Last visit of Angela Merkel in Greece, a country always marked by years of austerity

Between 2010 and 2018 German Chancellor brought European policy requiring budget cuts and tax increases to reduce deficits. Years later, it entrusts that it was “the most difficult moment of its mandate”.

Le Monde with AP and AFP

Eleven years after the beginning of the debt crisis, a painful chapter that suddenly marked the relationship between the two countries, the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, arrived in Greece, Thursday, October 28, for his last official visit.

Relations between the two countries “have experienced ups and downs, but rest on a solid foundation, urged the German Chancellor during a meeting with the Greek President, Ekaterin Sakellaroopoulou. What gave us of force during this period is that we have always felt together “.

An austerity under supervision

M me sakellaroopoulou, she recalled that “Greece had been called upon to pay a heavy tribute” in the last decade, particularly because of the austerity measures required by the government of M me Merkel in return for financial aids to avoid the bankruptcy of the country.

With his finance minister at the time, Wolfgang Schäuble, the German Chancellor had demanded from Athens budget cuts and drastic tax increases to reduce deficits accumulated for years in exchange for three international rescue plans With more than 300 billion euros between 2010 and 2018, of which Berlin was the main contributor.

Perceived retreats are diminished, the minimum salary falls around 500 euros, privatizations take place in several economic sectors, public services and in particular hospitals must operate in subferential. This austerity, imposed under the supervision of the European Union (EU), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), allows the country to remain in the EU at the price of a destruction of Part of its economy: the unemployment rate is up to 28%, and more than 60% among youngest.

For a large part of the Greek people, the efforts requested are seen as inconsiderate. In 2012, at the height of the crisis, M me Merkel is welcomed in Greece by a large gathering against the austerity policy with Nazi-shaped crosses and caricatures the representative with a mustache of Hitler .

“The most difficult moment of [my] mandate”

The election of the radical left leader, Alexis Tsipras, in January 2015, marks the beginning of an even lighter period. The Greek Prime Minister wishes to “tear the memoranda”, and calls “Merkel to go home”. Athens is threatened to be excluded from the euro zone, before yielding under pressure to its creditors and to resolve new austerity measures.

In a BILD interview, in September, the one presented by the tabloid as “one of the most hated women in Greece” had entrusted that “the most difficult time of his mandate was when She had asked Greece so much. M Me Merkel had already returned to Greece in 2019, the opportunity to mark the beginning of a more appeased relationship between the two countries. Mr Tsipras had even recognized that “the difficulties were behind […]”.

His current visit will be devoted to more geopolitical and financial records, with planned discussions on the European energy crisis, the migration issue, the situation in Libya or the relations with Turkey, according to a Greek government cited by the Agence France-Press.

/Media reports.