Quote:
Originally Posted by Itse
There's a difference between not wanting to loan Greece any more money, and not doing it because they don't like Syriza as a party.
The first is a financial issue. The second is politics and blatant disregard for the democratic process of Greece. Plus it completely ignores the needs of German taxpayers.
Let's remember: the whole point of the negotiations outside of Greece should be about the debtors getting as much money back as possible. If the negotiations fail and Greek economy enters an even worse downspiral, they just start defaulting on their loans and taxpayers around Europe get nothing. If this wasn't the case nobody would care enough to negotiate with Greece.
If they are more interested in crushing a democratically elected government in Greece than protecting the financial interests of Germans, then they are not doing what they are supposed to be doing, nor what they claim to be doing.
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It also doesn't help that the current Greek party in power is pretty open about being pro-Russian. There is all kinds of speculation that if Greece falls out of the Euro, that they will join the BRICS with Russia, China, India, Brazil and South Africa. I think Greece is trying to use that scenario as leverage against the EU and it is rubbing a lot of the other members the wrong way.
There is also speculation that China will step in and bail out Greece, just like they did for some Latin American countries (I believe Panama and Venezuela for example), in order to gain their favour on promoting policies that favour China within the EU. The EU is China's largest trading partner and they have a lot at stake. The Chinese representative has been in Brussels all week. During the whole Grexit crisis, Chinese stocks have fallen more than 10x the entire GDP of Greece.
"Aid" has always been about gaining political favour no matter who it comes from, whether it be America, Germany, France, the IMF, China, Russia, etc... If a country accepts that "aid" and then back tracks or goes looking elsewhere, there are typically punitive consequences.