Οπως αποκαλύπτει η αμερικανική εφημερίδα σε ένα μεγάλο άρθρο της όπου περιγράφει το παρασκήνιο της περασμένης εβδομάδας που οδήγησε την ελληνική κυβέρνηση στην απόφαση για το δημοψήφισμα και την ΕΚΤ στο κλείσιμο των ελληνικών τραπεζών: Ο Γερμανός υπουργός Οικονομικών είνι ο αυτουργός πίσω από το capital control, τις κλειστές ελληνικές τράπεζες και
τα "60άρια"!
Την Πέμπτη Τσίπρας και Βαρουφάκης συμφώνησαν ότι δε μπορούσαν να παρουσιάσουν την πρόταση αυτή στο υπουργικό συμβούλιο, καθώς είχαν ενταθεί οι φωνές τις τελευταίες εβδομάδες που έβαζαν κόκκινες γραμμές σε φόρους και συντάξεις, ενώ είχαν αυξηθεί και οι πιέσεις εντός του ΣΥΡΙΖΑ υπέρ της ρήξης με την Ευρώπη και της επιστροφής στη δραχμή.
Οι δύο άνδρες συμφώνησαν να πιέσουν την Ευρώπη για το θέμα του χρέους, ώστε να έχει μια πιθανότητα η συμφωνία να περάσει από τη Βουλή.
Όταν όμως ο Γ. Βαρουφάκης το έθεσε στους συναδέλφους του υπουργούς Οικονομικών της Ευρωζώνης την ίδια ημέρα στο Eurogroup, του απάντησαν πως έχει μείνει ελάχιστος χρόνος για διαπραγματεύσεις.
“Γιάνη, αν συνεχίσεις να μιλάς για το χρέος, η συμφωνία θα είναι αδύνατη”, του είπε ο Ολλανδός Γ. Ντάσελμπουμ.
Τότε ο Γερμανός Β. Σόιμπλε "πήρε την σκυτάλη" και άσκησε κριτική στον Γάλλο Επίτροπο Οικονομικών Π.Μοσκοβισί ότι "Κρατάει απαράδεκτα ευνοϊκή στάση απέναντι στην Ελλάδα", καθώς, όπως είπε, "Ακόμη και η τελευταία πρόταση των θεσμών θα είχε δυσκολίες να περάσει από τη γερμανική Βουλή"!
Και ο Βόλφγκανγκ Σόιμπλε κατέληξε ρίχνοντας την "βόμβα", όπως αναφέρουν οι NYT: “Η μόνη λύση είναι η επιβολή capital controls και αυτό θα γίνει”!
Η αντίστροφη μέτρηση για την μεγαλύτερη κοινωνική κρίση στην Ελλάδα μετά τον Β'ΠΠ είχε ξεκινήσει και πάι δια χειρός ενός Γερμανού.
Στο σημείο αυτό ο Γ. Βαρουφάκης προσπάθησε να σώσει την κατάσταση με μία ύστατη υποχώρηση: Απευθύνθηκε στη διευθύντρια του ΔΝΤ Κ.Λαγκάρντ και της είπε: “Εστω! Αν υπογράψουμε αυτή τη συμφωνία, μπορείτε να δηλώσετε επίσημα ότι το ελληνικό χρέος είναι βιώσιμο;”.
“Έχει ένα επιχείρημα ο Γιάνης”, απάντησε η Κριστίν Λαγκάρντ, “Πρέπει να απαντηθεί το ζήτημα του χρέους”.
Πριν προλάβει όμως να συνεχίσει, τη διέκοψε ο Γ. Ντάισελμπλουμ. “Γιάνη η προσφορά είναι take it or leave it”, του είπε "σπρώχνωντας" την ελληνική κυβέρνηση να ανακοινώσει το δημοψήφισμα...
Την προηγούμενη Παρασκευή 26/06 το πρωί στις Βρυξέλλες ο πρωθυπουργός μάζεψε τους στενούς συνεργάτες του σε ένα δωμάτιο ξενοδοχείου για μια μυστική σύσκεψη.
Από όλους τους συμμετέχοντες ζητήθηκε να αφήσουν εκτός τα κινητά τους τηλέφωνα για να αποφευχθεί καταγραφή των συνομιλιών τους από τις γερμανικές και γαλλικές μυστικές υπηρεσίες που διακριβώθηκε ότι παρακολουθούσαν τις μεταξύ τους τηλεφωνικές συνομιλίες.
