So much for the much ballyhooed “south Europe axis” and professed solidarity amongst bailed out eurozoners.
Spanish Prime Minister Marianno Rajoy caused a stir late on Thursday, at least amongst some Greek “twitterati”, when he Tweeted a photograph of the EU Summit’s “family portrait”.
Some users took offence to the fact that leftist Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was “cropped out” of the photograph — he was on the “house left” side of the photograph.
Given that the conservative Rajoy has publicly bristled at the new leftist government’s positions heading this week’s Eurogroup and summit gatherings in Brussels, the slight was perceived by critics as intentional.
Of course, the photograph in the Spanish premier’s Tweet also cropped both the … left and right of the image, leaving out EU Commissioner Federica Mogherini and Italian PM Matteo Renzi.
According to press reports, Rajoy and Tsipras didn’t even exchange a handshake during the summit, while El Pais reports that European leaders were indeed skeptical of Tsipras’ fiery rhetoric going into the summit. When the Greek leader did, in fact, give a 10-minute briefing, Rajoy wasn’t in the chamber but on a plane back to Madrid.
Before leaving, however, Rajoy emerged as the most vocal critic of Tsipras and the radical left Greek government.
Most analysts didn’t have to look far for one reason: Spain’s leftist Podemos party has risen sharply in opinion polls in the Iberian nation, and has very close ties to SYRIZA.