Zoe Konstantopoulou: “The greek debt is illegal and should not be paid”

[webfact]

Zoe Konstantopoulou: “The greek debt is illegal and should not be paid”
By Efi Koutsokosta



ATHENS: -- On 6 February 2015, after SYRIZA’s victory in the January 2015 election, she was elected as the youngest Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament with 235 votes.

Zoe Konstantopoulou was one of the most controversial figures over the first governing period by the coalition government led by SYRIZA.

She finally spoke against the Greek government’s agreement with the European troika regarding the political and economic countermeasures to the Greek government-debt crisis after the results of the bailout referendum in 2015 and left the party following the left-wing members of SYRIZA who created the party Popular Unity which finally didn’t enter the Parliament.

As a President of the Greek Parliament she took the initiative to convene a committee which has claimed much of the country’s debt of 320bn euros was illegally contracted and should not be paid.

Euronews/ Efi Koutsokosta:
I would like to start from the greek case. You were constantly opposing to the leadership of SYRIZA that you were a member of, for the third bailout agreement with the creditors and you finally left the party. Do you think that finally there was another solution, an alternative to what finally SYRIZA and the previous government decided?

Zoe Konstantopoulou/ former President of the Greek Parliament:
Human history is full of examples of alternatives and Europe is all about alternatives. Europe itself was construed and conceived as an alternative to atrocities to war to fractions between the states. It is totally absurd to go back to moments in time when people were faced with dead ends and where misery was presented as the only solution. I would like to underline that it is really more than cynical to baptize the memoranda and the loan agreements bailout agreements. There are no bailout for the greek society nor for any european society. They are death sentence agreements. They basically provide for more austerity, more misery, more unemployment and more marginalisation of the societies.

Euronews/ Efi Koutsokosta:
But the thing is that they voted (greek people) again for SYRIZA and for parties that agreed to this bailout agreement. And the thing is also that they sent a clear message to Europe that they want to stay in the Eurozone and the European Union.

Zoe Konstantopoulou/ former President of the Greek Parliament:
I am absolutely appalled with dilemmas posed to any population such as with us or without us, either you are with us or against us. Especially I am appalled with european institution representatives taking a role of those who basically blackmailed populations in order to stay.
The greek people did not really vote on the 20th of September. On the 20th of September we had the biggest abstention in contemporary history. This basically means that an almost 50% of people not voting. And this was the result of people being totally discouraged by seeing that their vote during the referendum was totally disrespected and was bluntly violated.

Euronews/ Efi Koutsokosta:
We saw that many people outside Greece, people in Europe were saying that the greek government is asking from us fresh money and they don’t want to pay their debt. They don’t want to work hard or they don’t want to implement the necessary reforms so that they can repay us.

Zoe Konstantopoulou/ former President of the Greek Parliament:
First of all being greek yourself you know there is a huge defamation of the greek people through this propaganda. The greek people are among the most hard working people in Europe. And it’s a complete disrespect to these people to present them as people who don’t want to pay their debt. What we did at the Hellenic Parliament was that we formed a commission to audit the debt and to really see how it was created and what it constitutes of. And this commission called the debt truth committee, the truth commitee and public debt found first of all that found first of all that 92% of the money given to Greece has not been at all used for public expenses rather it has been returned to creditors. And the committee also found that the basic bailout of these agreements was a bailout for the french and german banks which were holding greek bonds. No bailout was ever offered to Greeks, no bailout was ever offered to the greek socitey, no bailout was ever offered to the greek economy. A bailout was offered to the french and german banks which has a two year time to get rid of their bonds before the first restructuring. No bailout was ever offered to those who lost their money from the restructuring but a bailout was offered very conveniently to the greek banks.

Euronews/ Efi Koutsokosta:
So, what you suggest or the committee suggests is not paying the debt?

Zoe Konstantopoulou/ former President of the Greek Parliament:
The committee is clearly saying that this debt is illegal, illegitimate, it’s unsustainable and odious. This basically means that the debt cannot and should not be repaid. This also means that the debt has been paid time and again through the years if you look at the interest rates that Greece has been repaying through the loan agreements concluded during tha last decades by governments which were proven to be corrupt and were proven to be in tansaction with other corrupt governments but also with corrupt companies like Siemens, ThyssenKrupp, HDV e.t.c.

Euronews/ Efi Koutsokosta:
You follow this debate in Europe and the IMF Nof course that say openly that we are going to discuss, to put it on the table and see how we are going to reprofile or to restructure the greek debt. How this report could serve? I mean how the government could use it and if you are in discussions with the greek government.

