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GreekReporter.comGreek NewsEconomyWhat If Greece's Turn Against the IMF Is Staged?

What If Greece's Turn Against the IMF Is Staged?

tsipras_imf_lagardeThe sudden turn of the Greek government against the International Monetary Fund in the past month and the continuous requests for its withdrawal from the bailout program looks like another communication trick by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. His strategy has consistently been to show his voters and SYRIZA comrades that he is still the defiant leftist fighting against the evil capitalist forces and he is not corrupted by power.
Yet, there is something strange regarding his stance on the IMF issue. One would say that at this point in the bailout program negotiations, the Washington-based organization is the only lender that insists that the Greek debt needs a haircut to become sustainable. And this is the position of the Greek government from day one: A generous debt write off will make the debt sustainable.
Europe, on the other hand is against it. European Union officials insist that a debt haircut goes against euro zone rules, therefore it is out of the question. Europe’s most powerful finance minister, Germany’s Wolfgang Schaeuble, keeps repeating it like a mantra: “There cant’ be a debt write off for Greece. Only some debt easing, provided that Greece fulfills its bailout agreement.”
Europe wants the IMF to actively participate in Greece’s bailout. Europe needs its expertise and dollars. But the fund says that it will not participate beyond the advisory level unless the Greek debt becomes sustainable. Negotiations between Greece and creditors have stalled, with Athens accusing the fund for making extraordinary demands. So here comes a big hypothesis:
Last week, a wikileaks report implied that Director of IMF’s European Department Poul Thomsen and mission chief for Greece Delia Velculescu were discussing a “credit event” that would shake the Greek government to expedite implementation of required reforms. What if that leak was a staged act?
What if all the uproar created by the bugging of the conversation between the two IMF officials was for the sole purpose of pushing Europe to proceed with some debt relief for Greece and speeding up the evaluation?
All evidence on the wiretapping of Delculescu’s telephone conversation in the Athens hotel leads to Greece’s National Intelligence Service. Even the misspelling of Velculescu’s name on the wikileaks report screams “the Greeks have done it.” Therefore, it was done under order of the Greek government.
Surprisingly though, the fund didn’t create a big fuss over the issue. They reprimanded rather gently the Greek government for that, asked for better security for the IMF team while in Athens and, through the lips of managing director Christine Lagarde, the cooperation between the fund and Greece continues “in good faith.”
The soft stance of the IMF on an issue of such importance only reinforces the theory that the leaks were part of a plan to put pressure on European creditors — the European Commission, European Stability Mechanism and European Central Bank — to offer Greece some debt relief and offer it fast.
So maybe, after all, all this animosity between the Greek government and the fund is a clever ploy to disguise the fund’s wish to participate in the program, but under its own terms. Both Greece and the IMF would benefit if Europe eases the Greek debt. And Tsipras would come out of it showing as a great negotiator.

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