'Merkel Must Put Politicians Back in the Driver's Seat'

Spiegel
July 21, 2011

In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, Cem Özdemir, the co-leader of Germany's Green Party, talks of the challenges that Greece faces in sorting out its finances, argues in favor of a debt restructuring and calls on Chancellor Merkel to push for resolute action at Thursday's EU summit.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Özdemir, you have been in Greece for talks for the past few days. Do you have the feeling that you, as a German, are still welcome there?

Özdemir: The Greeks know that there is more to Germany than just the Chancellery -- where for a long time people have been sticking their heads in the sand , hoping that the euro crisis will somehow solve itself. People are aware that we Greens also exist, in the opposition, and that we have a clear European vision. They also know that even within the ruling conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) there are isolated voices of reason, such as German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and certain CDU representatives in the European Parliament.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You have just met with Greek Prime Minister Giorgios Papandreou. How did he see the situation in the run-up to the European Union special summit on Thursday?

Özdemir: He is the prime minister of a country in which the value-added tax rate has been increased by four percentage points to 23 percent, the public investment budget was reduced by 20 percent in 2010 and salaries have been slashed by between 20 and 40 percent. Besides, the devil is in the details: We are -- rightly -- calling for the Greek state to privatize its assets, but they are being sold off at bargain-basement prices. There is the danger that we will see a similar situation to what we had in Russia under Boris Yeltsin (ed's note: when a small group of oligarchs acquired state assets very cheaply during a period of rapid privatization). No one can have an interest in that happening. This means that Papandreou, to a certain extent, has his back to the wall, because the country has largely exhausted its possibilities for consolidating its finances. If Thursday's summit fails to produce a long-term solution that also serves to calm the markets, then there is the danger that the Greek government will be at its wits' end when it comes to the search for solutions.

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