Merkel: The solution for the Greek debt will come after the European elections

Angela Merkel said no to finmin Wolfgang Schäuble’s plan to give Greece the prospect of a bailout package before the European elections, German "Spiegel" supports in an article today.

This development was essentially foreshadowed this weekend, but today after the publication of the magazine the German Finance Ministry was quick to deny the report, for fear that doing so would benefit the euro-skeptic AfD party in the European elections in May, which in the German elections in September failed to surpass the electoral threshold of 5% and enter the Bundestag.

As "Spiegel" reveals Schäuble’s aid plan for Greece proposed, inter alia, a "limited supplementary program" of 10 to 20 billion euros from the ESM, without the IMF and a new haircut of the Greek debt borne by the eurozone member states..

According to the German magazine, the chancellor has already informed Athens it should not wait for any relevant updating.

Schäuble's plan was to send a message of solidarity to the Greeks clarifying that they can count on further support after the elections. Without such a perspective he sees the danger of a popularity increase for the "radical" parties.

Merkel had an opposite opinion, saying no to the plan of the minister and adopting a national approach. If Schäuble’s plan was implemented, many analysts believe it would probably bring the end of the coalition of socialists and conservatives in Greece, a development which according to the German Finance Minister, could lead to a new crisis in the eurozone.
 

Meanwhile, in an interview with the German «Welt», European Commissioner Olli Rehn argues that the viability of the Greek debt and the funding gap will be discussed “in the summer or afterwards,” while he proposes that the World Bank gets involved in the Greek situation.