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Greek showdown in Brussels prompts mixed reactions

Greek showdown in Brussels prompts mixed reactions
By Euronews
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After marathon talks were dragged through Sunday night and into Monday morning, European leaders have prevented any move to eject Greece from the

After marathon talks were dragged through Sunday night and into Monday morning, European leaders have prevented any move to eject Greece from the eurozone.

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“Europe is strong!,” tweeted Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg’s prime minister.

French prime minister Manuel Valls said that France played its part in the Greek deal, right to the end.

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.”

On a lighter note, a photo of Rajoy, who only speaks Spanish…

Newspaper front pages

The front pages painted a different picture. Conservative newspaper “Dimokratia” proclaimed “Greece in Auschwitz” on its front page, prompting anger.

Left-leaning Efimerida ton Syntakton’s refered to Europe’s “grumpy paymaster” when it said: “Sink the country, Wolfgang Schauble orders.”

The deputy editor of Greek daily suggested perhaps eurozone leaders “snatched victory from jaws of defeat.”

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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 BBCquestioned 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.”

Bloomberg Business suggested:
Tsipras Completely Capitulates to Creditors’ demands

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The USA’s Washington Post: Germany doesn’t want to save Greece. It seems to want to humiliate Greece.

Trending: ‘This is a coup’

The hashtag #ThisIsACoup has been trending on Twitter.

Map showing #ThisIsACoup was being tweeted worldwide:

Merkle ‘calls the shots in Europe’

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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.

“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.”

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