Zoe Konstantopoulou/ former President of the Greek Parliament:
The government unfortunately did not use our report and did not use the committee, did not use the conclusions and did not use the evidence included there in. Because the IMF has only been obliged to admit that the greek debt is unsustainable after this report was issued. This report was issued on the 18th of June 2015 showing for the first time in public that there are documents of the IMF dating March and May 2010 and showing that the IMF knew ever since then that the greek debt was unsustainable. It has been proven that public expenses during the last decades were below the european average except for armaments expenses, except for defense expenses which by the way entailed large scale corruption with european and international companies. And by the way these expenses are not cut according to the so called reform programme rather pensions of 300 euros are being cut, expenses in public educations where schools are operating without heating, without books, without teachers are being cut. And there, there is a real question to be answered.

Euronews/ Efi Koutsokosta:
How would you see Greece after three years. This is the timeline for this memorandum, for this bailout programme, because for many people, many officials and people in Brussels, Berlin and other countries it’s the last chance for Greece to go out of the crisis and recover and of course stay in the european family.

Zoe Konstantopoulou/ former President of the Greek Parliament:
Well, there is no family which cuts the legs and arms of their children and then tell them, let’s see if you are going to bleed to death or survive, this is your last chance. The greek people are being exterminated and this is not an exaggeration. We have a humanitarian crisis which amounts to social genocide. I would say this is a real chance for Europe to really show what it is about. I am very sorry to have experienced that so far the european institutions’ representatives have acted towards a completely anti-european direction because to penalize a population and violate democracy has nothing to do with our european values. And I would say this is probably the last chance for Europe to save face and to become again an attractive home for all.


-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2015-10-24

[SheungWan]

The Popular Unity Party of which she is a member received 2.8% of the vote in the recent Sept 20 Greek election. 0 (zero) seats in parliament.

Edited October 23, 2015 by SheungWan

[ezzra]

What is it with the Greeks that they see it right to welch and renege on monies the borrowed to save them from a complete disaster and a financial catastrophe, it seems to be that to be a politician in Greek is to malign and rubbish the hands that fed them when they were on the brink of total collapse?

[theguyfromanotherforum]

I declare that my mortgage is illegal and should not be paid.

[bangon04]

It is a solid logic she is using. Let all countries start by declaring any debt they owe to Greece as illegal and therefore unrepayable. Next step will be to declare all future loans to Greece as illegal and therefore disallowed.

See how easy it is to fix Greece's problems.....

"first of all that 92% of the money given to Greece has not been at all used for public expenses rather it has been returned to creditors." she is right of course, but Greece is playing the same game as the rest of us, and they have to follow the rules to stay in the game. If they want to fold and leave the table they have the choice to do so. Maybe Turkey will help them out....

[elgordo38]

The Popular Unity Party of which she is a member received 2.8% of the vote in the recent Sept 20 Greek election. 0 (zero) seats in parliament.

Maybe a voice crying in he wilderness. She does score some good points. When people are disillusioned with their back against the financial wall they do become irrational and their thinking can do a complete 360. The Greek tragedy will only spread and cannot be contained. The source of the disease is debt debt and more debt. Our whole world is run on and controlled by debt. We have built our lives on quicksand.

[thaiturkey]

EUROZONE IS NONSENSE!

The fact of the matter is that the Eurozone is a stupid policy, and Greece was far too weak to be included in it.

Normally a country in financial difficulties will allow it's currency to devalue, which increases demand for it's goods and

services on international markets.

Clearly this is impossible within the Euro "straightjacket"

The other IMMORAL CONCEPT here, is that EU States are being asked to guarantee bank debts. The banks made bad commercial

decisions; they should stand the losses.

Obama made the same obscene decision in the "Sub-prime Mortgage " fiasco. Instead of bailing out the homeowners, he bailed out the criminal bankers, who then further screwed the homeowners, making the situation even worse.

[Krataiboy]

I declare that my mortgage is illegal and should not be paid.

Well, if you bought it from one of the banks whose deliberate and cynical mis-selling provoked the 2007 credit crunch you probably were you might well have a point.

[mihalis]

Yup, i declare all my bills, illegal, i declare BMW need to give me a X5, HD Bkk, a RG, hmmm, a property in Phuket, for free too...........

[connda]

What is it with the Greeks that they see it right to welch and renege on monies the borrowed to save them from a complete disaster and a financial catastrophe, it seems to be that to be a politician in Greek is to malign and rubbish the hands that fed them when they were on the brink of total collapse?

I didn't know we had a CEO of a major TBTF bank as a member of TV. Rubbin' shoulders with the 'little people'.

[Basil B]

Greek ATM machines still having issues...

