German Economy Minister Gabriel: We Are Ready to Help Greece Get Back on Its Feet

Germany’s Vice Chancellor, Economy Minister and chairman of the junior coalition government partner Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) Sigmar Gabriel said earlier today that his country’s government is willing to help Greece get back on its feet and avoid a Grexit but it was not clear to him how they could keep helping.

Specifically, according to Reuters Greece’s largest creditor Economy Minister said that “this country is ready to help Greece get back on its feet – moreover in my firm opinion in the euro and not outside the euro.” He also added during a talk at the Economy Ministry, “how one can do that, does still not appear to me to be very clear”

The war reparations issue

Mr. Gabriel also appeared critical towards latest comments emerging from Greece revealing that Germany owes some 280 billion euros to Greece in reparations for the forced Nazi occupation of the country, repeating that the World War II reparation payments had nothing to do with negotiations on Greece’s current debt crisis.

Earlier, Greece’s Deputy Finance Minister Dimitris Mardas told the parliament in Athens that Germany owes the country 278.7 billion in war reparations. A parliamentary committee and the Greek supreme court arrived at the figure after examining previous studies, which set the figure Berlin owes Athens at 269 billion euros. The occupation loan amounts to 10.3 billion euros.

Moreover, the Greek Deputy Finance Minister noted that in 1946 in Paris the reparations were estimated at about 341.2 billion US dollars. Greek governments and also private citizens have pushed for war damages from Germany for decades, but the Greek government has never officially quantified its reparation claims. Germany paid Greece 115 million marks in 1960, and the German government insists that this payment covered all of its debts.