"In order to convince the markets, you pushed the Greeks into unemployment"

“You tried to convince the markets but lost the confidence of the people and led Greek unemployment to new heights, especially for young people”. This was only one of the accusations against European parliamentarians who “interrogated” Poul Thomsen , the representative of the Troika at the IMF, on Tuesday evening at the European Parliament.

“A whole generation is lost in Greece”, was another labeling, while they called upon the Troika to explain how the new program ensures that there will be new jobs.

Mr. Thomsen, along with Mr. Asmussen (ECB, central banker of Germany) and Finance Commissioner Mr. Olli Rehn received strong criticism about the state of the economic program in our country.

The IMF representative was quite condescending in some respects: “Greece has come a long way, but still has a long way to go”, he said among other things, admitting that the country’s fiscal situation is unsustainable.

He referred to the deficit that characterizes our economy compared with other European countries, and stressed that “vested interests that put up obstacles against reform and deregulated products and services, threatened the rescue of Greece”.

He reiterated, however, that there is no more room for new taxes. “We have reached the end of the line on the issue of taxes. The new program should cover the costs and very difficult structural adjustments should be made”, he said, calling on Athens to deal with tax evasion effectively.

The Troika spokesman insisted that there is a need to further reduce social spending in the public sector, demonstrating layoffs in the future.

Concluding the speeches of the Troika representatives to the European parliament, Mr. Asmussen pointed out that any default within the euro will not be orderly but chaotic. “Messy and disorderly”, as he said…