The former Prime Minister Giorgos Papandreou claimed that the participation of the IMF in the first Greek rescue package was enforced by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel because “she did not trust the Commission”.
According to Ta Nea, Mr. Papandreou made the remarkable claim in London, at a conference organized by the London School of Economics. Mr. Papandreou further justified the choices he made as Prime Minister by claiming that the markets insisted that Greece would go bankrupt and that he had “nowhere to go to”.
When asked why he did not carry out a referendum in 2010 rather than wait until 2011, the former PM responded that the relevant legislation did not exist and that country was on the verge of defaulting.
The former Prime Minister suggested that the EU president be elected directly by the European voters and predicted that by 2050 no EU member will be amongst the G20.
