesel-Bloomers comes from a totally political career, and minimal academic credentials. If he fails at politics, I guess he could get a job as an accountant at a dairy farm, the subject of his “Masters Research”.
I am more concerned that Diesel-Bloomers has underestimated the problems a Greek default might cause and over estimated his ability to manage it.
The Troika (International Monetary Fund, Central European Bank and European Commission) is killing the European economy with its politics of austerity.
Its objective is just to make Countries pay their debt and interest, without any discussion, and without any respect for the life of European Citizens who suffer the consequence of austerity.
Only one country is standing against this: GREECE.
The Greek government is fighting austerity not only for their interest, but for the interest of all the European people. Every European citizen see her/his money stolen to give it as interest to banks, and see his/her rights violated every day by the austerity politics.
We have to support the effort of Greece, because it is also our fight!
We can do it in a simple and fun way:
Let’s make our holidays in Greece! Let’s support their economy and people!
Say NO to Austerity!
Say YES to hope! Say YES to Greece!
PLEASE SIGN ONLINE OUR INITIATIVE:
https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/25474-support-greece-vs-austerity?locale=en
“I wish that less time would be given to interviews, and more on extraordinarily conscientiously working on keeping Greece from the threatening abyss.”
So Jeroen did not say that they should not give an interview only the lenght from it.
Now we come to a common Problem for polyticans, they always say notting with many words.
Furiously insulting the very ones you are begging money from does not seem to be the best way to achieve your goal. But then again, I do not have a PhD, so, I guess that opinion will only irritate you guys. I look forward to reading your slander demonstrating only how little sympathy you deserve.
Proud beggars.
Let’s see if the moderators will publish this post or if they will continue allowing one way mud to satisfy their frustration that the baby games are over.
As well as not having a PhD, you also seem to be incapable of understanding the political economy of Europe. Greece is in financial crisis within the eurozone precisely because it joined the eurozone. It is not a beggar: it is a member of a monetary union that has fucked up bigtime, and is in political dispute with other members. The political dispute is a clear left-right dispute between proponents of a stupid policy called austerity, on the right, and a very large number of world experts (plus Greece) who are opposed to it. The UK is so far to the right, that there is no even any debate about austerity economics, and the UK is set for a decade or more of depression and increasing poverty.
So, this childish analogy of a beggar (promoted by the Right and Germany) is nothing other than propaganda. However, it is true that in the eurozone (as in the world) those persons and institutions with vast amounts of cash or capital are expected to pay up. Europe’s billionaires mostly appeared since 2009 — the only beneficiaries of a global banking crisis. These crooks are the ones who have to be dealt with, as opposed to those countries and persons that have ended up in a poor way.
Of course, there is a large collection of bankers, right wing economists, and others with personal economic and political interests out there — in the mass media, governments and across the web — who are spinning their story about profligacy, poor economic management, countries that cannot “pull their weight”. etc. etc. Some of their comments are more or less true — but largely irrelevant. Europe’s (and Greece’s) rescue is not going to come voluntarily from multi-billionaires and their greedy political friends: the main question is whether the populations of Europe have enough courage to defend their own interests, or like you will repeat the mantras and half-truths of the Right.
” However, it is true that in the eurozone (as in the world) thise persons and institutions with vast amounts of cash or capital are expected to pay up”
I fail to see why they are expected to pay for Greece? There are far poorer EU states than Greece and they are in the absurd situation to be forced into bailing out an already heavily EU funded assisted population. Why are you not asking your own rich to foot the bill (church, oligarchs, civil servants … )?
Is there an other country that received so much subsidies over the past 30 years and did so little with it?
V and T themselves shouted out loud that they would need more financial support, that they did not need the 7.2 Billions. That was in January, now all this wasted energy is put to ask for financial support and very little is done to avert the economical situation.
Why did the government allow the DEI unions to obtain a 1800 Euros income raise labeled as food coupons in order to avoid IKA and OAED taxation as well as income tax on it. Does the average income of the DEI workers not contrast with the average private sector wages? Was that the humanitarian crisis that needed such speedy generosity?
The foreclosure rules that protects people making 50 000 Euros per year owning 500 000 worth in real estate will be protected from foreclosure if they stop paying their loans? Is that the priority?
