“The day of judgment will come sooner or later. Greece has lived beyond its means for too long ”. This was stated to the Wall Street Journal by Josez Kollar, the parliamentary group leader of one of the four parties (the SAS) of the coalition in government in Slovakia. Without the support of the SAS, the majority will not be able to pass the vote in Parliament on the changes to be made to the European Financial Stability Fund (FESF), necessary to deal with the debt crisis.
Kollar leads a group of lawmakers who oppose the extension of financial guarantees to bail out countries in difficulty in the Eurozone. The politician hopes that Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy will decide not to grant further funds to Greece and to have the Greek country declared insolvent. According to Kollar, only letting "unregulated members suffer" can incentivize other countries like Italy and Spain to put their finances in order. "The eurozone must have rules for bankruptcy cases and also on leaving the eurozone," added the Slovak politician.
Kollar drew a parallel between today's debt crisis and the spiral of inefficiency in Comecon - the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance of the Soviet bloc that fell in 1991 - before it was dissolved. “The euro is a political project – said Kollar – but it cannot ignore the underlying principles of the economy otherwise it will fall into oblivion like Comecon twenty years ago.”
However, the Slovak prime minister, Iveta Radicova, said she would discuss the matter throughout August and that she would try to "explain the situation to the SAS and negotiate a common position".
Slovakia was the first former communist country to join the eurozone in 2009.
Source: Wall Street Journal, tasr
