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“In the June election the Greek voters will choose to either remain in the euro area or exit from it”, the British Prime Minister David Cameron said from the United States, where he is attending the G8 and the NATO summits.
At the same time he asked the Eurozone to draft strong contingency plans for every possible outcome. He went on by stressing that “now is the time to send a strong message to Greeks that they have to either choose Eurozone and apply the needed economic austerity measures or vote differently and abandon the single money zone”.
The British PM's statement that turns the 17 June legislative elections in Greece into a referendum for the country position in or out of Eurozone, comes after similar proposals by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who in a telephone conversation with the Greek President Karolos Papoulias is reported to have asked him to hold a referendum with this question, simultaneously with the election. Later on a representative of the the Berlin government spokesperson commented that the Chancellor did not said exactly that to the Greek President.
Merkel, however, is not the first German dignitary to have told the Greeks that in the next election they are about to answer an existential question, in reference to their country's position in the Eurozone. The German minister of Foreign Affairs Guido Westerwelle and his colleague of Finance, Wolfgang Schäuble, have on different occasions said exactly this, that the Greeks are now voting for their position in the Eurozone. Schäuble also clarified that they lie to Greeks those who tell them that it is possible to stay in the Eurozone without applying the needed austerity measures. Schäuble went on and observed that some people in Greece believe that they can avoid austerity because, “those in Brussels cannot do without Greece”.
He concluded that an exit of Greece from Eurozone can be avoided, but this country has to honour its obligations.
In a different climate however vis-a-vis Greece was the new French minister of European Affairs, Bernard Cazeneuve. In no case he made any reference to Greece's exit from Eurozone. He stressed that, “we send a strong message of support to Greece ” and he added “we have to save Eurozone and Greece has to stay in it and we are working hard so that Greece has the backing it needs in its efforts”.
The new French President, Francois Hollande, went even one step further when he commented during the G8 summit, that he is not alone now in proposing the issuance of Eurobonds. He also confirmed that he received confirmation on that and he also clarified that there will be a generous increase of the capital of the European Investment Bank.
Last but not least Hollande stressed that he is going to press Berlin to accept that the European Central Bank could lend directly to the Eurozone governments. Both ideas, the issuance of a common Eurobond and the direct loans from ECB to Eurozone governments have being strongly opposed by Berlin and the German government has repeatedly said they will veto such policy instruments from being used.
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