September 20, 2011
In an interview with SPIEGEL, CSU chairman Horst Seehofer, who is also the governor of Bavaria, reiterates that an exit of Greece from the euro zone 'must be feasible' if Athens can't or doesn't want to go on implementing reforms. He also defends Economy Minister Philipp Rösler, who raised the possibility of a Greek insolvency.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Seehofer, do you know how the euro can be saved?
Seehofer: What I do know is that things can't proceed as Peer Steinbrück from the SPD suggested in SPIEGEL recently. His basic message is that Germany must pay regardless. In the CSU, we take a markedly more differentiated view of this.
SPIEGEL: This isn't the CSU we all know.
Seehofer: Oh, come on. Let me spell it out in no uncertain terms: The CSU is a pro-European party and I personally consider the European Union the greatest political idea of the post-war period. But the CSU is also a party which favors monetary stability. We have a clear line on this: We're willing to help out of a sense of solidarity, but solidarity and responsibility for one's own actions go hand-in-hand.
SPIEGEL: Steinbrück wants to introduce Eurobonds but wants to place the countries that profit from them under Brussels' control. What do you think about that?
Seehofer: Eurobonds just means collectivizing our debts. We don't go along with such a scheme under any circumstances. The Federal Constitutional Court has also drawn a red line there. In Bavaria, we are proud of our budget without new borrowing, which we've had continually since 2003 and which we want Germany to have as well by 2014. German employees have been very restrained when it comes to wages in recent years, making the German economy competitive. How can we justify to our electorate that we should take on Greek debt? Europe should be a union of stability, not of debt.
More
No comments:
Post a Comment