Εκεί ο Αλέξης Τσίπρας άκουσε από όλους τους συνεργάτες του να υποστηρίζουν ότι το ΔΝΤ και η Γερμανία δεν ήθελαν συμφωνία, αλλά αντίθετα έσπρωχναν την Ελλάδα σε χρεοκοπία.
To προηγούμενο βράδυ οι ευρωπαίοι ηγέτες στη Σύνοδο Κορυφής είχαν απορρίψει τη νέα πρόταση του πρωθυπουργού για ελάφρυνση του χρέους.
“Αυτό δεν πάει πουθενά”, φέρεται να είπε εκνευρισμένος ο πρωθυπουργός, “όσο πιο πολύ κινούμαστε προς αυτούς, εκείνοι απομακρύνονται”.
Μετά από μερικές ώρες πήρε την απόφαση να μπει στο αεροπλάνο για την Ελλάδα και από εκεί να ανακοινώσει το δημοψήφισμα.
Alexis Tsipras’s Enemies in Europe See Their Chance in Vote on Greece’s Bailout Terms
This
is going nowhere, the 40-year-old Greek leader said in frustration,
according to people who were in the room with him. The more we move
toward them, the more they are moving away from us, Mr. Tsipras said.
After
hours of arguing back and forth about possible responses, Mr. Tsipras
made a decision to get on a plane and go home to call a referendum,
according to the people who were in the room.
This
decision by Mr. Tsipras to ask his people to back or reject, as he had
recommended, the latest set of austerity measures for Greece sent shock
waves through Europe. Just days before the Sunday vote, the outcome
remained too close to call. Many here, however, now think that a “no”
vote would ultimately lead to Greece’s exit from the euro.
This
referendum will be one of the most important votes in Greece since it
became an independent nation in 1830. Why Mr. Tsipras took such an
extreme step remains puzzling.
But
a close look at the events of the last week — based on interviews with
some of the participants and others briefed on the discussions — reveals
an accumulation of slights, insults and missed opportunities between
Greece and its creditors that led the prime minister to conclude that a
deal was not possible, regardless of any concessions he might make.
Greece’s
creditors see it differently, of course. In their view, Mr. Tsipras,
who swept into power on a wave of anti-austerity support, was only
interested in a deal that would go light on austerity measures and
deliver maximum debt relief. He could not and would not comply with any
agreement that required more sacrifices from the Greek people.
Still, for a week that ended with so much enmity, its start was auspicious.
That
Monday, June 22, Greece’s technical team in Brussels submitted an
eight-page proposal to their counterparts. The paper was an effort to
bridge a six-month divide on how Greece planned to sort out its future
finances.
For
political reasons, the Tsipras government had said it would not cut
pensions or do away with tax breaks that favored businesses serving
tourists on the Greek islands. Instead, the new Greek plan envisaged a
series of tax increases and increases in pension contributions to be
borne by corporations.
The initial response seemed positive. Both Pierre Moscovici, a senior finance official at the European Commission
who is known to be sympathetic toward Greece, and Jeroen Dijsselbloem,
the head of Europe’s working group of finance ministers who is one of
Greece’s harshest critics, said on Tuesday that the plan was promising.
The Greek team was elated. For the first time, the Greek numbers were adding up.
The next morning, though, that optimism evaporated.
Greece’s creditors — the I.M.F., the other eurozone nations and the European Central Bank — sent the Greek paper back and marked it in red where there were disagreements.
The
criticisms were everywhere: too many tax increases, unifying
value-added taxes, not enough spending cuts and more cuts needed on
pension reforms.
The Greek team couldn’t believe it. The creditors had seemed to dial everything back to where the talks were six months ago.
For
Mr. Tsipras and his two main advisers — Nikos Pappas, a hot-tempered
Scottish-trained academic with a decades-long friendship with Mr.
Tsipras, and Yanis Varoufakis, a polarizing economics professor who had
spent more than a year schooling Mr. Tsipras in the intricacies of
eurozone politics — the rebuke seemed to confirm their most pessimistic
views.
