Schäuble: Greece is no longer the focus of interest as a problem

Regarding the image presented by Greece at the economic level, Mr Wolfgang Schäubleinsisting that his proposal for its temporary exit from the Eurozone was correct during the crisis.

“Early on I advised my Greek colleagues: You need the tool of external devaluation to make your economy competitive again. That’s why you should temporarily leave the Monetary Union and be able to return to it later. Such advice is not popular, but it was financially sound. An internal devaluation through wages is politically unsustainable”says the former president of the Bundestag and former finance minister in an interview with the Handelsblatt newspaper and, responding to the journalist’s comment that “Greece finally succeeded and remained in the Eurozone”, he argues: “But Greece paid a high price, the damage at the social level is great. Now Greece is not at the center of interest”.

In the same interview, Mr Schäuble mentions that Germany’s image has been seriously damaged, to be asked if he himself feels responsible for this, with his attitude during the euro crisis when he “pointed the finger at other countries”. “Ask my fellow former finance ministers: There was always a clear majority in favor of my positions among European finance ministers, I did not walk alone. And now many countries are doing very well again, Portugal, Ireland, Spain”he replies.