Christine Lagarde has little sympathy for tax evaders in Greece

May 26, 2012

IMF head Christine Lagarde has little sympathy for tax evaders in Greece

In an interview at the UK Guardian, IMF leader Christine Lagarde shows that sympathy for the Greek situation is drying up, comparing the plight of tax evading Greek parents to that of parents of deprived children in sub-Saharan Africa:

"Greek parents have to take responsibility if their children are being affected by spending cuts and “have to pay their tax,” Lagarde said in an interview with the U.K.’s Guardian.

“I think more of the little kids from a school in a little village in Niger who get teaching two hours a day, sharing one chair for three of them, and who are very keen to get an education,” Lagarde told the newspaper. “I have them in my mind all the time. Because I think they need even more help” than people in Greece.

“As far as Athens is concerned, I also think about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time,” Lagarde added. “All these people in Greece who are trying to escape tax. I think they should also help themselves collectively.” Asked how, she said, “By all paying their tax.”

Official Greece web sites

Hellenic Republic Official Website [Greek]

Greece Civil Protection Agency [Greek and English]

National Organization for Medicines in Greece [Greek]

Hellenic National Public Health Organization [English]

City of Athens [English] — City of Athens [Greek]

Greece Certificate of Movement download forms (coronavirus shutdown) [Greek]

Greek Employee Support Link – Greek Government [Greek]

Greece's Golden Visa program

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