Spain has always maintained “solidarity” with Greece, says minister – Terra Peru

Spain has always maintained "solidarity" with Greece, says minister – Terra Peru

The Spanish Minister of Economy and Competitiveness, Luis de Guindos, said today that the Government of Spain “are not well understood” the criticism of Greece, because “the approach of Spain has always been collaboration, solidarity, flexibility “with the country.

Speaking at an economic forum in Pamplona (north), De Guindos said regarding criticism of Spanish and Portuguese governments by the Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, which “I can assure you that the Eurogroup, neither Spain nor Portugal were the hardest.”

The criticisms of Tsipras away last Saturday to Spain and Portugal to send a letter of protest to the President of the EC and the European Council.

With regard to the protest of Spain, the minister explained that the President of the Executive, Mariano Rajoy, “he did was join a complaint raised by the Portuguese Government”.

“I think there has also been a rectification of the Greek government, because there are no enemies. We’re all in the same boat, “concluded De Guindos.

Later, in his lecture, entitled” Strong Foundations for Growth “, the minister stressed that it is” fundamental “that Greece regrowing after lost 25% of its GDP during the crisis.

De Guindos was convinced that Greece will not leave the euro, because “it would be very bad” for this country and “bad” for all Monetary Union.

In this regard, recalled that exposure of Spain for Greece is 26,000 million euros, 7,000 million of which were granted by the previous Socialist government through a unilateral loan.

That money, he said, Spain won it by a loan for which he paid an interest “far superior” to that currently is paying Greece.

The minister considered that Greece does not have alternative but to negotiate with the European Union, as it has no access to capital markets and, if not for the bailouts, could not pay pensions, public services, education and health.

De Guindos denied that Europeans were “particularly stingy or greedy” about Greece and stressed that so far the EU has given to this country 210,000 million euros and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), 30,000, which accounts for 80% of Greek debt.

“With that, Greece has been able to maintain basic services for a period of five years,” said the minister, who calculated that the new bailout will be among the 30,000 to 50,000 million euros, of which Spain will have to contribute between 13 and 14%.

In another forum held in Madrid, the Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo, said that aid that Spain has given to Greece was “disinterested” because Spanish banks were not exposed to the public debt of the country.

The minister insisted that “the debts have to be paid” although he was willing to introduce “flexibility”.