A war of words has broken out between populist anti-Islam and Eurosceptic MP Geert Wilders and the president of the Dutch central bank, Nout Wellink on the debt crisis in Greece.
by Jacqueline Nolan
Mr Wellink called Mr Wilders “a false prophet on economic matters” during a talkshow on national TV yesterday evening.
Earlier, the leader of the Freedom Party (PVV) lashed out against bailing out a debt-stricken Greece and said in De Telegraaf daily that Greece should quit the euro zone and return to the drachma. He added that it was totally senseless to help Greece out again.
Wilders doesn’t like his own
During the TV show, the Dutch central bank chief claimed that Mr Wilders “mustn’t like his own people too much if he’s calling on them not to give any more money to Greece”.
Mr Wellink, who is also a member of the European Central Bank Governing Council, said lengthening Greece’s debt maturities was not a solution to the problems. If anything, he argued, it could lead to a chain reaction affecting other European countries and banks.
Accountability Day
In a parliamentary debate today, Mr Wilders attacked the government on the whole Greece crisis, clashing with the chairman of the governing conservative VVD, Stef Blok. Mr Blok said his party was distancing itself from the Freedom Party’s stance.
The VVD is the largest party in a coalition government with the Christian Democrats. As they don't have a parliamentary majority, they rely on Mr Wilders' PVV support in parliament.
Today and yesterday are what’s known as “Accountability Days” in Dutch parliament. On the third Wednesday of May each year, the government defends its financial policy. Mr Wilders is using the focus on finances to rally support for his anti-Greece crusade.
Domino effect
Mr Blok warned that if Greece falls, Ireland and Portugal were likely to follow, which in turn would threaten Italy and Spain and lead to a collapse in European trade. The PVV chief dismissed the arguments of both Mr Blok and Mr Wellink as “scare-mongering”.
Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager recently warned of the difficulty of maintaining public support for huge bailouts of troubled peripheral euro zone countries. The International Monetary Fund has sent out reassurances that it will only shore up Greece's finances if the country pledged to intensify reform efforts.
(jn/rk)
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The pusedo-science of "Geertenomics" is neither new or without a disasterous history (as with the balance of payments crisis after the collapse of the German economy after World War I), hence the reaction to it as false profesy.
Of course mr Wilders is right.It's basic free market economic principles.Greece fails because it is not efficient and has borrowed to much from banks and pension funds that gave them money.Knowing full well the risks.It was stupid and when you are stupid in a free market economy you go bankrupt.Then competent people who didn't make bad loans take market share away from the bad people.Now it's turned upside down.The good are made to pay for the non-productive and bad.We keep alive banks and pension funds and whoever that shouldn't be kept alive and rewarded.
If Greece fails and Ireland fails and Portugal fails and then Spain and Italy fail then so be it.That is what should happen.Then these countries can and will restructure and become stronger in the future.You have to burn the dead wood in order to create new fertile soil on which to grow.You cannot go against market principles that is what happened in the Soviet Union and what happens in North Korea and a whole host of other countries.
Nout Wellink being a banker thinks he can save his friends by robbing the Dutch tax payers and making them pay for their mistakes.And he offers to keep alive a fake economy that will eventually crash costing us even more.Postponing taking the bitter medicine that is required makes the disease that much worse.
"The conclusion that "Wilders is right again" is neither accurate in the long term or in this immediate circumstance."...Until Greece, Ireland, and Spain change their negative financial and social policies, they will always be a burden to the citizens of the E.U. Being reactive and not pro-active as the E.U. has done with Greece is not beneficial to the Europeans as a whole. The E.U. can not sustain itself on nations who do not carry a share of the burden. At the present Greece and company are depleting valuable resources from member nations of the E.U. and in the long term, those who followed prudent financial procedures are punished with more taxes. No, Wilders is correct.
What is really of concern here beyond individual national behaviors, is the infastructure investment complexes the EU transnational companies have established within the Union. For example, what the German banking and industrial sectors have, Greece being no exceoption. Should Greece be retired from the euro or unilaterally leave the currency, German investments and trade revenues derived from Greek exports would fall dramatically against a rapidly decreasing drachma, designed so in a policy to increase the export levels of Greek owned enterprises, and to give more sovereignty to Greek government policy in how to deal with the debt crisis. Germany prefers to modify future Greek national behavior in this regard, and use the free market consequence of lowering the value of the euro globally for the advantages of international competitiveness and domestic employment inside of Germany. The conclusion that "Wilders is right again" is neither accurate in the long term or in this immediate circumstance.
"Mr Blok warned that if Greece falls, Ireland and Portugal were likely to follow, which in turn would threaten Italy and Spain and lead to a collapse in European trade."...Those nations of the E.U. who can't and won't change their negative, social and finicial behaviours don't help the E.U.'s trade. Blok's statement that it would lead to the collapse in
European trade is a smoke screen. If those nations are not helping the E.U. trade, they should leave the union. You punish the nations which are successful by taxing them for those who are not. Again, Wilders is right.
This article will bring out the "old gang" again in both the defense and criticsm of Geert's steller public performance on a matter he knows nothing about, and in turn is lectured by an international expert on the issue. Geert cannot and doesnot have the capacity to present any real credentials on EU or any other international matters requiring expert handling, save for general populist panic. Geert demonstrates again that he and the PVV would be a complete catastrophe in gainig full control of the Netherlands' government.
Surprised? Wilders has made no secret of his views on the EU. He knows that few Dutch people would ever vote to secede from such a profitable and stabilizing union. So he tries to antagonise other members to destroy the alliance that way.
That's how he attempts to gain more power. Always at the expense of others.