Greece must reform or leave eurozone. German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble o000mmed his favorite mantra and ruled out debt relief for Greece before on Sunday. Just hours before the Eurogroup meeting to discuss the second review of the third bailout program -and the Italian slap in the face of the European construct.
Schaeuble insisted that “Greece budget was not burdened by debt servicing because interest rates were so low,” adding that “Greece must implement economic reforms if it is to keep its place in the eurozone.”
“Athens must finally implement the needed reforms,” he told German populist newspaper Bild am Sonntag in an interview published on Sunday.
“If Greece wants to stay in the euro, there is no way around it – in fact completely regardless of the debt level.”
Asked if German voters should be prepared for the inevitability of debt relief in the run-up to national elections next year, Schäuble quipped: “That would not help Greece.”
“Wolfgang Schäuble in effect presented Greece with an ultimatum: either it must enforce unpopular structural reforms or exit the bloc,” the Guardian noted.
It is not the first time, it is not the last one. The cells in Schaeuble’s brain are programmed to scream Grexit, anyway. His ultimate target is to get rid first of Greece then of other weak economies and become officially the Ruler of the Euro together with a small circle of strictly trusted friends like the Netherlands, Austria.
He seems convinced that he has to turn Kohl-Mitterrand vision of a 2-speed EU and Eurozone into reality. But the world, the people, has changed ever since the middle 1990’s.
It’s only that Schaeuble isn’t aware of that. He is so fool to think that by demonstrating lethal relentless and deadly austerity he will be able to halt the rising right-wing populism first of all in his own country. He misreads the warning signs as to why the conservatives revolt across Europe.
The problem is more complex than that. Schäuble clearly sees eurozone isnt competitive enough towards the rest of the world. Certainly not with countries like Greece. He would probably rather see the single currency club reduced to a smaller group of higly produczive, budgetary responsible states in order to compete with USA, China, etc. What is rather amazing is this Greek “ignorance” when they behave like they didnt understand Schäuble’s message:”You will suffer as long as it is necessary for you to understand that you are no longer wanted in eurozone!”.
LOL
It’s interesting to see that the German ignorant public also believes that Italy wasn’t doing any “reforms” the last years but even more interesting was that Schaeuble’s last-minute pro-Renzi voting advise brought a ‘paradox’ impact as many Italians just questioned if Schaeuble would accept the same Anti-democratic “reform” against the German federal constitution or if he’d better go and drink Grappa to start thinking.
btw: the core of this German AFD are economic scientists who some years ago presented the brilliant job-“reform” of a 60 hours week
I will say it again.
Greece is better of out of the Eurozone. The quicker they realise this, the less pain the people will suffer!
GREXIT NOW!
What is happening now is endless suffering on the part of Greeks, incomes continue to fall and show no sign abating.
God bless Lidl, they always take our Drachmas and pay you in Drachma too
Greece should have got out of the Euro when the sh*t hit the fan six years ago. It would have been painful at first, but no more painful than the current situation. Had they left then, by now the worst would be past, and Greece would be on the up and up, able to control it’s interest rates and (to a degree) the value of the Drachma.
As things stand, there is no light at the end of the tunnel for Greece, just more of the same depressing recession and kowtowing to diktats from the likes of Schaeuble.
And in the final reckoning, which WILL come, Greece will either have to leave the Euro anyway (which will be far more painful than if they’d done it six years ago), or sell their country to Germany for a mess of pottage.