Hours after Barack Obama repeated his leitmotif of “reforms and debt relief” before a Greek audience, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble again dampened Athens’ hopes by saying that such discussion is a disservice to the country.
The powerful German FinMin’s statement was carried by the newspaper “Passauer Neue”, then widely circulated.
"Whoever says 'we will relieve your debts' is doing Greece a disservice," the finance ministry confirmed Schaeuble as saying.
As the most vocal opponent of debt relief for Greece before 2018, Schaeuble has maintained the problem was not debt lessening but the Greek economy’s flagging competitiveness, while warning that such a prospect would also reduce the leftist Greek government’s enthusiasm for structural reforms.
"We have noted that President Obama has pointed to the importance of debt relief. The Eurogroup agreed in May on a timetable on exactly that subject … regarding measures for the short term, and later in 2018 for mid-term measures," government spokesman Steffen Seibert said at a news conference.
He also said Berlin took note of Obama’s comments in favor of debt relief, while visiting Athens
