EU knew they were lending Greece money that no one could pay back, and there was no plan B for Greece except from austerity measures, former Greek MP Eva Kaili told RT.

RT: Why does the government keep doing what the Troika tells it?

Eva Kaili: Well, I think it is too late for that to have already implemented a lot of austerity measures. I think, now we are reaching at the point of no return, We move on with the layoffs and I do believe that after that we try to figure out the growth plan. Something that should have been done instead of taking this austerity measures that led us to this point, unemployment at 27 percent. The Troika experimented in Greece, I do hope that the rest of Southern countries will not suffer the same problems that we did.

RT: Where is all this bailout money going?

EK: Well, nobody believes that 300 billion would be viable debt. So the money has been spent to the rates and paying off this debt. As you can tell, no money is getting inside or being invested in Greece or in a growth plan that would after a few years improve so that we could pay off everything that we owe. The thing is that all the books were open to the EU so it’s not that we surprised them or they did not know where they were lending money that no one could pay. That was not viable, that everybody knew about it but the plan, the austerity measures, the recipe followed failed. We knew that, remember we said it was supposed to fail, everybody knew that. There was no plan B and I know that Germany does not want to take a step back, it’s in elections, we are waiting for results and let’s hope that after the German elections it’s going to be a debate about whether to write off a big part of the debt.

RT: When you were an MP you said the measures of the Troika were brilliant, and the end was near.

EK: I never said what Troika did was brilliant, I said that they left us no choice, they did not let us decide whether to create a growth plan or take austerity measures, they just tried to soak our country with these measures, without planning anything, without trying to implement the changes in the way that out country is working. So I never said that, I said that we had no choice.

RT: You were very optimistic about the future of Greece and ultimately with these billions coming to the country. I’m not starting an argument here but you were very optimistic, perhaps you were playing a role of a politician as you were.

EK: No no no. We were seeing that we did an improvement, we had huge problems with corruption, tax evasion and we were just trying to get some time to apply the reforms. I think we have made improvements, we are getting there, we have reduced the cost of Healthcare by one third. We are trying to make it more viable debt but as you can tell it’s like an amount we cannot afford. I think we had enough time to prove…

RT: Do you think it’s better for Greece to be out of the eurozone?

EK: I don’t believe it would solve anything, but yes, I do believe, that we should reset our existence inside the eurozone and I do believe that the eurozone should try to find new balances between South and North, because we have two different speeds. And now, as you can see, Germany is the only one that decides and the power game should be reset.

• A Permanent Economic Emergency