Germany's Finance Minister "Wet Dream" on Greece

by Martin Foehler and Alberto Paez

The suspension of Greece's debt relief short-term measures was a unilateral decision by the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble. The spokesperson of Eurogroup's head Jeroun Dijsselbloem tweeted last week the so-called "decision" on suspension. No decision was ever taken by the Eurogroup on that direction, no press release was ever issued by the ESM, thus it was a breach of last Eurogroup's (December 5) unanimous decision to deal with Greece's debt relief measures. 

This development was something unique for Eurozone and the EU, as collective agreements were blatantly violated by Germany. Finance Minister Schauble, along with the IMF, are eagerly working to impose a specific project for Greece other than what has been agreed in the framework of Greece's third bailout deal.

The scope of Schauble and IMF is one and simple: to see the Greek program fail, the Greek government to adopt new austerity measures and damage all the efforts and positive developments that have taken place since August 2015. Essentially, as we have written during the previous weeks, the goal of both sides is..............

to see Grexit becoming reality. In such a scenario, Schauble expects to give a good lesson to other Eurozone member-states that cannot abide by the strict rules of Stabolity and Growth Pact, mainly on keeping up with the deficit and debt threshold.

From its side, the IMF is waiting for negative developments in Greece to come as lender of last resort and impose its own demands, without having to cooperate with the EU institutions. The IMF is now pretending it does not want primary surpluses above 2%, but since 2010 it was consistently pushing for targets above 4%. IMF's stance is irresponsible and lacks both financial and polticial credibility as since lately, along with Germany, it has been arguing that lower surpluses between 2018-28, i.e. lower than 3,5%, should be coupled with additional austerity cuts or tax hikes equivalent to €100 billion euro. In addition to that, the aim of the Fund is to press down wages and pensions, turning Greece a fully dismantled market, where labour value will be extremely downgraded, unprotected, and deprived from minimum EU laws.

The Greek government is pushing for the conclusion of the second bailout review, the lifting of (unlawful) suspension of debt relief measures, the implemnetation of EU laws and the restore of collective bargaining, the inclusion of the Greek bonds in ECB's quantitative easing program. The next couple of months will be decisive, as the Greek issue is expected a more complicated shape. It will be certainly used as "campaign tool" for all sides and political forces thrust into national elections during 2017, like France, Germany, Netherlands, and possibly, Italy.  

http://www.bridgingeurope.net/germanys-finance-minister-wet-dream-on-greece.html