Handelsblatt quotes Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center Resident Senior Fellow Anders Åslund on the impact of northern eurozone states on the discussions about resolving the Greek financial crisis:
Some of these states have taken an even tougher stance than Germany. Anders Åslund, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council, says that Finland, a notorious opponent of bailouts, clearly played an “outsize role” in the talks with Greece after a euro-skeptic party, the True Finns and their leader Timo Soini, threatened to pull out of the country’s governing coalition.
“No doubt Finland pushed Germany to go further than Germany otherwise would have done,” Mr. Åslund told Handelsblatt Global Edition. “Even though Mr. Soini wasn’t sitting at the table, he had more impact than anybody else apart from [German finance minister Wolfgang] Schäuble.”