Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is looking for a breather this morning as he meets Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the eurozone finance ministers, to discuss Greece’s ability to make the €11.5 billion of cuts in order to secure its next tranche of bailout cash. Samaras has told German newspaper Bild that his country needs ‘breathing space’ and is expected to try to persuade Juncker to give him an extra two years to make the necessary reforms, arguing that the Greek elections meant time for this was lost.
Juncker may well refuse to offer leeway on this. Meanwhile German politicians continue to talk tough on the matter: Dr Michael Fuchs was on Radio 4 this morning expressing his doubts about Greece getting the extra time Samaras wants. The deputy chairman of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat party said:
‘It’s a question of what do you call a little bit more time – we gave them already much more time than it was originally planned. You may have noticed that the first bailout package was two and a half years ago and it was meant to be only one. Now we are already in the second and the second is going to be postponed a second time already. And whether this is possible with the German Bundestag, but also with the German population – I doubt it.’
Fuchs also played down the implications of Greece leaving the euro.‘If Greece is going to leave, I don’t think it’s going to have a very great impact anymore because ring-fencing has been made over the last two years, and I think the countries are prepared in case of emergency as far as Greece is concerned.’
Samaras is heading to Berlin later this week to meet Merkel, and then on to France to meet François Hollande. In each of his meetings he is expected to mention the possibility of a delay in Greece’s targets, rather than formally requesting it. Chances are he’ll come away with nothing more than slightly improved relations with the leaders, which will make little difference when it boils down to whether Greece can stay on course and stay in the euro.
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