After marathon talks were dragged through Sunday night and into Monday morning, European leaders have prevented any move to eject Greece from the
ADVERTISEMENTAfter marathon talks were dragged through Sunday night and into Monday morning, European leaders have prevented any move to eject Greece from the eurozone.
“Europe is strong!,” tweeted Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg’s prime minister.
after 17h of negotiations we are close to an agreement. Europe is strong.
— Bettel Xavier (@Xavier_Bettel) July 13, 2015
French prime minister Manuel Valls said that France played its part in the Greek deal, right to the end.
Accord ! Moment historique. La Grèce, c' est l'Europe. La France a joué son rôle jusqu'au bout ! MV
— Manuel Valls (@manuelvalls) July 13, 2015
France had discreetly smoothed Greece’s path, activating some of its best negotiators to help Greek officials fine-tune new concessions to creditors.
At Sunday night’s Brussels showdown, Berlin took over. Aside from helping discredit an option of “temporary Grexit” put about by German officials, the French were mainly bystanders as German chancellor Angela Merkel imposed conditions.
“In this compromise, there are no winners and losers,” said Donald Tusk, President of the European Council. “I don’t think the Greek people have been humiliated, nor that the other Europeans have lost face. It is a typical European arrangement.”
Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy reckoned: “We need to improve governance of the EU.”
Acabamos de terminar, hay acuerdo. Espero que todo el mundo cumpla. Debemos mejorar la gobernanza en la #UE#EuroSummit. MR
— Mariano Rajoy Brey (@marianorajoy) July 13, 2015
On a lighter note, a photo of Rajoy, who only speaks Spanish…
If I owned an English as a Foreign Language School I'd buy this picture and would make the best advertisement ever pic.twitter.com/KP0lOFikgm
— Jordi Arrufat (@Jordiarrufat) July 12, 2015
Newspaper front pages
The front pages painted a different picture. Conservative newspaper “Dimokratia” proclaimed “Greece in Auschwitz” on its front page, prompting anger.
#Greece front pages Dimokratia (conservative): "Greece in Auschwitz" pic.twitter.com/YJE80wlWg3
— Damian Mac Con Uladh (@damomac) July 13, 2015
Left-leaning Efimerida ton Syntakton’s refered to Europe’s “grumpy paymaster” when it said: “Sink the country, Wolfgang Schauble orders.”
Διαβάστε σήμερα στην «Εφημερίδα των Συντακτών» http://t.co/zLrUZApwJSpic.twitter.com/OJWq1hzX6Y
— EFSYN (@EFSYNTAKTON) July 13, 2015
The deputy editor of Greek daily suggested perhaps eurozone leaders “snatched victory from jaws of defeat.”
Maybe #euro leaders snatched victory from jaws of defeat. Time will tell. But grubby way in which we arrived here has been poisonous #Greece
— Nick Malkoutzis (@NickMalkoutzis) July 13, 2015
City AM, one of the UK’s business newspapers said: Greece’s humiliation has exposed the lie at the heart of the European Union.
Financial Times: Greece’s brutal creditors have demolished the Eurozone project
The BBC questioned the future of the euro and the EU. “The widespread perception that Berlin and Brussels have put fiscal rectitude, the importance of a country paying its debts, above humanitarian concern for a nation’s plight, or even the long-term sustainability of the euro itself, will reap a bitter future harvest for eurozone and the wider EU.”
The Guardian’s headline read: “Europe takes revenge on
Tsipras.”
Guardian front page, Monday 13 July 2015: Europe takes revenge on Tsipras pic.twitter.com/U7IrMB5Bwb
— The Guardian (@guardian) July 12, 2015
Bloomberg Business suggested:
Tsipras Completely Capitulates to Creditors’ demands
The USA’s Washington Post: Germany doesn’t want to save Greece. It seems to want to humiliate Greece.
ADVERTISEMENTTrending: ‘This is a coup’
The hashtag #ThisIsACoup has been trending on Twitter.
.
Telegraph</a> publishes .<a href="https://twitter.com/jameskirkup">jameskirkup claiming that this is not a coup. In doing so confirms indeed that #ThisIsACoup#noneedtoreadthearticle— Dylan Matthews (@BluebackHotrod) July 13, 2015
Are they going to act all shocked and innocent if Greeks vote for neo-nazis next time around? #ThisIsACoup
— Naomi Klein (@NaomiAKlein) July 13, 2015
Map showing #ThisIsACoup was being tweeted worldwide:
Twitter in irruption with #ThisIsACoup tonight #Europepic.twitter.com/MkRaPpjg7B
— EUwatch Info Hub (@EUWatchers) July 13, 2015
Merkle ‘calls the shots in Europe’
Recent polls show the French still believe it is Merkel not Hollande who calls the shots in Europe, and that around half of them would have been happy to see Greece leave the eurozone.
ADVERTISEMENT“Don’t fall into the trap of thinking the French are massively behind the Greeks,” said Jerome Fourquet, head of opinion at pollster Ifop.
Many will rapidly come to the conclusion that all we’ve done is stick another patch on Greece’s punctured tyre.”
#GreeceCrisis: three days to prevent #Grexit as leaders issue ultimatum http://t.co/vgWrEu46eRpic.twitter.com/zVFwLssrbt
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) July 12, 2015