Germany voices confidence Greece will stand by EU commitments
(BERLIN) - Germany is confident that Greece will stand by its commitments to the EU bailout programme, a government spokesman said on Sunday.
"Greece has fulfilled its obligations in the past. The government assumes that Greece will continue to meet its contractual commitments" to its creditors, spokesman Georg Streiter told AFP.
He was responding to a report in the news weekly Der Spiegel which said Chancellor Angela Merkel was prepared to let Greece leave the eurozone should Greeks elect a government that jettisons the country's current austerity course.
The article, which cited sources close to the German government, came as opinion polls show a radical leftist party leading the field three weeks ahead of a snap election in Greece.
The Syriza party of Alexis Tsipras has pledged to reverse reforms imposed by Greece's international creditors and renegotiate its bailout deal.
"The German government considers a eurozone exit (by Greece) to be almost inevitable if opposition leader Alexis Tsipras leads the government after the election and abandons budgetary discipline and does not repay the country's debts," Der Spiegel reported.
Both Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble had come to view a potential Greek exit from the 19-currency eurozone in a less dramatic light, the report said.
They both now felt such an outcome would be "bearable", Der Spiegel quoted unnamed sources as saying.
The recovery under way in other once problem economies such as Ireland and Portugal, along with the establishment of a permanent eurozone bailout fund and creation of a banking union all bolstered Berlin's belief that the contagion from a fresh Greek crisis would be limited, the report added.
A spokesman for the German finance ministry said Schaeuble would not comment on the magazine article.
Greece's parliament was dissolved Wednesday after the assembly failed to agree on a successor to outgoing President Karolos Papoulias and a snap election was called for January 25.