The causes of the Greek problem are not to be tracked in Brussels, Europe or Germany. They should be tracked in Greece because it had been living above its capabilities for a long time, said German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble in an interview to Austrian newspaper Der Standard. As he explained, perhaps the Eurozone was a temptation for Greece, adding that the German War Reparations issue, which has lately occupied the Greek media, has already been settled many decades ago.
At the same time, Greek financial newspaper Agora revealed that the German Finance Minister had a -worrying at least- discussion with his Greek counterpart Yanis Varoufakis on the sidelines of Monday’s Eurogroup meeting. According to the report, Schaeuble offered to Varoufakis Germany’s assistance in case Athens decides to leave the Eurozone.
The reported discussion between the two Finance Ministers is as follows:
Varoufakis: We want to progress the February 20 agreement implementation.
Schaeuble: We believe that the Greek program’s fifth evaluation must be completed as it is, without any alterations and with the prerequisites set before the elections, by Troika’s on-site inspections in Athens. Until then, there should be absolutely no disbursement.
Varoufakis: Look, these things cannot happen. We just agreed something different at the Eurogroup.
Schaeuble: In that case, there are options. For example, you can leave the euro whenever you want. We will help you in this process.
Varoufakis: As you know, this is not our choice.
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