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Margarita's choice: 'What I would do if I had $550m'
Former PM's wife says she has two choices: ignore allegations or sue. 'My choice is the latter' Margarita Papandreou
Margarita Papandreou (Eurokinissi) Margarita Papandreou (Eurokinissi) Over a month ago as I was climbing out of bed, my cell phone rang. The voice said, “Margarita, there are articles in To Vima and Proto Thema about you. Have you seen them?” I had stopped reading Greek newspapers or listening to Greek TV newscasts because they kept telling lies, and spewing out hatred, fear and anxiety. I don’t want this rage and bleakness in my heart. I know we are better than that. The caller told me that I was supposedly holding an account in Switzerland amounting to $550m dollars!
I shouted, “Is this a joke?”
“You are on the Lagarde list,” the phone caller added. Christine Lagarde is the managing director of the International Monetary Fund and former French finance minister. The list was for uncovering tax-evasion accounts of Greeks, and had been handed over to the “black money” unit of the Greek government for investigation. It was from this unit that bases most of its information on sheer gossip that my name was released to the newspapers. I responded, “Holy Cow,” using the slang of my childhood generation. “Another big lie!”
I had stopped reading Greek newspapers or listening to Greek TV newscasts because they kept telling lies, and spewing out hatred, fear and anxiety.
I have had a number of unexpected events in my life, in fact, I probably should be on Ripley’s list. I was the daughter-in-law of a Greek prime minister, the wife of a Greek prime minister and the mother of a Greek prime minister. My name is Margarita Papandreou. It used to be Margaret Chant, child of a working class family from Elmhurst, Illinois. Perhaps it is not so strange that an American woman became First Lady of Greece. It is consistent with the American dream mentality – a kind of rags to riches story. But I never contemplated the riches that were now assigned to me!
Perhaps it is not so strange that an American woman became First Lady of Greece. It is consistent with the American dream mentality – a kind of rags to riches story. But I never contemplated the riches that were now assigned to me!
I have been described as having high ambitions though. Once in a journey back to my home town as First Lady, I was interviewed by a young journalist from the Chicago Tribune. It was to be “a local girl makes good” story. His first question was “as a little girl running across the plains of Illinois, did you ever dream that you would be the wife of the prime minister of Greece?” When I was that age I didn’t even know Greece existed, nor was I contemplating marriage to anybody. I replied with mock seriousness, “ I dreamt I would BE the prime minister of Greece.”
This revelation was picked up by Greek newspapers, and soon I was charged with having ravenous ambitions, of training Greek women to deny their cultural upbringing and heritage (this referred to my founding of a grassroots feminist organisation), and that the prime minister must put strong shackles on me. It was an early lesson on the use and misuse of humor in public life. Or, at least, my type of humour.
Soon after the phone call from my friend, I had one of the Sunday papers in my hand. There it was, with a fairly nice photo of me, “Mother of George Papandreou involved in Lagarde list.” The second title next to my photo was “as beneficiary of a $550m account”. For quite a while now the Papandreou family has been targeted as the vulture of the entire economic crisis in Greece. The more specific target has been my son George, who, as head of the government, took a loan from the International Monetary Fund – a move that was critical to avoid declaring bankruptcy. He also started the reforms that were needed to bring us out of the crisis.
For quite a while now the Papandreou family has been targeted as the vulture of the entire economic crisis in Greece.
These included crackdowns on foreign accounts. Over 54,000 have been found with more money than they can account for. Rather than applaud, the reformer is being called to task. As life worsened, as jobs got lost, as salaries got cut and as pensions were chopped, there apparently had to be a boogey man, a scapegoat, or in this case, a whole family. Logical? No. But a population hurting, homeless and hungry, is unlikely to use logic in explaining fate. And the newspapers loved to play it up as well. My name had not yet been attacked. Now, it seems, was my turn.
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