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> Politics

When Greece was just a breath away from Grexit: The protagonists remember

Schauble: I never asked Greek exit from the euro - Samaras: That would be devastating - Venizelos: The night of Cannes we were asked to prepare a Greek eurozone exit plan

Newsroom May 16 11:00

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The German Finance Ministry, in the most categorical way, and in response to media reports about the Grexit project, denies that Wolfgang Schaeuble had ever in the past called for a Grexit, while the ministry states that the aim of the German FinMin’s efforts were always to maintain cohesion of the eurozone and the stability of the euro.
Mr. Schaeuble seems to be immovable from his position, according to a Deutsche Welle report, stating that Germany wants Greece in the euro and that it is up to Athens to decide whether to stay or not.

The same source confirms that there were some scenarios of a Grexit being examined in the past by various bodies and EU institutions, and how it could have affected the EU. This was never done in a coordinated fashion, however, as Financial Times seems to have suggested. In fact, Peter Spiegel is the columnist, who named it “Plan Z”.

In any case, the Finance Ministry confirms that Mr. Spiegel had visited the ministry several times in the recent past and had the opportunity to discuss this with officials.

During his speech in Thessaloniki, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said: “Greece, one moment it starts running forward, the next moment it might stop and limp back again. And this is not something that we can afford. And indeed, it is revealed now that there was a real plan to expel Greece from the eurozone, which would be disastrous for our country. We managed to overturn this plan then but also the following year! When almost no one believed that we would succeed. We leave all these behind us! But I have to say it. Unfortunately SYRIZA will bring us back to all these.”

Regarding the Cannes incident, Evangelos Venizelos said that it was a “national duty to ” kill ” the referendum on the euro”.

At Cannes, he said, “Mrs Merkel and Mr Sarkozy took the initiative” and described the situation developed as “suffocating”.

Mr Venizelos also said that the question arose from Europeans was that either Greece won’t hold a referendum or hold a referendum on whether it should remain in the eurozone.

Juncker : “I ​​do not accept the accusation of not being in solidarity with Greece”

“I ​​do not accept the accusation of not being in solidarity with Greece”, Mr Juncker said replying to Alexis Tsipras during the debate on the Presidency of the European Commission held at the European Parliament. Jean – Claude Juncker defended the policy followed by the eurozone on Greece issue, when Tsipras accused him that he defended rescue programs in Europe that our children and grandchildren will keep on paying.

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Kaklamanis: I was proposed as Prime Minister, I formed the government …

Apostolos Kaklamanis, former President of the Hellenic Parliament and PASOK MP, reported in a 3-pages statement his personal view of what happened in November 2011 and Cannes leading to the coalition government of PASOK and New Democracracy under Lucas Papademos as Prime Minister.

“In the morning of November 8, 2011 Prime Minister George Papandreou called me in his office in Parliament and told me about his decision to quit as Prime Minister remaining, though, President of PASOK and that he had suggested to President of New Democracy, Antonis Samaras, who had agreed at once, that I should take over as Prime Minister and form a transitional government, which will be supported by the MPs of PASOK and New Democracy.”

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