No matter what they propose, it is never good enough for Austerities fiscal hawks
But the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, dismissed that view, supported by a number of northern and eastern European states. “These proposals cannot build the basis for a completely new, three-year [bailout] programme, as requested by Greece,” said a German finance ministry paper. It called for Greece to be expelled from the eurozone for a minimum of five years and demanded that the Greek government transfer €50bn of state assets to an outside agency for sell-off.
State assets to be sold off? No doubt at knockdown prices. Git your Parthenon here, buy one get one free.
“The hawks are very vocal,” said an EU diplomat. “It’s very tough.” Berlin also demanded stronger and more intrusive powers for outside monitors to police the economic and fiscal reforms that Alexis Tsipras, the leftist Greek prime minister, would need to commit to to secure the new bailout.
Howya doin, nice country you had there, shame something happened to it.
The widening gulf between eurozone hawks and doves paves the way for an acrimonious summit on Sunday, with France and Italy lining up against Germany and the northern and eastern Europeans. Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, is expected to tell chancellor Angela Merkel that enough is enough and that Greece should not have to put up with any more humiliation.
Dear France and Italy, you're next.
On Thursday, Tsipras performed a remarkable U-turn and accepted more austerity measures than had been rejected in the referendum he called for five days earlier. The prompt volte-face confounded negotiators.
Not enough Dear Greece, you complained and we will make you pay for that.
Greece should tell them to fuck off, and leave the Euro. Nothing they do, no amount of suffering will satiate the Austerity hawks. The same Austerity that has thrown so many young people on the sacrificial bonfire in South and Western Europe.
This may be a blessing in disguise for Greece, getting out of the Euro and may encourage other countries to do the same.
Now they are meeting again this morning.
How much more humiliation can be dealt out?
Who cares if cutting out of a pound of flesh kills the victim?
We want blood.
A European official present at the discussions, when asked what more needed to be discussed when ministers reconvene Sunday, said "everything."
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he's not authorized to talk publicly, said ministers wanted "more specific and binding commitments" and that the Greek government's proposals were "too little, too late."
Now our extreme right wing parties must be rubbing their hands with glee, see what they did to Greece, we want our country back.
3:13 AM PT: I wonder how this trend has developed over the last few months: http://www.theguardian.com/...
Call them Generation G: young, talented, Greek – and part of the biggest brain drain in an advanced western economy in modern times. As the country lurches towards critical elections this weekend, more than 200,000 Greeks who have left since the crisis bit five years ago will watch from overseas.
Doctors in Germany, academics in the UK, shopkeepers in America – the decimation of Greece’s population has perhaps been the most pernicious byproduct of the economic collapse which has beggared the country since its brush with bankruptcy.
Greece has a population of around 11million to put this into perspective. It's a continuing economic and social disaster.
6:03 AM PT: They think this will pass the Greek Parliament, another week at least of this mess
http://www.theguardian.com/...
Eurogroup wants more measures from Greece
Greece will have to do even more, on top of the €13bn of austerity measures agreed last week, if it wants to get its third bailout.
Reuters has now got hold of the draft statement from today’s meeting. And it confirms what was suspected - Greece must “broaden its tax base”, make further reforms to its sales tax and pension systems, and boost its privatisation programme, among other measures.
And that means that there’s no chance of an agreement today, as fresh legislation would be needed.
As Reuters explains:
“The Eurogroup... came to the conclusion that there is not yet the basis to start the negotiations on a new programme,” the draft statement, seen by Reuters, said.
To begin such talks, the ministers would first want Greece to improve its VAT and pension systems, broaden its tax base to boost revenues and strengthen the independence of ELSTAT, the Greek statistics agency.
11:36 AM PT: Alexis Tsipras was given a very rough ride in his meeting with Tusk, Merkel and Hollande, our Europe editor Ian Traynor reports.
Tsipras was told that Greece will either become an effective “ward” of the eurozone, by agreeing to immediately implement swift reforms this week.
Or, it leaves the euro area and watches its banks collapse.
One official dubbed it “extensive mental waterboarding”, in an attempt to make the Greek PM fall into line.
An unpleasant image, that highlights just how far we have now fallen from those European standards of solidarity and unity.
By our reckoning, there are four eurozone members who believe Greece should stay in the euro at all costs, five more who’d like to avoid Grexit if possible, and nine who are open to the idea:
http://www.theguardian.com/...
If you have a look at the map in the link you can see the geographical division pretty clearly
.
12:20 PM PT: “Greece can bend up to a point,” said Aristides Hatzis, a prominent political commentator. “But after that there is no bending, only breaking. The breaking point may well come when Tsipras realises he has lost most of his parliamentary group.”
A new election might become necessary
10:50 PM PT: Seems like another dumb American redneck agrees with me
Even if all of that is true, this Eurogroup list of demands is madness. The trending hashtag ThisIsACoup is exactly right. This goes beyond harsh into pure vindictiveness, complete destruction of national sovereignty, and no hope of relief. It is, presumably, meant to be an offer Greece can’t accept; but even so, it’s a grotesque betrayal of everything the European project was supposed to stand for.
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/...