Greeks themselves don’t trust this government, by removing massive amounts of cash they demonstrate their mistrust. Local public bodies resistance to send their cash reserves to the State shows yet again that even within Greece, when it comes to pay for the State, nobody wants to give an helping hand. The population stopped paying their full taxes in January, is that a support population for this government? Taxing church property at the same level as private property has not been put on the table, although vast amounts of taxes could be collected this way and could help lower the burden of the weaker in society. … …
If even the local society does not want to financially support the Greek state, why are you so furiously expecting the international community to do so in their place?
Having failed to respond to my point that the world’s recently made billionaires have to relinquish their stolen money — for the good of all countries, not only Greece — you then embark on a rant about very specific things and seemingly unconnected things.
When you run a government (and thank God I have never had to do so!) there are multiple competing claims from a wide range of socio-economic actors. Those claims did not lessen because the Troika demanded austerity economics from Greece: they actually increased in proportion to the poverty created. That more powerful groups collected more than their fair share occurs in all countries, including Germany, France, Sweden and especially the UK and USA.
And the idea that Tsipras — the first Greek PM to refuse to swear allegiance to his office on a Bible — should be disinclined to tax the Church appropriately is so ludicrous, that even someone with your limited grasp should be able to see it.
And the local society has been supporting the Greek state — with the exception of the millionaires and billionaires. Again, that is how they behave with all states: how do you think they acquired their riches in the first place? Just a ridiculous position you have adopted.
to my opinion they are connected, T. analyses that one of the big issues for Greece is clientelism and I agree with that statement.
By favoring in such a short time his own clients, he is contradicting his position and is only shifting the client basis.
I believe a fair society is one where the common good is fostered,it is the responsibility of any government not to give in to “multiple competing claims from a wide range of socio-economic actors”.
T. was elected with the expectation he would strive such a fair society. My exemples are there to show that the contrary is happening. Like asking the parlement today to vote for the hiring of 7000 new civil servants while not having the funds to pay for it will obviously put the burden on the shoulders of others.
I totally agree that in the world in general, the 1% wealthiest have achieved this level of wealth by extracted themselves from the fair burden that should be put on them.
But that is still not the case in Greece. Before asking for the international community to come with the needed liquidity, the priority task of T. should have been to rebalance the national burden over the richest of Greeks. Of course, in 3 month time, total results can not be achieved, but showing the international community that it is an immediate schedule task and showing action on this matter, would reassure the creditors that it is not only foreign cheap loans that T. is look for.
“should be disinclined to tax the Church appropriately is so ludicrous” Well I might have missed this, but I don’t remember T. presenting a draft bill about fairly taxing the Greek Orthodox church, did I miss that point?
“That more powerful groups collected more than their fair share occurs in all countries, including Germany, France, Sweden and especially the UK and USA.” you are totally right, but as of today, these countries do not ask for other countries to foot the bill.
Japan is in a very bad budget situation, but so far it is the Japanese themselves who are financially supporting the budget deficit by investing in state bonds. Probably not the best idea, but they provide their own liquidity for the running of the state. Greece is asking others to cover its liquidity needs before even considering how to convince the wider Greeks to support it.
“And the local society has been supporting the Greek state — with the exception of the millionaires and billionaires” I will not start an endless list of how little support Greeks have given their states of the past decades but I’m sure you can imagine yourself what it may contain.
In every democratic country, a government that does not favour its “clients” will not stay long in office. There is nothing unusual in Tsipras’s position on this — even if he dislikes the reality.
And the problem with the Greek state has always been that it is not a state for the people, but a state for itself and its political funders. That used to form a marked contrast with most of western Europe, but now that all of the EU is going into the same sort of mess, Greece actually looks more typical. With such a state, nobody wants to pay taxes let alone make more voluntary contributions. That’s not going to change, and the Troika did nothing to help it change either.
Exactly so it is!!!
I’m glad we agree, but you don’t answer why you consider it mandatory for the rest of Europe to bring financial support when all possible resources have not been worked out national first. I fail to see the morality of this expectation.
I don’t know what you mean by “all possible resources nationally”. If you mean state resources, I think that has more or less happened. If you mean private moneys, the state several years ago tried to extort money from taxpayers with threats (myself included), and more successfully with a very nasty property tax that has damaged the economy very badly indeed, along with people’s lives. The only thing that the state did not do was confiscate the assets of the very rich, most of whom had acquired them through political connections and corruption. There is in fact no obvious legal way to do so without abandoning democracy.
Besides, the primary reason for this mess is Greece’s membership of a badly run institutional arrangement called the eurozone. Prior to that, the Greeks always found a solution of sorts, even if that was highly inflationary. Now, there is no solution.