Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras said that the failed negotiations of Alexis Tsipras and Yanis Varoufakis burdened Greeks with an additional 86-billion-euro loan and brought capital controls.
Stournaras spoke on Thursday at an event organized by the Hellenic Observatory at the London School of Economics. His speech followed a speech by former chairman of the council of economic advisers Nikos Theoharakis, in which the latter said that the previous government — in which Stournaras was finance minister — had turned Greece into a “debt colony.”
Theoharakis also said that the “brave negotiations” of the Greek side at the time changed the status of Greece from a debt colony to a state that is on the path of growth.
The Bank of Greece governor lashed out at Theoharakis saying that, “He failed to admit that the “brave” negotiations that he and Yanis Varoufakis conducted, which led to the change of the name of “troika” to “institutions” and held the negotiations at the Hilton hotel instead of the ministries, also had a cost. If we assume that what he described were benefits (for Greece), then the cost of those benefits reached 86 billion euros,” Stournaras said caustically.
“That was the cost, the third memorandum and the capital controls that have been imposed after 45 billion euros of deposit outflows. And these capital controls have been imposed in order to safeguard financial stability following the “brave” negotiations of Mr. Theoharakis and Mr. Varoufakis. I am sorry to say that, but I had the obligation to put the record straight,” he added.
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