Former governor of the Cypriot central bank, Anthanasios Orphanides has launched an powerful rebuke towards Cyprus's European creditors, branding their actions tantamount to blackmail. Speaking to Bloomberg TV, he said:
"We are witnessing historic times. What we're witnessing is the slow death of the European project. We are in a situation where some European governments are essentially taking actions that are telling citizens of other member states they are not equal under the law.
What we have seen for the last few days is a very serious blunder by European governments that essentially are blackmailing the government of Cyprus to confiscate the money that belongs rightfully to depositors in the banking sector in Cyprus.
The way the strongest governments of Europe have blackmailed the Cypriot government to confiscate deposits is essentially sending a message that no-one with deposits in a small country like Luxembourg should feel safe about their deposits. No-one with deposits in a weak country, like Spain, should feel safe about deposits.
Decisions like this, much like the decision to haircut Greek debt in October 2011, actually benefit some countries. For example as weâve seen from markets yesterday a decision like this reduces the financing costs for the German government so the German government can now borrow at negative rates as a result while it inflicts pain on other countries. Not everybody is equal under the law the way European governments are behaving these days.
This is why I worry about the future of Europe."