Instead
of bending as the deadline neared for Greece to make a payment of 1.5
billion euros to the I.M.F., Germany and the fund appeared to be
hardening their positions.
On
Wednesday night, Greece was presented with a counterproposal. At the
behest of the I.M.F., the tax increases had been reduced and, crucially,
the government was told that it needed to increase value-added taxes on
hotels.
Moreover,
several requests by the Greeks to discuss debt relief had been rejected
— you need to agree to reforms first, they were told.
On
Thursday, Mr. Varoufakis and Mr. Tsipras agreed that they could not
present this latest proposal to their cabinet back in Athens. In recent
weeks, radical factions within the ruling Syriza party in Greece had
become more vocal in opposing any deal that crossed certain lines on
pensions and taxes.
Moreover,
some within Syriza were even pushing Mr. Tsipras to walk away from
Europe altogether and return to the drachma, an approach that the prime
minister and Mr. Varoufakis had promised never to consider.
Greece’s Debt Crisis Explained
The weak link in the 19-nation eurozone is struggling to
tame its debt. On Tuesday, Greece missed an important payment to the
International Monetary Fund.
Their
only chance, the two men agreed, was to push Europe hard for some
flexibility on debt relief because without that, their plan had no
chance of making it through the Greek parliament.
But
when Mr. Varoufakis raised these issues with his fellow finance
ministers on Thursday in the cavernous conference hall at E.U.
headquarters, he was told that there was little time left for
negotiations.
The
very appearance of Mr. Varoufakis was something of a provocation by the
Greeks. A few months earlier, at the behest of Mr. Dijsselbloem, Mr.
Tsipras had stopped Mr. Varoufakis from negotiating face to face with
Greece’s creditors, recognizing that the finance minister was more
comfortable giving lofty speeches than he was drilling down on technical
issues.
From
time to time, however, Mr. Tsipras would push Mr. Varoufakis into these
meetings, joking to his aides that he enjoyed seeing Mr. Dijsselbloem
and Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister, squirm as the Greek
finance minister lectured them on the need for debt relief.
This
was just such a moment. And perhaps just as predictably, Mr.
Dijsselbloem’s response to the request for relief on Greece’s debt was
curt.
Yanis,
if you keep talking about the debt, a deal will be impossible, Mr.
Dijsselbloem said, according to people who were briefed on the exchange
between the two men.
A
spokesman for Mr. Dijsselbloem said later that his position on Thursday
was that there was a large gap between Greece’s proposal and that of
the creditors, but that there was still time to reach a deal.
For
six months, the clashes between the austere, sleek-suited Dutchman and
his imperious, casually dressed Greek counterpart had been the talk of
Brussels. There had been threats, shouting matches.
And now they were at it again.
As the meeting dragged on without sign of an agreement, the tempers of others flared as well.
Mr.
Schäuble began criticizing Mr. Moscovici, the senior European
Commission official, over his positive comments regarding the Greek
offer.
Even
the latest proposal from the creditors was too lenient toward the
Greeks, Mr. Schäuble argued, saying that he saw little chance that he
could get it past the German Bundestag, the national parliament of the
Federal Republic of Germany.
The only solution here is capital controls, he said, his voice rising.
But
Mr. Varoufakis persisted on the issue of Greece’s staggering debt load,
ignoring the admonitions of Mr. Dijsselbloem and others.
Then Mr. Varoufakis turned on Christine Lagarde, the French director of the I.M.F.
Five
years ago, the fund had given its blessing to the first bailout, doling
out loans alongside Europe despite internal misgivings that Greece
would be in no position to repay them.
Now
the I.M.F. was pushing Greece to sign up to yet another austerity
program to access more loans even though the fund had now concluded that
their initial misgivings were correct: Greece’s debt was unsustainable.
I
have a question for Christine, Mr. Varoufakis said to the packed hall:
Can the I.M.F. formally state in this meeting that this proposal we are
being asked to sign will make the Greek debt sustainable?
Yanis
has a point, Ms. Lagarde responded — the question of the debt needs to
be addressed. (A spokesman for the fund later said that this was not an
accurate description of the exchange.)
But before she could explain, she was interrupted by Mr. Dijsselbloem.
It’s a take it or leave it offer, Yanis, the Dutch official said, peering at him through rimless spectacles.
In the end, Greece would leave it.
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