8 Jun 2015
Greek FinMin urges Germany’s Merkel to give Greece a "Speech of Hope"
FXStreet (Mumbai) - Writing on his popular blog on Sunday, Greece Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis urged German Chancellor Angela Merkel to give Greece a "Speech of Hope," on lines of the one for Germany after the end of World War II.
Key Quotes:
"Seven decades later, it is my country, Greece that needs such a chance...Today, it is my country that is locked in such circumstances and in need of hope,"
"Moralistic objections to helping Greece abound, denying its people a shot at achieving their own renaissance. Greater austerity is being demanded from an economy that is on its knees, owing to the heftiest dose of austerity any country has ever had to endure in peacetime. No offer of debt relief. No plan for boosting investment. And certainly, as of yet, no 'Speech of Hope' for this fallen people,"
"Teenagers should never be told that, due to some 'prodigal sin,' they deserve to be educated in cash-strapped schools and weighed down by mass unemployment, whether the scene is Germany in the late 1940s or Greece today,"
"The Greek government is presenting the European Union with a set of proposals for deep reforms, debt management, and an investment plan to kick-start the economy. Greece is indeed ready and willing to enter into a compact with Europe that will eliminate the deformities that caused it to be the first domino to fall in 2010,"
Merkel should deliver the speech in Athens or Thessaloniki "or any other Greek city of her choice," Varoufakis suggested.
"(Merkel’s speech could) mark a sea change, a break with the past five years of adding new loans on top of already unsustainable debt, conditional on further doses of punitive austerity."
Key Quotes:
"Seven decades later, it is my country, Greece that needs such a chance...Today, it is my country that is locked in such circumstances and in need of hope,"
"Moralistic objections to helping Greece abound, denying its people a shot at achieving their own renaissance. Greater austerity is being demanded from an economy that is on its knees, owing to the heftiest dose of austerity any country has ever had to endure in peacetime. No offer of debt relief. No plan for boosting investment. And certainly, as of yet, no 'Speech of Hope' for this fallen people,"
"Teenagers should never be told that, due to some 'prodigal sin,' they deserve to be educated in cash-strapped schools and weighed down by mass unemployment, whether the scene is Germany in the late 1940s or Greece today,"
"The Greek government is presenting the European Union with a set of proposals for deep reforms, debt management, and an investment plan to kick-start the economy. Greece is indeed ready and willing to enter into a compact with Europe that will eliminate the deformities that caused it to be the first domino to fall in 2010,"
Merkel should deliver the speech in Athens or Thessaloniki "or any other Greek city of her choice," Varoufakis suggested.
"(Merkel’s speech could) mark a sea change, a break with the past five years of adding new loans on top of already unsustainable debt, conditional on further doses of punitive austerity."