Today, 14 years ago, Greece became the first European country to appeal to the International Monetary Fund, as announced by then Prime Minister George Papandreou, from Kastellorizo.
Specifically, Giorgos Papandreou, on the day of his name day with the Kastelorizo port in the background, spoke to the ERT camera to announce to the Greek people that the country will enter the support mechanism with the participation of the IMF.
“It is a national and imperative need,” he told the Greek people, “to officially ask our partners to activate the support mechanism. I have already instructed the finance minister to take the necessary steps. And our partners will help immediately and decisively, in order to provide Greece with the windless harbor that will allow us to rebuild our boat with strong and reliable materials. We are on a difficult path, a new “odyssey” for Hellenism”.
The so-called “troika” agreed to help Greece and within the next two weeks the first rescue program was agreed, amounting to 110 billion euros.
From that day, the so-called years of memoranda began and austerity entered the daily vocabulary of the Greeks.
