Brussels, 05/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 5 January, the European Commission reacted with restraint to articles published by the German weekly Der Spiegel reporting that Germany now feels that a Greek exit from the eurozone would be tenable.
“The only declaration that counts will be the one the Greeks make on 25 January” in the early elections, said Annika Breidthardt, spokesperson to the Commission. “We are not going to get into speculations and scenarios which could be interpreted in a context which may not arise”, added Margaritis Schinas, another spokesperson to the Brussels-based institution. When asked about the possibility of a Grexit, the spectre of which has returned to haunt the international press since the early elections were announced, Breidthardt pointed out that according to article 140, paragraph 3 of the TFEU, membership of the euro is irrevocable. However, the wording of the article in question is not that explicit. On Monday, a German government spokesperson also attempted to calm the speculation. “The aim has been to stabilise the eurozone with all its members, including Greece”, said Steffen Seibert, on behalf of the German government. On the same day, the French President, François Hollande, took to the airwaves on the radio station France Inter to point out that the Greek people are free to make a sovereign choice of government and to decide whether or not to stay in the eurozone. “At the same time, commitments have been made, and all of this must of course be respected”, the French head of state added. The government went on to stress that the commitments made by Greece were long-term commitments.
The breakdown in the parliamentary vote in Greece on the government's candidate for the Presidency of the country prompted the coalition led by Antonis Samaras to call for early elections. According to one of the latest opinion polls by Eleftheros Typos, the radical left-wing party Syriza seems to be in the lead with 30.4% of the voting intentions, whilst Antonis Samaras's New Democracy party had 27.3% of the voting intentions. Its current governmental partner, the Socialist party Pasok, came in with 3.5%.
Over the weekend, Der Spiegel reported that according to German government sources, Berlin believes that a Greek exit from the eurozone is virtually inevitable if Syriza came to power, abandoned the line of budgetary rigour and stopped repaying the country's debts. On 2 January, Samaras also warned of the risk of the Grexit if Syriza won. When the early elections were announced, Alexis Tsipras said that “with the will of the Greek people, austerity plans will be a thing of the past in just a few days' time”. Tsipras' promises made no mention of a return to the drachma. Stressing his intention of doing away with austerity policies, he plans to call for some of the nominal value of the public debt to be wiped out and a moratorium on the repayment of this debt in order to free up money for growth. His pledges also refer to free electricity and pension increases.
The leader of the ALDE party at the European Parliament, Guy Verhofstadt, dubbed the reignited debate on the Grexit as “nonsense”, firstly stressing that the latest polls show that 74% of the Greeks are opposed to leaving the eurozone and, secondly, that the Treaties do not allow Greece to leave the eurozone while staying a member of the EU. Thirdly, the cost to the European taxpayer would be too high (he referred to reports putting the cost for Germany alone at €80 billion). He went on to promise to call on the Vice-President of the Commission, Jyrki Katainen, to make clear that “we are all in this boat together”. The head of the S&D at the European Parliament, Gianni Pittella, also reacted by accusing the German right-wing of trying to act like a sheriff in Greece. (EL)