Resignation call after ‘drinks and women’ remark
Print Edition
Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem faced mounting calls to resign yesterday as a row escalated over his “racist” comments that southern European countries blew their money on “drinks and women.”
Portugal’s prime minister and former Italian premier Matteo Renzi led pressure on Netherlands finance minister Dijsselbloem, already reeling from last week’s election setback in his homeland.
“If Europe were serious, Dijsselbloem would be already sacked,” said Portuguese Premier Antonio Costa in comments that underlined how Dijsselbloem’s gaffe has exposed simmering north-south tensions within the European Union’s single currency zone.
“It is unacceptable that someone who behaves ... with such a racist, xenophobic and sexist attitude toward some European countries remain as head of the Eurogroup,” Costa said.
“The sooner he goes the better,” Italy’s Renzi said in a post on Facebook that reflected criticism from across the EU’s so-called Club Med group of countries.
“He has missed a perfect opportunity to shut up,” Renzi said. “If he wants to offend Italy he should do it at his local sports bar, not in his institutional role.”
Dijsselbloem saw backing from political allies evaporate as a result of an interview that appeared in Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper on Monday. “During the euro crisis, the countries of the north of the eurozone showed solidarity with the countries in crisis,” he was quoted as saying.
“For me, as a social democrat, I think that solidarity is extremely important. But those who benefit also have duties,” he added. “I can’t spend all my money on drinks and women and then ask for help.”
Dijsselbloem, 50, holds one of Europe’s most influential positions, chairing the meetings of finance ministers from the 19-country eurozone. But his job was already up in the air after his party lost out in elections last week.
Mediterranean countries Portugal, Greece and Cyprus have all received bailouts in recent years — as has Ireland in northern Europe — while Spain’s banks have also received support.
Waiting in the wings to replace Dijsselbloem is Spanish Finance Minister Luis de Guindos, who is both from a southern country and a member of the European People’s Party, the party of Germany’s Wolfgang Schauble, the most powerful minister in the Eurogroup.
Dijsselbloem’s comments are “unfortunate in both style and content,” de Guindos told reporters in Madrid.
“I don’t think (bailed out) Portugal, or Greece plundered public funds, nor Cyprus or Ireland,” he added.
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