It is one thing to eliminate it in the field, it is another thing to get it out of the euro. Germany, which harshly repressed Greek ambitions at the European football championships with a resounding 4-2 in the match that was worth accessing the semi-finals, should not reserve the same fate for Athens in the field of monetary policy.
In fact, if, as could happen in the event of Greece's "elimination" from the European economy, the euro were to jump, for Chancellor Angela Merkel it would be pain. And it is not continental public opinion nor the unreliable Athenian politician of the moment who thinks so, but Frau Angela's finance minister himself, Wolfgang Schaeuble, through an interview with Der Spiegel, commenting on some data from the Deka bank published by the weekly.
Indeed, it would seem that, in the scenario of the end of the single currency, the first post-euro year would cost Germany an economic contraction of 10%, with the unemployment that would almost double, going from the current 2,8 million (6,7%) to 5 million jobless within 12 months. "If this is the perspective - commented Schaeuble - the bailout of Greece, however costly it may be, is definitely the lesser evil".
The non-rescue of Athens indeed would cost Germany €86 billion out of its own pocket alone (non-repayable aid), to which must then be added another fifteen billion taking into account the German contribution to the IMF, another creditor of the Greek country, and the various and huge losses of the public banks in and around Berlin.
In short, it is not convenient for the Germans to flaunt too much self-confidence. As the citizens themselves seem to do, which according to an Ifop survey they are 78% in favor of excluding Greece from the single currency, while the position of the French is softer (65%) and the attitude of Italians and Spaniards is even more supportive, of which only 50% would like Mediterranean friends outside the euro.
But in Germany not only the citizens think so: Schaeuble himself made an abundance of security both at the weekend, with an interview Bild am Sonntag in which categorically excluded the possibility of granting Greece two years' time, as requested by the new Samaras government, and above all, not later than a month and a half ago, speaking to the Rheinische Post. “We want Greece in the euro, but it's up to you to prove you deserve it. Her eventual exit will not be a drama for anyone ”. Not a drama, perhaps a (Greek) tragedy.
