Irony of the Day

In a bitter 40 minute lecture, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker lectures Greece on the "truth".

Other than being a pompous buffoon, Jean-Claude Juncker is most famous for his statement "When it becomes serious, you have to lie". 

I believe it's safe to say that things are serious. 

Coordinated Meddling

Please consider Eurozone Leaders Take Coordinated Gamble with Response to Athens 

 By publicly insisting that Greece’s referendum on Sunday is a choice about the country’s future in the eurozone, Europe’s leaders are taking a high-risk political gamble that their intervention will win over Greek voters rather than alienate them.

The strategy was carefully chosen. According to two eurozone officials, the EU’s three most high-profile leaders — Angela Merkel, the German chancellor; François Hollande, the French president; and Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president — co-ordinated how they would respond to the Greek government’s call for a No vote during a series of phone calls at the weekend.

Greek voters have come to resent the EU’s interference in their domestic politics. Eurozone leaders were complicit in the ousting of George Papandreou as prime minister in 2011 and they actively campaigned against the far-left Syriza party in parliamentary elections back in 2012. But eurozone leaders believed they could not let the Greek government’s campaign for a No go unanswered, officials said.

“What do the Greek people know about all this? The reason why I am addressing . . . the Greek people is they have to know the truth,” Mr Juncker said in an occasionally bitter 40-minute address. “I think that the Greek government knows all these elements and it would be advisable to tell the truth to the Greek people instead of simplifying its own message to a ‘No’.”

It is a strategy that could still go awry. Mr Juncker’s bill of particulars included some evasions. His argument that creditors were not proposing pension cuts, for instance, is true only according to the narrowest possible definition of a pension cut. Greek officials also argue his claim there was never an “ultimatum” is a rewriting of recent history. Several eurozone officials at the time described the offer made to Athens on Thursday in such terms.

Believable Juncker

The only significant statement Juncker ever made that I accept as factual is his own admission that he is a liar.