“Poor Alexis Tsipras”, “Greece’s debt relief is hostage to Berlin’s elections politics”, “Greece is Germany’s de facto colony.” Based on an interview with Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski, where he explains why Poland does not want to join the Eurozone, Politico EU writes, among others:
From the beginning of the crisis, part of Germany’s strategy for dealing with Greece has been not to make the process too easy. Though German officials won’t say so publicly, making an example of Greece has always been part of their plan.
And it’s worked. Across Europe, Greece has become synonymous with economic incompetence. Officials in other European capitals refer to Athens like a wayward, unrepentant relative. No one wants to be like Greece.
“Greece is de facto a colony,” Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said in an interview with POLITICO, explaining his country’s resistance to joining the euro. “We don’t want to repeat this scenario.”
No serious economist believes Greece will ever crawl out from under its more than €300 billion debt without significant forgiveness from its creditors. That means convincing Germany, the country to which Greece owes the most.
