Portugal’s Finance Minister, Maria Luís Albuquerque, says Greece must stick to its bailout conditions. Her comments were made during an interview published in the German newspaper Handelsblatt.
"There is a framework within which we are prepared to talk to the Greek government. That framework is the current aid programme, which is up for extension," Albuquerque told the business daily, having assumed the role of the 'grande dame' of international finance.
"But we are not prepared to talk under any other conditions. Everyone is agreed on this, all the 18 other eurozone countries, as well as the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund," the Portuguese minister added as if Portugal was in any sort of financial or moral position to make comments on Greece's negotiations with those that had lent it significant sums of money.
Albuquerque comments of course were designed to be in line with what Germany wants for Greece which is to stick to the now impossible bailout terms and for the ruling party to go back on its promises to the electorate.
Germany has offered Greece more money for more austerity and an increasing foreign involvement in Greek domestic policy.
Finance ministers are meeting in Brussels to consider the proposal from Athens to extend the loan programme that expires at the end of February.
German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble has rejected the request as being "not a substantial proposal for a solution."
Albuquerque agreed with her German masters that the Greek bailout cannot be extended without any conditions attached.
"That's not possible for anyone else in the world, neither for Greece nor Portugal, not for you or me," said Albuquerque.
For the slow to learn, Albuquerque reverted to her best school mistress mode to explain, "If I ask a bank for a loan, I must commit myself to paying it back. And I have to offer security. There's no other way of doing it."
Portugal received Troika loans from a northern Europe which did not wish to see a southern member state leave the union.
During the bailout period in Portugal, unemployment has rocketed, business closures have increased dramatically, taxes have risen to previously unrecorded levels, wahes have dropped, the balance of payment is negative and the country is in more debt than before the crisis started. The Troika lent the government €75 billion which the taxpayer is struggling to repay.
The Prime Minister earlier commented that Portugal understands the problem facing Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, as he won the election based on an anti-austerity manifesto programme, but he personally would choose to comply with the austerity programme terms and conditions.
Passos Coelho described his feelings towards Tsipras as “neither sympathy nor antipathy,” thus, rather neatly highlighting the difference in temperament between the two southern European cultures.
