Greek Debt Committee Declares All Debt ‘Illegal, Illegitimate and Odious’

Greece’s Truth Committee on Public Debt released its preliminary findings Wednesday. The committee, established by Greece’s ruling party, said that not only did Greece not have the ability to repay its debt, but that it infringed on the fundamental human rights of Greek residents. The committee concluded that Greece’s debt was “illegal, illegitimate and odious.”

The committee’s findings did not go over well in other parts of Europe. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Bavarian allies accused Athens of not grasping the seriousness of the situation. Christian Social Union Secretary General Andreas Scheuer called Greek rulers clowns. Meanwhile, Greece’s central bank said that failure to reach an agreement would mark the beginning of a painful course that would lead initially to a Greek default and ultimately to the country’s exit from the euro area and, most likely, from the European Union.