Germany Crushes All Hope Of Greece Getting Debt Relief
As the Grexit debate is falling into the background a new, far more powerful conflict emerges: one between Germany on one side, and the IMF, France, Italy, and perhaps even the US, when it comes to the all important issue of debt relief.
As a reminder, it was the unexpected release of the IMF’s debt (un)sustainability draft late last week (with US support over the vocal objections of Europe) that not only gave Tsipras a Greferendum win (he did not desire), but showed clearly that without a debt haircut of at least 30%, any Greek deal will merely lead to another, even more violent Greek default down the line.
Then, overnight, the Telegraph showed that the “debt-haircut” axis has even more supporters in Europe:
French leaders are working in concert with the White House. Washington is bringing its immense diplomatic power to bear, calling openly on the EU to put “Greece on a path toward debt sustainability” and sort out the festering problem once and for all.The Franco-American push is backed by Italy’s Matteo Renzi, who said the eurozone has to go back to the drawing board and rethink its whole austerity doctrine after the democratic revolt in Greece. He too now backs debt relief for Greece.
Finally, it was none other than Tsipras who piggybacked on the IMF’s imlicit recommendation who following the “victorious” referendum made a clear demand of Europe:
- TSIPRAS ASKS FOR 30 PERCENT DEBT HAIRCUT
Fast forward to this morning when shortly after the latest Greek capitulation, when in Tsipras’ official request for ESM bailout he said timidly that “as part of a broader discussion to be held, Greece welcomes the opportunity to explore potential measures to be taken so that its official sector related debt becomes both sustainable and viable over the long term” Germany made it very clear whether there will be any debt haircuts, or reprofiling in the coming years.
Nein.
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