The head of the IMF was forced to express sympathy for the Greek people after politicians and irate locals vilified her for saying the country was a nation of tax dodgers.
The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was forced to express sympathy for the Greek people after politicians and irate locals vilified her for saying the country was a nation of tax dodgers.
After being bombarded on her Facebook page with 10,000 messages, Christine Lagarde took to the social networking site to say she was "very sympathetic to the Greek people and the challenges they are facing".
Despite the emergence of a new Facebook page titled "Greeks are against Lagarde", she reiterated that everyone should pay their taxes. Greek politicians were similarly enraged, with socialist party leader Evangelos Venizelos claiming she had "insulted the Greek people".
The backlash came as Greece's former prime minister warned that the country could run out of the money by the end of June if bail-out funds are withdrawn after next month's election.
Lucas Papademos said that, within days of the June 17 poll, Athens risked having a shortfall of €1 billion (£800 million). "From late June onwards, the ability of the government to fund its obligations fully depends on the approval of the subsequent instalments of loans from the European Financial Stability Facility and the IMF," he said.
Such funds would be put at risk by a re-run of the May 6 poll, which failed to produce a government willing to implement austerity cuts.
"The available funds in the Greek government will be reduced gradually from about euros 3.8bn on May 11 to about €700 million on June 18 and from June 20 will enter negative territory at around euros 1bn," he said in a memo leaked to the To Vima newspaper.
Elsewhere, the president of Spanish lender Bankia, bailed out to the tune of €23.5 billion, was forced to clarify his comments that "we don't need to talk about giving any of it back". Jose Ignacio Goirigolzarri said the money would be treated as an investment, not a loan.
Bankia's problems have led to fresh efforts in Brussels to devise a eurozone fund, financed by a levy on all lenders that would rescue any in trouble.
Raoul Rupparel, at think tank Open Europe, said such a plan had merit but added: "I question how quickly it could get off the ground and, even if it raised tens of billions in its first year, that would barely cover Spain".
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