Anders Borg, the Finance Minister of non-euro member Sweden, today had some strong things to say about how the Portuguese government has handled itself. He
told Swedish Radio:
"We have reason to be very critical of the Portuguese government. This is a decision that should have been made in November, December. It’s been obvious for a long time that this country can’t stand on its own two feet.
There have been very frank discussions but the discussions have got stuck in internal political discussions instead of the necessary decisions are being made.
The Portuguese government has made the situation worse for itself and has contributed to an uncertain situation which has cost jobs and wealth in other countries. So we have reason to be strongly critical of them."
On the question on whether Sweden will contribute to a bail-out,
“It’s so complicated so we need to wait until some pieces fall into place.”
Pretty tough talk.
The sad thing is that, as with Greece and Ireland, we will soon see a flurry of condescending, disdainful and humiliating comments from different high-ranking figures, kicking Portugal while it's down.
ReplyDeleteThe euro is a grotesque tragedy.