The Telegraph — Emmanuel Macron, the man widely expected to be the next French president, tried to help Greece avoid crippling austerity measures but was frozen out of negotiations by Germany’s Angela Merkel, the Sunday Telegraph revealed on Saturday.
The confrontation at the height of the 2015 Greek debt crisis is revealed in “Adults in the Room”, the new book of Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister who tried – but failed – to win debt relief for Greece.
The episode sheds new light on the potentially awkward relationship between Mr Macron and Mrs Merkel who, polls suggest, is on track to win a record-equalling fourth term as German leader later this year.
On June 28 2015, with Greece’s bank on the cusp of closure, Mr Varoufakis writes that he received a text from Mr Macron offering to broker a last-minute deal to win debt-relief for Greece in return for structural reforms.
The attempt, however, was blocked by Germany whose ultra-hawkish finance minister Wolfgang Schaueble was suggesting that Greece take a ‘holiday’ from membership of the euro.
Three months later, after Mr Varoufakis had resigned in protest at the Greek government’s capitulation to its troika of creditors, Mr Macron explained that the German leader had elbowed him aside after he had called the Greek debt deal a “modern-day version of the Versailles Treaty”.
Mr Macron, an economy minister in Francois Hollande’s government, formed a strong relationship with Mr Varoufakis during his six-month battle with what he calls Europe’s “deep establishment”.
Mr Varoufakis says that Mr Macron, who quit the Hollande government to run as an independent, was “on the same page” regarding the need to free Greece from unsustainable cuts and growth targets.
Two years later, Greece is currently preparing to sign a deal with the EU and IMF for the next €7bn tranche of its bailout, committing itself to more sweeping pension cuts and income tax rises after the current bailout program ends next year.
Greece’s debt currently stands at 179 per cent of its gross domestic product, or about €315 billion euros.
The country has endured seven consecutive years of recession and the loss of 28 per cent of its national income.
Mr Macron’s desire to break the Greek deadlock is contrasted unfavourably with the supine attitude of his boss, Michel Sapin, the French finance minister.
In one notable early encounter Mr Sapin privately concedes to Mr Varoufakis that the German “fixation with austerity” is damaging Europe, but minutes later walks into a press conference and toes the German line.
Confronted afterwards by Mr Varoufakis, the French minister makes no effort to hide his country’s capitulation to Berlin.
“Yanis, you must understand this,” says Mr Sapin by way of apology, “France is not what it used to be.”
“From my first meeting with him, I regretted dearly that it was [Mr] Sapin who represented France in the Eurogroup and not [Mr] Macron,” writes Mr Varoufakis, “Had they swapped roles, things might have ended up differently.”
