A bulky file containing the notorious “Plan B” of the European partners for Greece’s exit from the euro was pulled out from his home cellar by the then head of the Euro Working Group, Thomas Wieser, in the fourth episode of the documentary series “Sto Xiliosto” by Eleni Varvitsioti and Viktoria Dendrinou for SKAI.

Mr. Wieser showed the file to the two journalists and read the headings of its chapters – the plan foresaw the introduction of a “new drachma” that would be devalued overnight by 60%-80% against the euro. In fact, the Commission had prepared a special humanitarian aid and crisis management plan which, beyond food distribution to Greeks, even included the air transport of thousands of tourists from Greece back to their home countries.

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

The result of these secret and behind-the-scenes consultations was the drafting of the final Plan B, which was titled “Code Albania.”

From the outcome, it appears that the “hardliners” on the creditors’ side coincided with the aims of the “hardliners” on the Greek side, such as Yanis Varoufakis, Panagiotis Lafazanis and Zoe Konstantopoulou, who nevertheless believed they could control the situation. The president of Course of Freedom stated on camera that in such cases there is “self-risk-taking.” On the other hand, George Stathakis repeated that discussion about a parallel currency had taken place “for three minutes in passing,” while also denying the existence of Plan B…

Monday’s episode focused on the last attempt at negotiations in Brussels, which ended ingloriously early in the afternoon of June 24, 2015, while the second bailout memorandum was expiring and Greece was facing immediate bankruptcy, with Alexis Tsipras returning to Greece and calling the notorious referendum.

Former President of the Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, who stated that he himself had requested that Plan B be prepared — “we had to be prepared,” he said characteristically — speaking on camera referred to those talks with the government of Alexis Tsipras in June 2015 in order to close the €380 million financing gap. He also revealed that he proposed taxing shipowners — instead of pension cuts — to the then prime minister, and that Tsipras refused. “I am center-right, you are left-wing. OK…”

From the Greek side, Nikos Pappas, who had participated in those negotiations, insisted that the Greek side did not have anything tangible from the creditors regarding the country’s financing and repeated that the distance between the government and the creditors remained large, in order to support the referendum line. For his part, Margaritis Schinas, who was then Juncker’s spokesperson, said he knew of the existence of Plan B and spoke of a “nightmarish scenario.”

Costello: “The tension was about the sharing of the cost — who would pay?”

Strauss-Kahn and the IMF’s mistakes

The then Managing Director of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, referred to two major mistakes made by the IMF in the first rescue program for the Greek economy and essentially admitted that the effects of austerity had been underestimated, with painful consequences.

“There was no magic wand for exiting the program without austerity. However, two mistakes were made. The first mistake was that we demanded reforms within a very short time frame, and the second was that we underestimated the intensity with which the economy reacted,” he stated characteristically.

Thomsen wanted Grexit

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 Poul Thomsen in the negotiations.

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

“It was a big mistake by Christine Lagarde to make him head of the IMF in Europe. He did not care about the truth and the economic data — he was political,” stressed Euclid Tsakalotos.

Poul Thomsen refused to speak in the documentary, while Klaus Regling, who was head of the ESM, noted that “Europe lends differently than the IMF,” stressing that he himself had heard that the Fund made profits of $5 billion from the Greek loans, while the Europeans made no profits.