I am not sure whether German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble analyzed correctly the elections results in Hamburg on Sunday, with his Christian Democratic Party (CDU) to have plunged to just 16%. I am not sure whether he thought, the CDU lost due to German conservative taxpayers getting angry in case he would make a compromise with Greece on the Eurogroup today. However, I am really sure, that this statement of a politician towards the government of another nation is offensive, distasteful and unacceptable – to say it polite…
Schaeuble to DLF:
“I feel sorry for the Greeks. The new Greek government behaves irresponsible.”
In a radio interview to Deutschlandfunk Monday morning, Wolfgang Schaeuble said among others, that he was against a deal “just for the sake of a compromise”:
Germany’s Schaeuble “very sceptical” about Greek debt talks
Asked if the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers would find a solution for Greece’s debt problems, Schaeuble told Deutschlandfunk: “From what I’ve heard about the technical talks over the weekend, I’m very sceptical, but we will get a report today and then we’ll see.”
Schaeuble said Germany did not want Greece to leave the euro zone, but that the new government in Athens had to fulfill the core conditions of its bailout programme and that it was not about finding a compromise deal “just for the sake of a compromise”.
“The problem is that Greece has lived beyond its means for a long time and that nobody wants to give Greece money anymore without guarantees,” Schaeuble said, noting that Athens had to stick to agreed reforms to become competitive.
Schaeuble added that the new Greek government was behaving “quite irresponsibly” right now. (Reuters)
Full Schaeuble interview in German.
He’s not the only failed politiian who still thinks Europe is listening to him…..
http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/02/15/former-pm-papandreou-sends-letters-to-greeces-creditors-asking-for-agreement/
I am afraid Schauble looked at the results. CDU was not strong in Hamburg before, they just lost 6 %. SPD lost 3 %, the Greens got 1 % more, the Left 2 % more and yes, anti-euro AfD got 6 % more. I suppose that Greens and Left took votes from SPD, and AfD from CDU… So the people who support AfD seem to be saying : you are not hard enough.
And yes, it is very well said that maybe he thought : “the CDU lost due to German conservative taxpayers getting angry in case he would make a compromise with Greece on the Eurogroup today.”
Let me quote the AfD leader : “We all obviously want Greece to leave the euro zone,” AfD founder Bernd Lucke told Reuters. “Now we’re a bit more hopeful that this could even come true.”Lucke said of the new prime minister Alexis Tsipras: “I’m thankful to this socialist troublemaker for standing up and showing everyone that the euro zone doesn’t work.”
let them kick Greece out of the euro. they will cry then to their taxpayers that they lost their money lol
Mr Lucke is rational : he says : Greece should resign euro, but most of the debt is lost.
“Syriza doesn’t want to call into question the euro but instead asks for debt cuts and further loans. This doesn’t go together,” said Mr. Lucke. “A debt relief for Greece must now follow — Syriza is right about this. The money is lost anyhow, but if we now forgo it once and for all, Greece must leave the euro in return,” Mr. Lucke said in a statement.
They are not crazy at all. Yes, of course, the main parties fear to show “irrecoverable debt” in their balance sheets (minus 60 billion for Germany). But is it recoverable ? Of course not.
The problem is not bankruptcy – Argentina or Ecuador or Russia did it well. The problem is – how to get out without the destruction of the banking system.
They couldn’t take over with bombs and guns, they can’t do it with capitalism either! Let the ‘troublemaker’ continue to cause as much trouble as possible to these overpaid, unrealistic, stuck-up ministers and do something for the people at last! Germany has not been responsible to it’s people and I hear their cries, Greece’s previous government was the irresponsible one, and the government before that, the one before that and the one before that. The people of Europe have been shafted, all of them, by their irresponsible idealistic governments who need to get their heads out of the clouds and come join us down here, trying to live!
PS. Of course, a compromise is possible, but I am not sure that it is better. In a compromise Greece will have to pay the debts forever, 100, 200 years. I like the German proverb : better terrible end than terror without end.
PS. I am not for Mr Lucke, but the more I stay on your blog and analyze (like that euro probably slowed development of Europe)… it is not so totally crazy.
“In December 1999, he (Wolfgang Schäuble) initially denied in parliament that he had received money from the “businessman” Karlheinz Schreiber (he is an arms dealer!), but then conceded receiving 100,000 deutsche marks for the CDU. He later publicly apologized for having concealed his relationship with Schreiber.”
He took money from an arms dealer! what does that say about the man!!!
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-finance-minister-wolfgang-schaeuble-turns-70-a-856565.html
There was some creative accounting on the Greek side to Join the EU but the biggest travesty was the huge Blind eye the EU burocrates turned to allow the Greeks in, and that’s nothing against the Greek public as they are the victims and I would stand with them, they need to bring the political elite that put them in this dark place to justice
And what if Greece gets its deal, you don’t think for one moment the Irish, Italians and Spanish are going to stand by and say well done Greece you should get a special deal, the EU was a social experiment, time to take it back to its plain trade roots! No parliament no jobs for the boys just cooperation, who needs it we have technology now!