It was supposed to be a celebratory video commending Greece for finally exiting its bailout programme, but it is being lambasted by politicians from all sides in Portugal and has even been described as employing “North Korean levels of propaganda” by former Greek finance minister Yanis Varousfakis.
The video in question shows Mário Centeno, the Portuguese President of the Eurogroup, saying that Greece has “regained the control it fought for” and is now enjoying the freedom that it earned following the economic reforms imposed on the country.
“I know these benefits are not yet felt in all quarters of the population but, gradually, they will,” says Centeno in the video, which has since been criticised even by members of PS in Portugal.
Socialist MP João Galamba said the video was “lamentable” and “blanked out the disaster that was the financial bailout implemented in Greece”, while PSD MP Miguel Morgado stressed that Centeno “spent three years diminishing the clean exit of Portugal in 2014 – achieved against the efforts of PS – and is now using sweet words for a country that was devoured by problems following an eight-year bailout”.
José Gusmão from Bloco de Esquerda also weighed in, describing the video as “ridiculous” and saying it was an insult to the Greek people.
The video was also targeted by Varoufakis, who wrote on Twitter that the EU was “adding insult to Greece’s unbearable misery with a video of North Korean propaganda machine aesthetics/immorality”.
But as Yahoo UK points out, Centeno wasn’t the only EU leader to “misjudge the tone of their comments about an eight-year programme which has had profound effects on Greece’s economy and society.”
EU Council president Donald Tusk was also criticised for a celebratory tweet reading “You did it! Congratulations to Greece and its people”.
Greece is the last eurozone country to conclude a programme of emergency assistance.
As Financial Times explains, similar help was given to Portugal, Ireland and Cyprus — but Greece’s crisis was “of a different magnitude, with the size of the economy shrinking by a quarter”.
michael.bruxo@algarveresident.com
IMAGE: Mário Centeno in the video posted by the EU Council Twitter account.
