European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker has once again claimed credit for helping keep Greece in the euro area against the wishes of several member-states after the country was hit by a brutal financial crisis.



“Greece was the most difficult case I had to face,” Juncker, who will leave the Commission in October, said in an interview published on the New Europe website Monday. “In 2015, I didn’t want to eject Greece from the euro area for a single second, although others were trying to do so.”



“So I am proud to have kept Greece inside the sphere of solidarity named the euro area,” he said.



In the same interview, Juncker praised the Greek people for putting on a brave face against the impact of austerity policies. “I like the Greek people because, though they were punished for the mistakes and errors of all the Greek governments we have had in the past decades, they never lost their dignity.”