German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that long period of primary surpluses was necessary fro Greece in order to reduce debt. She denied she had any deal with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to postpone Value Added Tax hikes in exchange for asylum seekers’ returns from Germany.
At her annual summer press briefing on Friday, Merkel said that the effects of Greece’s bailout package would not end on the day that the program itself ends. Defending the prolonged demand of high primary surpluses she said it is necessary in order for Greece to reduce the level of its debt. “It is not a sign of lacking trust,” she underlined.
“We have taken measure to ensure debt reduction and in this sense this is a good compromise,” she added.
Speaking about the bailout program exit, she stressed that the “20th August will be an important day but this does not mean that everything changes here. We have to continue to trust each other.”
And then Angela hit out at her pal Alexis who heralds “Greece can now stand on its feet”and dropped a bombshell.
“It is a proof of trust that Greece is given many more decades to recover,” she said.
Based on the medium- and long term agreement of the Eurogroup in June, Greeks must be truly thankful to struggle to achieve primary surpluses no other country has ever achieved and wait until 2060 in order for the dead to happily recover. If I remember right, in 2059, the creditors may discuss the possibility of a debt relief.
At the same presser, Merkel vehemently denied speculations she had struck a deal with Tsipras and had given the green light to postponement of V.A.T. hikes on five Greek islands hit by the migration crisis.
“There is no link between the two issues. This would not be good for neither of us,” she said adding a way has been found to balance this change – apparently implying at the Defense Ministry offer to overhaul its spending.
For Merkel’s statement about EU and US tariffs check here.
PS my cat won’t buy that Merkel did not try a deal with Tsipras. As she is a mean Greek cat she claims that Merkel regretted the deal and pretended there was no deal after media speculated about the obvious.
