EU: Dutch Freedom Party pushes euro exit as €2.4 trillion rescue bill looms

The Telegraph ^ | 3/5/2012 | Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

[bruinbirdman]

The Dutch Freedom Party has called for a return to the Guilder, becoming the first political movement in the eurozone with a large popular base to opt for withdrawal from the single currency.

Geert Wilders

"The euro is not in the interests of the Dutch people," said Geert Wilders, the leader of the right-wing populist party with a sixth of the seats in the Dutch parliament. "We want to be the master of our own house and our own country, so we say yes to the guilder. Bring it on."

Mr Wilders made his decision after receiving a report by London-based Lombard Street Research concluding that the Netherlands is badly handicapped by euro membership, and that it could cost EMU’s creditor core more than €2.4 trillion to hold monetary union together over the next four years. "If the politicians in The Hague disagree with our report, let them show the guts to hold a referendum. Let the Dutch people decide," he said.

Mr Wilders is not part of the coalition. However, the minority government of Mark Rutte relies on the Freedom Party to pass legislation. The two men were in talks on Monday on €16bn of fresh austerity cuts needed stop the budget deficit jumping to 4.5pc of GDP.

The study said the eurozone cannot survive in its current form. The longer Europe’s politicians dither, the more costly it will become. "The euro can only survive if it becomes a fiscal transfer union with national sovereign debt subsumed in eurozone bonds," said co-author Charles Dumas.

Greece will opt for a "negotiated exit" later this year, once the pain becomes excruciating. This will be after the French elections in May, but before the German electoral season begins in 2013.

Portugal will follow in "short order"

[editor-surveyor]

So the Dutch don’t want to pay their fair share of the cost of getting Obama re-elected?

Tsk, tsk.

[veracious]

Yahoo, Geert. You are a bright light in a land of insanity; ie., Europe.

[Wuli]

The Dutch gentleman is not wrong, and I wish he went further in saying the truth.

While the Greeks were the masters of their own economic and government fiscal problem, the grand drama that played out in Europe over how to “rescue Greece” showed it was NOT about rescuing Greece, it WAS about rescuing the Euro.

And, in my own opinion, and in spite of the difficult adjustments that Greece, and the Euro-zone would have had to make, I do believe that Greece would have been (and may still be) better off, in the long run, if it had taken on a managed default process that, in addition, took it back to use of its own currency.

I think the Dutchman would be helping his nation if his argument could obtain the support of a majority of his fellow citizens.

[citizen]

Evans-Pritchard says in the article that the study co-author, Dumas, says he expects that Greece will opt for a “negotiated exit” later this year and Portugal will follow in “short order”.

[BfloGuy]

it was NOT about rescuing Greece, it WAS about rescuing the Euro

Yes. And it doesn't take a Philadelphia lawyer economist to see that the costs of preserving the Euro far outweigh the illusory benefits of having it in the first place. Wilders has pointed out that the Euro has no clothes.