During her lunch interview with the Financial Times' Gillian Tett, the IMF chief talks about all financial and political hotspots in the planet today, including China, Germany, Russia and the Ukraine.
When the conversation comes to Greece, one can almost sense the tension from the strong French lady's body language. She speaks with an apparent haste to get it over with and move on to other subjects.
Still, what she utters is cause for media alarm in Athens. After all, it's not every day that the IMF chief reveals death threats against her life - and on account of her opinions about taxes to the rich (particularly the shipping industry) and tax evasion (a taboo issue among the Greek legislative) no less.
Here's the excerpt from the interview piece:
In the past year Lagarde has loudly criticized the failure of rich Greeks to pay their taxes properly. “I better not say too much because, you know, when I have talked about Greece and its taxes before, I got death threats and we had to increase security,” she mutters. “But is the shipping industry really paying its taxes? Are others? I don’t think so.”
But isn’t it part of the problem, I ask, that so many Greeks – or other wealthy elites – have moved to places such as London, in search of jobs or lower taxes. She sighs and acknowledges that this is not just a Greek problem. “I hear from the embassy that you have people in their thirties, say, leaving France,” she says. “When talented people feel they have to leave their own country because they don’t feel they can establish their businesses or find opportunities, it is very sad.”
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