French news agency AFP exercised harsh criticism on the new Greek government, saying it is not respecting the diplomatic rulebook of the negotiating table and its officials show blatant inexperience. From 40-year-old Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras downward, Greek officials have gone into European Union meetings in aggressive mood, using hard language and not following diplomatic protocol, said AFP. Furthermore, Greeks exasperated their European peers by leaking draft documents and shedding light on secret negotiations during Eurogroup meetings. On Saturday, Tsipras accused Portugal and Spain for undermining the Greek effort to get out of the crisis and spoke of aggressive conservative forces trying to push Greece to the brink. Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias reacted to EU criticism for approaching Russia, despite Europe’s sanctions against the country. “We have the right to strengthen our relations with whichever state we think would benefit our country. We will not raise our hand for permission, like a pupil in class,” the Minister said. “It is terrible — the Greeks seem to live on another planet,” a frustrated European official said after the first of three Eurogroup meetings ended in acrimony, said AFP. Most European officials do not understand Greece’s stance on several important issues and they put it down to lack of experience. An EU official was very caustic about the new Greek government’s lack of experience: “Tsipras is like a first year medical student who wants to do open-heart surgery right from the start, but he knows nothing about it,” he said, according to AFP.
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