French media continue to extensively cover the recent early repayment by Greece of a €1.1 billion loan that it had received from France in 2010. In an article published in the newspaper “L’Express” titled “Budget: When Greece comes to the rescue of French public finances,” it is noted that “Athens, a symbol of public deficit deviation in the past, has just repaid €1.1 billion early to Paris,” emphasizing that this constitutes “a sign of an economy that has regained its strength, to the extent that these are funds that were not due until between 2033 and 2041.” “And it’s not the first time,” continues the French newspaper, highlighting that in 2023, Greece had repaid €1.14 billion for installments scheduled for 2024 and 2025, while in 2024 it repaid €1.7 billion for annual installments that had been scheduled from 2026 to 2028. Today Athens still owes Paris €5.6 billion, which must be paid off by the end of 2041, the newspaper continues, referring to “the grasshopper that ends up lending to the ant…” in reversal of Aesop’s famous fable.
“Greece is now considered a reliable borrower”
The newspaper also notes that in 2025, it is France that is causing concern among its European neighbors, while Greece is now considered a reliable borrower.
The related publication also mentions that during discussions in the French National Assembly on France’s state budget for 2026, Republican MP and general budget rapporteur Philippe Jouvin asked the relevant minister Amélie de Montchalin whether “do you believe we can draw lessons from the Greek example?”
The minister preferred, according to the newspaper, to avoid a direct answer, noting that to manage to repay its debt, Greece must have a primary surplus of 3 percentage points of GDP each year. “For us, this would correspond to an effort twice as large as the one we are trying to achieve by 2029,” said the French minister.
In the same vein, the newspaper “VALEURS ACTUELLES” in an editorial article titled “Greece to the economic rescue of France” notes that while in 2010, Paris participated in the rescue of Athens, which was then on the brink of bankruptcy, in 2025, the opposite is happening and emphasizes that French deputies and senators discovered the “Greek gifts” by reading the texts of the state budget draft.
“We can therefore thank our Greek friends who are helping us reduce our deficit,” commented, as the newspaper reports, the Republican general budget rapporteur in the Senate, Jean-François Husson. In conclusion, the newspaper raises the question of whether Greece rushed to rescue France, the eurozone’s second-largest economy, out of European solidarity, or because Paris asked for it unofficially.
“Greece has changed”
Finally, on the “20-MINUTES” website, an article is published titled “At what cost does Greece repay the billions that France lent it?”
The newspaper points out that this is a “reversal” and emphasizes that “Greece has changed,” putting an end to attacks by European countries against Athens, led by Berlin, while simultaneously recalling the “not one euro for the Greeks” that German Chancellor Angela Merkel had launched in 2010.
The publication mentions, among other things, that Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis publishes data that excites creditors and international organizations, and “that he seems to enjoy, to some extent, the fact that he can repay in advance, thus proving that his economic policy is paying off.”
