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Greece

IMF Chief Lagarde Pulls No Punches With Greece, Greeks Punch Back

LE MONDE (France) THE GUARDIAN (United Kingdom)

PARIS - It may be a sign that the euro zone crisis is reaching a new low when political leaders say out loud what they share behind closed doors. The typically careful managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, has let loose with some plain talk about what has led debt-riddled Greece -- and therefore the rest of Europe (and the world) -- into such a dire financial situation.

Here is what she said in an interview published in British daily The Guardian on Friday:

"Do you know what? As far as Athens is concerned, I also think about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time. All these people in Greece who are trying to escape tax."

She also said she thought more about 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," because, according to her, "they need even more help than the people in Athens."

French daily Le Monde reports that Greek politicians were quick to address her comments. Socialist Party leader Evangelos Venizélos said she had "humiliated" the Greek people.

Social media users were also very critical of the former French Finance Minister.

But the fallout even extended to other countries in Europe, including Lagarde's native France. The spokesperson for newly-elected François Hollande's Socialist government called her comments "caricatural." Even Laurence Parisot, head of the largest employer's union in France, said that what Greece needed was help, not more humiliation. The Guardian followed up on the issue in an editorial, calling her "partly responsible" for the banking crisis and criticizing her role as France's finance minister.

For her part, Lagarde posted a statement on her Facebook page, which has since garnered more 20,000 comments. She expressed her sympathy for the Greek people, and said "everyone should carry their fair share of the burden, especially the most privileged and especially in terms of paying their taxes."


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Society

Italy's Right-Wing Government Turns Up The Heat On 'Gastronationalism'

Rome has been strongly opposed to synthetic foods, insect-based flours and health warnings on alcohol, and aggressive lobbying by Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government against nutritional labeling has prompted accusations in Brussels of "gastronationalism."

Dough is run through a press to make pasta

Creation of home made pasta

Karl De Meyer et Olivier Tosseri

ROME — On March 23, the Italian Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Francesco Lollobrigida, announced that Rome would ask UNESCO to recognize Italian cuisine as a piece of intangible cultural heritage.

On March 28, Lollobrigida, who is also Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's brother-in-law, promised that Italy would ban the production, import and marketing of food made in labs, especially artificial meat — despite the fact that there is still no official request to market it in Europe.

Days later, Italian Eurodeputy Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of fascist leader Benito Mussolini and member of the Forza Italia party, which is part of the governing coalition in Rome, caused a sensation in the European Parliament. On the sidelines of the plenary session, Sophia Loren's niece organized a wine tasting, under the slogan "In Vino Veritas," to show her strong opposition (and that of her government) to an Irish proposal to put health warnings on alcohol bottles. At the end of the press conference, around 11am, she showed her determination by drinking from the neck of a bottle of wine, to great applause.

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