The former Chancellor of West Germany Helmut Schmidt expressed his support of a significant write-down of the Greek public debt, in an exclusive interview he gave to the Athens-Macedonia New Agency.
According to Mr. Schmidt, without a major haircut of its public debt, Greece will be unable to pay off it off and argued that Greece needs an investment package. Much of the billions of euros that Greece has borrowed, he noted, only exist in the books.
When asked about the progress of negotiations between the Greek government and the institutions, Mr. Schmidt responded that “we seem to be where we were before”.
Furthermore, the former Chancellor expressed his disappointment about Europe’s future and argued that the discussions regarding a potential departure of Greece from the Eurozone was “completely unwanted”.
The European Union has acted inconsistently, he added, while stressing that other pressing problems in Europe are not being addressed.