[uksomchai]

In November every business whether a one man band or a multinational company has to pay their full taxes for the 2016 period in advance in Greece. If you really want an insight into just how twisted and warped the situation really is have a look at the Daily Politics show on BBC for friday 23rd. they had the Greek ex finance minister on the show and he told it like it really is. It is available on the BBC player and well worth the trouble to watch. He also said that not a single Euro went to pay for anything in Greece after the last bailout and every Euro simply went to pay the interest on the debt it already had. that was why he resigned.

Just how much longer can they keep this con that is the EU going ?

[timendres]

EUROZONE IS NONSENSE!

The fact of the matter is that the Eurozone is a stupid policy, and Greece was far too weak to be included in it.

Normally a country in financial difficulties will allow it's currency to devalue, which increases demand for it's goods and

services on international markets.

Clearly this is impossible within the Euro "straightjacket"

The other IMMORAL CONCEPT here, is that EU States are being asked to guarantee bank debts. The banks made bad commercial

decisions; they should stand the losses.

Obama made the same obscene decision in the "Sub-prime Mortgage " fiasco. Instead of bailing out the homeowners, he bailed out the criminal bankers, who then further screwed the homeowners, making the situation even worse.

I am not sure I understand how you bail out the homeowners as opposed to bail out the criminal banks. If you give money to the homeowners to make their mortgage payments, where does that money go? To the banks! If you say to the homeowner "no need to repay, your mortgage is forgiven", then you create the exact same moral hazard that was argued against in terms of bailing out the banks.

There were a serious number of issues that built up to create the Sub-prime Mortgage crisis, and guess what? They were mostly created by the GOVERNMENT! There is no question that Wall Street's creation of the risk free mortgage portfolios, and the banks' ignorant participation in said scheme, combined with the greedy ignorance of the purchasers of those products, were contributing factors, but it all came back to the government's lack of regulation and oversight, combined with it's own agencies assisting in enabling the entire scheme (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac). Not convinced? Just look at the joke of the Dodd-Frank bill enacting new legislation to fix the problems created directly from the Gramm-Leach-Bliley legislation that eliminated Glass Steagall act, which protected the banking system since the Great Depression. I have NO love for banks or bankers, but they are tasked with an important function, and for the most part engage in that function earnestly in return for a profit - just like any other citizen/enterprise. It is the government's responsibility to lay out the rules and laws that properly regulate such industries, and I believe this is where the fault lies.

Not sure what you are referring to by "Obama made the same obscene decision"... President Bush signed legislation (enacted by the Congress) to pump stimulus into the economy. President Obama followed suit by signing another, much larger, stimulus package - again enacted by the Congress. Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve and other central banks, engaged in practices that attempted to liquify an otherwise frozen banking system. The Federal Reserve, in other words, performed the function they were created to perform - be the lender of last resort.

The real issue with the Eurozone is that they have created a single currency, like the US, but without the common accounting, governance and other standards that allow the single currency concept to work properly. In other words, they lack the Federal government, and properly constructed Central Bank that allows such a single currency to actually work. Until they address this issue, and assuming that it is even possible to do so, the experiment will be fraught with disaster.

[timendres]

I declare that my mortgage is illegal and should not be paid.

Well, if you bought it from one of the banks whose deliberate and cynical mis-selling provoked the 2007 credit crunch you probably were you might well have a point.

Anyone who believed the absurd mortgage deals during that time was in need of some education. But I accept that not everyone is sufficiently equipped to understand the complexities of the myriad mortgage products being sold. That said, it is the function of the GOVERNMENT to regulate this industry and protect the public. The abandonment of the standard 20% down payment, in an attempt to promote home ownership and supposedly help the very citizens it was supposed to be protecting, being one example of the critical mis-steps along the way. When a government official shows up and says I am here to help, your best choice is to RUN.

[NickJ]

Give the entire country to the refugees....let there tourism system evolve in to a buffer state to give the rest of Europe time to see whats coming.....wellcome back drachma

[uksomchai]

Just look at the sheer numbers of the people marching into Europe today. You simply cannot allow the numbers we are talking about to just migrate as they please especially as the people migrating are from a totally different culture altogether. All the EU leaders seem to want to do is discuss it. It isn't as if the EU economy is doing great either. Just where is all the money to pay for all this going to come from ?

The numbers are on a truly biblical scale and it is only a matter of time before it all goes bang. Just look here

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3289031/The-long-march-Stunning-pictures-thousands-migrants-brave-mud-rain-days-bid-Balkans-western-Europe.html

[ourdon]

Give a man a gun........and he can rob a bank.

Give a man a bank......and he can rob the world.