According to the transcripts from the recent Eurogroup that the website euro2day.gr reveals, Wolfgang Schaeuble said during the meeting:

“Let us not have delusions. This is a big failure. The narrative was that today we needed clarity, some others had said that, not me. In 2016 we had a clear statement, and the narrative was that we would be making a decision today on the medium-term measures, not what we agreed in May 2016. I am not very optimistic that things will improve, that we will come up with a better solution than the one we had in our hands today. The lesson we have to learn is that we have to stay firm on what we have agreed and not try to change the narrative with public statements. I am really disappointed because some of us have exceeded their mandate to reach a solution and we have now failed. I am sorry.”

With an unprecedented bluntness, Schaeuble points to the others, Euclid Tsakalotos, ECB’s Draghi, IMF’s Thomsen and Commissioner Moscovici why he cannot change anything in relation to what the Eurogroup had decided in May 2016 regarding Greece’s debt relief measures.

“Without the IMF, I would have to negotiate a new program and this would fail,” Wolfgang Schaeuble says in a non-diplomatic way. Just reading the transcripts one can clearly see who decides and ultimately who is “boss” in the Eurozone.

(Click to enlarge)