Greece should have been grateful for European aid and kept its mouth shut. That’s the clear message from former Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem in an interview this weekend.
He has clearly not recovered yet from the traumatic experience with former Greek finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis.
At the same time and after three painful bailout agreements that increased the debt and pushed millions to impoverishment, KeepTalkingGreece.com reports that Dijsselbloem went on to say that:
“Greece is obviously not a success story, demands on Greeks were to heavy” and that the Greek “crisis has been so deep, that you can’t call it a success.”
Euro zone countries have asked for too much from the Greek people in return for international bailout loans, former Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said in an interview on Dutch television on Saturday.
“On reforms, we have asked a lot from the Greek people, too much,” Dijsselbloem told current affairs program Nieuwsuur.
“Reforms are hard enough to accomplish in a society with a well-functioning government, but this was obviously not the case in Greece.”
“Greece is obviously not a success story,” Dijsselbloem said.
“Their crisis has been so deep, that you can’t call it a success.”
At the same time, in the usual North European arrogance, he said that Greece should be grateful for the help it received and keep its mouth shut.
“Politics is just a tricky job, you have to compromise, Greece was dependent on help from others, and then to put a big mouth against the people who help you…
We set conditions for that. Disagree, but you can not raise a big finger at them,” Dijsselboem said.
Does Dijsselbloem – who blindly followed the strict austerity orders by German finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble during 2013-2018 – now show some kind of remorse? Hardly.
KeepTalkingGreece points out – harshly but fairly – that Dijsselbloem is one – yet another one – of the self-righteous, light-weight men who found themselves in a powerful position and who now has nothing else to do than write a book about his glorious past, when he was at the spotlight of media.
He and his Labor party were defeated big in the Dutch parliamentary elections last year and is set to publish a book on his time as head of the Eurogroup.
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