Greek Vice-President: Drachma Return Talk “Immense Stupidity”
Vice-President of the Greek government Theodoros Pangalos blasted suggestions that Greece should exit the euro and return to the drachma as an “immense stupidity”.
In an interview with daily Spanish newspaper El Mundo, Pangalos said that those who say this are extremely stupid. “While they may be analysts, university professors or economists, saying that is an immense stupidity,” he commented.
“Returning to the drachma would mean that on the following day banks would be surrounded by terrified people trying to withdraw their money, the army would have to protect them with tanks because there would not be enough police,” said Pangalos.
“There would be riots everywhere, shops would be empty, some people would throw themselves out the window … And it would also be a disaster for the entire European economy”, he stated.
Theodoros Pangalos appeared optimistic that ruling party PASOK would overcome the intraparty dissatisfaction for the adoption of medium-term program on Wednesday.
“I think the package of short and medium-term measures with which we basically hope to establish the framework to undertake reforms will be approved without difficulty”, Pangalos told El Mundo.
However, he said approval of specific laws to enact fiscal reforms and privatizations of public companies may be more difficult to achieve.
“That΄s where we may have problems. I don΄t know whether some of our Members of Parliament will vote against it. It΄s possible,” he said.
