In These New Times

Newropmag

31st May, 2012

Lagarde and the Greeks … a comedy, not a tragedy! Christine Lagerde, head of the IMF, recently told journalists that she had no sympathy for the difficulties encoutered by the Greek people and that they should pay their taxes rather than complaining.

When ones know that Mrs Lagarde is going to end up in front of the highest justice court in France in a few months for accusations of mishandling of public funds in the Bernard Tapie case, it’s quite ironic to see her giving lessons on how people should behave as responsible citizens regarding state’s money. Besides, if indeed there is no doubt that paying one taxes has to become the the norm in Greece, Mrs Lagarde should have made crystal-clear a very important point while she was making her press conference in London: the first ones who should pay their taxes are the Greek billionaires … who all live in London to avoid paying taxes in Greece. Though, in that case, I’m not so sure that the British press would have been so enthusiastic to echo Largarde’s declaration. Nevertheless it is a fact that between the Orthodox church and its billionairs in tax-exile in London, Greece is losing dozens of billions of Euros of tax each year. Maybe France, Germany and other Euroland countries could help Greece recover this money by taking actions against these two big fraudsters …. because for 2 years now, it’s Euroland citizens’money which is used in place of their unpaid taxes. – @Franck Biancheri sur www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=716754146 – Related: Retour sur la politique du FMI au Niger(Okeanos)