VENIZELOS: ‘Schauble conspired to try and scupper Greek bailout, force Grexit’

The Slog: Three days ago, Greek friends of every hue bombarded me with news of the attempt by Evangelos Venizelos (left) to present himself as Greece’s Davy Crocket. The Fat One did this by accusing Wolfgang Schäuble of trying to push Greece towards Grexit in August 2011 with some kind of sweetener. Most of one’s instincts would immediately think ‘Liar, liar, pants on fire’….but in just this one case, I’m not so sure. There are some quite solid grounds for thinking that – however base his motives – on this occasion Veryzealous might be at least in part telling the truth.

Longer-standing Sloggers may recall my German source, the Bankfurt Maulwurf. During the Autumn of 2011 (the period EV is referring to) he told me on several occasions that German Finance Minister Schäuble was heavily under the influence of Bankfurters like him, and plotting behind Angela Merkel’s ample back with a view to ensuring that Greek contagion could be contained by evicting it from the eurozone. Similarly geriatric followers of this site will also recall that Tim Geithner – and a White House briefed Wall Street VIP group – were equally keen for Greece to become uneurozone….albeit for more US reelection and geopolitically cynical reasons.
In the event, Grexit didn’t happen. But the evidence suggests that – for several months after that particular incident – Wolfgang Schäuble continued to try and sabotage every attempt to help Greece stay inside the tent. Website Justice for Greece confirms this likelihood by publishing a letter from Geoffrey Atkinson to The Guardian, in which Atkinson alleges that ‘In early 2102 Wolfgang Schäuble repeatedly threw last minute spokes in the wheel just as a solution to the Greek finances drew close’. This is in turn confirmed by a Slog source based in Switzerland (but very close to the Troika negotiations during 2012) who told me twice that – whenever the restructure deal seemed almost done – Berlin would suddenly ride in to unpick it.
Once again in this case, however, I am sadly reminded of just how out of touch the British media and People are
with the real story on Greco-German/EU relations. The Evangelos accusations have gone entirely unreported in the UK as far as I can discern. The only mention of Greece anywhere in the British MSM this morning is our joy at the fact that it’ll be warmer than Greece there. The ‘top’ news is that the Queen has left hospital, Azad Singh is, at three feet tall, the smallest teacher in the country, and Kate Middleton is visiting Grimsby.
Somebody needs to write the truth on a larger canvas about this little experiment in social chaos. You never know, it might be me. Source

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