German financial daily Handelsblatt delivered a strong message to German politicians who are in the process of negotiating the formation of the next Merkel government.
The article suggests that Schaeuble’s potential successor, Free Democrats’ leader Christian Lindner, may be an unpleasant surprise, as he has linked debt restructuring for Greece to the country’s exit from the eurozone.
But a fresh debate over Grexit will hurt the euro and not help Greece argues Gerd Hohler one of the paper’s senior correspondents.
The debate launched by Lindner is dangerous, as neither Greece’s creditors nor its government are talking about a classic haircut, but are rather eyeing an extension of the repayment periods and lower interest rates, so as to substantially reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio.
During the seven years of the memorandum era, Greece slid into a longer and deeper recession, while Greek governments dragged their feet on structural reforms that could help to spur growth.
But now, after seven years of delays Tsipras is implementing the adjustment programme, because that is the only way that he can free his country from loans and the Greek economy is growing, writes Hohler.
