After Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras kicked up merry hell in Brussels at the weekend, alleging Portugal and Spain were in cahoots in a plot to bring down his government, EC president Jean-Claude Juncker has drawn a line in the sand, saying he doesn’t see any “diabolical plan” at all.
If the countries did have such a “detestable” scheme, “I would have acted”, he told journalists.
Instead, all he can see, he says, are “good intentions”.
The words served as something of a backward step to his declarations earlier this week that Portugal and Spain had been “very demanding” during the nerve-wracking negotiations that set the terms for a four-month extension of the Greek bailout.
Tsipras had put the countries’ hardline attitude down to fear that any Greek success would encourage anti-austerity movements, in a key election year.
His accusations caused a flurry of indignation over the weekend, with emails, text messages and phone calls going backwards and forwards from Brussels and the Iberian Peninsula.
Germany was particularly critical of what it called Tsipras’ “foul play”. Martin Jäger, a spokesman for the Finance ministry, said Tsipras’ remarks were “not the done thing. We don’t do that in the Eurogroup”.
But despite the thunder of hooves to refute a “diabolical plan”, TV commentator Constança Cunha e Sá said Finance Minister Maria Luís Albuquerque still had a lot of explaining to do, over what she called “her pathetic attitude” cosying up to German counterpart Wolfgang Shäuble – perhaps the most strident critic of the new Greek government to be found on the European scene.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
