In the fourth episode of the documentary series by Eleni Varvitsioti and Viktoria Dendrinou, the then managing director of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, referred to the two major mistakes of the IMF in the first rescue program of the Greek economy.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn essentially admitted that the effects of austerity were underestimated with painful results. “There was no magic wand for exiting the program without austerity. However, two mistakes were made. The first mistake was that we demanded reforms in a very short period of time and the second was that we underestimated the intensity with which the economy reacted,” he said characteristically.

Former EU Commissioner for Economic Affairs Pierre Moscovici referred to the course of the Greek economy until 2014 as well as the negative role played by Paul Thomsen in the negotiations.

“Thomsen was very harsh toward Athens,” Moscovici said, while Yannis Stournaras made statements in the same vein, saying that trust between Thomsen and Athens had been disrupted. “He believed that Athens could not endure the discipline of the euro and was trying to influence Berlin in that direction, that it should not remain in the euro,” he stated characteristically.

“It was a big mistake by Lagarde that she made him head of the IMF in Europe. He did not care about the truth and the economic data, he was political,” emphasized Euclid Tsakalotos on his side.

Paul Thomsen refused to speak in the documentary, while Klaus Regling stated that “the IMF earned a few billion euros from the Greek memorandum.”

The “Albania” plan

The fourth episode of the series also focused on the secret plan drawn up in Brussels for the possibility of Greece exiting the euro, revealing what they foresaw and how close the country came in 2015 to a historic upheaval.

The plan was titled “Code Albania” and, as Thomas Wieser stated, EU officials met under absolute secrecy and discussed the scenario of Greece leaving the euro. Martin Verwey, head of Plan B, said that the Commission expected that from the very first day after Greece’s exit from the euro, the national currency would lose 60 to 80% of its value.