Dutch politician turns tables on EU demanding €100bn from ECB boss if THEY leave eurozone
A DUTCH politician clashed with the President of the European Central Bank (ECB) demanding he returns €100bn to the country's coffers if it quits the Eurozone.
Dutch politician snaps at ECB boss demanding €100bn to leave Euro
Forum For Democracy leader Thierry Baudet asked whether The Netherlands would receive their €100bn surplus back from the ECB should they opt to leave the Euro.
Mario Draghi, the President of the ECB insisted that they would not receive the money back before the pair rowed during a meeting in the Dutch parliament.
Mr Baudet began by raising a document which referred to comments made by the ECB boss claiming that if Italy were to leave the Eurozone they would have to pay back the difference in what they owe.
He said: “As we, the Netherlands, now have a surplus of about €100bn, does this by your own words mean that if the Netherlands decides to leave the Eurozone, which is one of the key points of my party’s programme, we would get back €100m from the southern countries in the Eurozone according to your views?”
The ECB president insisted that countries would not be able to get money they have put into the bank back.
He replied: “Let me respond to you as I have responded to similar questions in European Parliament.
“The Euro is irrevocable, and this is the treaty. I will not speculate on hypotheses that have no ground in the present treaty.
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We’ll see about that then
“Second, the Euro has been a success for the Eurozone and especially for countries like the Netherlands.”
The 34-year-old politician and founder of the Forum for Democracy, refused to accept that the Euro had been beneficial for the Netherlands as he snapped back.
He added: “We can disagree about the merits of the Euro, currency and my view is non-EU countries, the economic situation is significantly better.
“Just one point, you said you didn’t want to speculate on about the possibility of the Eurozone falling apart. But isn’t that precisely what you did in January when you were saying, ‘If Italy leaves, it will have to settle the bill’.
“You were actually speculating about the breaking up of the Eurozone, and wouldn’t it be intellectually fair to have the same principles if the Netherlands decides to leave.”
The ECB chief insisted that he would not speculate any further before he reiterated that the ECB had been beneficial to the Netherlands, and highlighted its importance to the single market.
The Dutch politician finished with one final dig at the ECB president, he said: “We’ll see about that then.”