BERLIN: The German government wants Greece to stay in the euro zone and there are no contingency plans to the contrary, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said on Sunday, responding to a media report that Berlin believes the currency union could cope without Greece.
Gabriel, the Economy Minister and leader of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), also told the Hanoversche Allgemeine Zeitung that the euro zone had become more resilient in recent years and could not be “blackmailed”.
“The goal of the German government, the European Union and even the government in Athens itself is to keep Greece in the euro zone,” Gabriel said in the interview to appear on Monday.
“There were no and there are no other plans to the contrary,” he said, and noted the euro zone had become far more stable in recent years.
“That’s why we can’t be blackmailed and why we expect the Greece government, no matter who leads it, to abide by the agreements made with the EU,” he said referring to the Jan. 25 Greek election and possible change of government.
Earlier a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, Georg Streiter, said the German government expects Greece to stick to the terms of its 240-billion euro EU/IMF bailout agreement.
Streiter declined to comment on a report in Der Spiegel magazine on Saturday that said Berlin had shifted its view and now believed the euro zone would be able to cope with a Greek exit, or “Grexit”, if necessary.
