Philip Sachinidis and George Papaconstantinou respond to Nikos Christodoulakis, who in the 2010 debt crisis said that “there was another way”.

In their joint announcement, the two former PASOK finance ministers emphasize that Mr Christodoulakis’ position coincides with the views of both the New Democracy and the SYRIZA-ANEL government, while stressing that such a choice would lead to bankruptcy.

“I think there was another way. It is a very difficult discussion, especially for PASOK. Many executives were sacrificed to pull the cart over. And Venizelos and others. They fought for it. But I believe that another road could be found less painful, “Mr Christodoulakis said.

The full text of their answer:

The other way

“There was another way,” said former Minister of Finance and Emeritus Professor at the Athens University of Athens, Nikos Christodoulakis in 2010.

We do not want to believe that Mr. Christodoulakis means that, instead of appealing to institutional lenders, it would be preferable for the then PASOK government to have chosen the path of bankruptcy through its refusal to repay the state bonds that expired in May 2010.

Without specific proposals, references to “other roads” are no different from the roads promised by the ND – the fake statistics – and SYRIZA – the abolition of the Memorandums with an article and a law – which roads, when they were ordered by the Greek citizens to rule.

We also do not want to believe that Mr. Christodoulakis means that PASOK could continue to hide Greece’s real fiscal position, as did the ND government of Kostas Karamanlis who was sending fake statistics to Eurostat, according to the European Parliament report.

We would, however, like to recall that, without PASOK government with Prime Minister G. Papandreou, the same road as Greece was followed by Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Cyprus.

It is not clear to us on the basis of which school of economic thinking would evaluate the 2010 budget, expansive rather than restrictive, at a time when it provided for a reduction in the fiscal deficit by 3.5 percentage points, and eventually all the measures taken by April 2010, from April 2010, in 2010. euro in recession. This reduced the deficit by 4.5 percentage points in 2010.

And to have a measure of comparison of difficulties, Mr. Christodoulakis says that “we had to borrow about $ 2 billion to close the account, because the funds had large gaps in 1997”. The deficit it had to close in 2009 was 36 billion euros. That is, 18 times larger. No historical ratio of sizes.

Unfortunately for some inside PASOK, then and now, reading the causes of the 2009-2010 crisis coincides with the reading of the defenders of Kostas Karamanlis’ actions, as well as that of SYRIZA, who worked with the Independent Greeks in the name of a supposedly progressive response.

It is not possible after all that has been done yet to talk about “other ways”. Our country will only leave the crisis behind it when it decides to see the causes of the crisis and accept reality and the inevitable – and painful – choices of that time.

George Papakonstantinou – Philip Sachinidis
former finance ministers