Overshadowed by the horrific events in Nice last Thursday were remarks by French president François Hollande on the decision by Durão Barroso to take up a lucrative job offer from investment bankers Goldman Sachs.
Talking hours before the terrorist attack that killed so many people as they enjoyed Bastille Day celebrations, Hollande dubbed the former Portuguese prime minister’s move to the world of finance as “morally unacceptable”.
“Judicially possible” it may be, but there is no escaping the bad taste left in so many mouths, explained Hollande.
With national weekly Expresso stressing that no political party in France liked Barroso for differing reasons, not least because he was considered to have been “on the side of the Americans” over the Iraq war, Hollande further put the boot in, referring to context.
Barroso was president of the European Commission for 10 years, during the period of crisis provoked by ‘subprimes’ (bad loans) “of which Goldman Sachs was one of the leading institutions”, explains Económico website.
Thus, Barroso – knowing all this – is now prepared to join a financial entity “which participated in the camouflaging of data that Greece sent to the European Union”.
There is a lot more where this came from but none of it appears to have dissuaded the former Portuguese PSD leader from taking up his new role, believed to pay as much as €400,000 a month.
