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Grexit will have limited consequences for Europe and disastrous ones for Greece

13 February 2015 / 16:02:28  GRReporter
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In his comments, director of the Institute and former minister and mayor of Piraeus Andreas Andrianopoulos said that the bad attitude towards the memorandum is due to the fact that there are almost no talks in the public sphere about the root cause of the bankruptcy of Greece. "Here the state is bankrupt not the banks, but all ignore that. I remember the reaction of my interlocutors when I quoted an IMF document issued in May 2010, which showed that 75 percent of government spending went to pay salaries and pensions in the public sector."

Andrianopoulos recalled that it is not the memorandum that has imposed higher taxation in Greece. "It describes only the goal which is to reduce the government deficit, it does not impose a certain way to achieve it. Therefore, the only thing that all governments after 2009 undertook was to impose new taxes. At the same time, they left the state sector absolutely intact. The result was the total breakup of the private sector. Now 1.3 million unemployed are former employees of private companies. A minimum number of employees in the public sector were fired, with a lot of reservations and the government of SYRIZA is now preparing to reinstate them to work."

He described Greek society as the core of the problem. "People want to hear insane promises that politicians generously make to be supported by them."

As for the strategy of the Greek cabinet regarding Greece’s strategy in the negotiations with the lenders, Andrianopoulos warned that Yanis Varoufakis’ favourite game theory is hiding many, and real, dangers. "From their actions I realise that they rely on the fact that compromise is deeply embedded in the DNA of the European Union. They believe that, to avoid a conflict, Brussels will give way to the pressure they are trying to exercise."

He explained that the argument in favour of the particular strategy is that if Greece causes a collision the euro zone will collapse. "This is completely wrong. Things today are not the same as in 2010 and the consequences of such an event are calculated. The rest of the countries may suffer, but only for a specific and short period of time. For Greece, however, the consequences of bankruptcy will last for years and will be very painful," he said in conclusion, giving the case of Argentina as an example of this disastrous scenario.

Tags: PoliticsEconomyGovernmentMemorandumReformsEuro zoneGrexitMiranda XafaAndreas Andrianopoulos
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