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THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT has criticised the remarks of the previous administration’s finance minister, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde, after she played down any humanitarian aspect to the Greek financial crisis.
In an interview published yesterday, Lagarde had compared the Greek difficulties to those of the developing world, saying people in Niger required “even more help than the people in Athens”.
The Frenchwoman, who succeeded her compatriot Dominique Strauss-Kahn as head of the IMF last year, also told Greek people they should “help themselves collectively by paying their tax”.
“As far as Athens is concerned, I also think about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time. All these people in Greece who are trying to escape tax,” Lagarde told the Guardian.
This afternoon a spokesperson for the government of Francois Hollande – who emerged as the probable Socialist candidate for president only after Strauss-Kahn’s personal affairs ruled him out of the running – took issue with the comments.
“I find them rather simplistic and stereotypical,” spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem told French television, according to AFP.
A radical left-wing politician, Jean-Luc Melenchon, also criticised Lagarde’s comments – saying it was “the Orthodox Church that should pay its taxes”. “What gives her the right to speak in this manner to the Greeks?,” he asked on France 3 television.
The French dismissal comes after the Greek public also complained about the marks from the head of an institution which is funding around a third of the country’s two large bailouts.
One cafe owner in Athens told Euronews: “Those two to three thousand people, that have committed suicide – for what are they to blame?”
A pensioner added:
Ms Lagarde needs to come to visit the people, and not the politicians, so she can see whether we are hungry, how often we work and what we have paid the state.My husband has worked for forty years and paid his dues – he has the right to a decent pension.
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I don’t understand why these anti choice loons aren’t arrested for harassment and/or trespassing? If it was any other group of people they would be reprimanded but because its”pro life”they get away with it?! Why are they being tolerated and getting preferential treatment?!
I fully agree Amanda, it’s not fair to drive a person from their home. Arrests should be made.
Anti-abortion zealots.
Interesting that An Garda Siochana apparently told him that they were unable to guarantee his security. That has yet to be verified but, if it is true,
Then it is shocking.
Of course, you could not risk an escalation by arresting an anti abortion activist. That would cause mayhem.
As we curtail all of the social, practical and economic supports for pregnant women, we concern ourselves with legislation.
What those pro life nuts did is terrorism. Ireland does not negotiate with terrorists.
#7 My water pressure is already ridiculously low. Does that mean I won’t have to pay?!
same here mary, not only is our water pressure low the water is full of limescale, have to de-scale our kettle every week (using lemon juice overnight , it’s much safer than chemical descalers and you only need rinse out the kettle once next morning.) ourshower head has to be done eery couple of weeks and we gave up on electric kettles ,they only lasted a month before the limescale rotted them, out emersionelement is replaced every 12 months too otherwise it blows all the fuses. we used to getgreatpressure here untill about3 yrs ago when the council replacedthe water meteres since then its been inconsistent to say the least, only hopewhen they replace the meteres this time they do the job properly for a change.
meanwhile the youth defence website has been hacked :)
Anti-choice terrorist filthbags up to their old tricks again. Check out what they’re saying now! http://www.youthdefence.ie/index.html
They have to be mentally unstable.
It does not make sense to me why these pro life people are protesting. Isn’t the sole purpose of this legislation to clarify the x case ruling in the courts 20+ years. And the TDs that want to get the suicide clause removed! That’s the whole point of the legislation! Removing that would totally defeat the purpose of passing it at all!
Derek Keating one of the local pillars of the Catholic Church in Lucan, considering he is a Eucharistic Minister there I’m surprised the pro-aborts are so defenisive of him & concerned for his wellbeing.
We’re concerned for his well-being because he’s a living human being, and not a cluster of cells that are a potential threat to a woman’s life.
What he does in his spare time is his own business.
What’s not surprising is that you and your youth defense ilk don’t really seem to care about actual living people.
Yeah, your Facebook page isn’t too private.
What irony, a practising Catholic being harrassed and threatened by anti-abortion people. This legislation is for the whole of Ireland. TD’s have a duty to legislate according to the will of the people. Micheal Martin in allowing a free vote allowed TD’s in his party to evade their parliamentary duty.
#3 the domestic violence link is not working
Hmm, it seems to be working ok at this end. I’ll push a few buttons and see if something needs to be fixed.
have your say