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This entry was posted on July 14, 2015 at 6:54.
BRUSSELS – The time when Greece is closer to leaving the Eurozone is Monday morning at 6 am, when the sun is rising in Brussels. Alexis Tsipras and Angela Merkel have agreed after 14 hours of talks distressing that have come to a standstill. Exhausted the space for compromise, they see no reason to go on. Grexit is the only realistic option.
While the two leaders are leaving the room is Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, to prevent fatigue and frustration cause a historic break Eurozone. “Sorry, but you can not leave this room,” says former Polish Prime Minister to the two leaders.
The breaking point concerns the size and purpose of the privatization fund guaranteed by the Greek assets. Mrs. Merkel wants all 50 billion are used to repay debts: Tsipras sees this proposal as a national humiliation that would cede control of assets equivalent to nearly a third of the national income. His alternative is a smaller fund whose proceeds are reinvested in Greece. The compromise is found after more than an hour of discussions in which they are examined at least twelve different solutions. It is the culmination of a weekend that saw unfold one of the most exhausting and dramatic negotiations of a seemingly endless crisis that has put the EU before its most difficult test.
After almost nine hours of fruitless discussions, Saturday the majority of finance ministers of the Eurozone has reached a conclusion: Grexit is the least bad of the options left. Michel Sapin, French finance minister, suggested to colleagues to “come out and say the truth” to let off steam. Many colleagues are taking the opportunity with pleasure. The Finnish Minister accused the Greeks of failing to reform the country in over half a century. While the recriminations multiply Euclid Tsakalotos, Minister greek, is strangely resigned.
The dispute culminated when Wolfgang Schaeuble, the German Finance Minister who proposed a Grexit temporary rails against Mario Draghi, the president of the ECB. At one point, feeling treated with an air of superiority, Schaeuble said sharply that Draghi is not “an idiot.” The episode convinced the president of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, that it is time to suspend the meeting and update it the next morning. “It was all very hard, at times violent,” revealed one of the participants.
In the absence of agreement to the Eurogroup, the ball passes Sunday the heads of state and government for another marathon night. With each passing hour and the approach of Monday the prospect of a Grexit appears increasingly likely. A senior official in the room believes that now is no longer Tsipras of Greece, but Germany, to act in bad faith. At one point Tsipras undergoes a lesson from the Slovenian prime minister, criticized the premier Italian Matteo Renzi. Eventually François Hollande, who fought to keep Greece in the euro, calls Merkel and Tusk Tsipras’s office to seek a compromise on the bottom of privatization. Although the end is the agreement, negotiations have sorely tested the Franco-German relations, long the heart of the European project. “There was in Germany a pressure pretty strong for Grexit – Hollande told reporters after the summit – but I rejected this solution.” On the bottom of the privatization, in particular, Hollande has sided with Tsipras. It was a matter of “sovereignty”, said the French leader. “Nothing would be worse than a humiliation of Greece, which does not want charity but solidarity from the Eurozone.”
Hollande has also insisted that the option of a temporary exit of Greece from the euro – a controversial initiative that Schaeuble had managed to put in the proposals of the Eurogroup – was removed from the final document. Eventually diplomats are not able to say who prevailed in the marathon night but agree on who has suffered the most. “They crucified Tsipras’ admits a senior official present at the summit. “Crucified”.
With the contribution of Stefan Wagstyl
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2015
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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