In an interview to Spiegel online, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble talks about his disinterest in tweets, the Greek crisis and how American Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman is unaware of Europe.
Schauble admits that Germany did not see eye to eye on his temporary Grexit plan with Italy and France, but stresses that the other 15 Euro member states agreed with his position. He insists that Germany has no dominance in Europe, strangely citing the fact that although France and Great Britain have a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, Germany does not… He argues that Greece was ready to enter the markets last year but over the last months its economy has been left in ruins.
Schauble believes that the problem with Greece is that it did not implement the prescribed measures for the past five years that were associated with the bailout programs.
He sees Germany’s stance towards so far to Greece as being kind using a saying his grandmother told him when he was younger “My grandmother used a saying: Benevolence comes before dissoluteness”.
He goes on to say that he did not pay particular attention to the twitter backlash against him, as he finds twitter too confined and does not use it. On the contrary, he says that he received loads of e-mails praising his handling of the Greek matter.
Schauble brushes aside the views of prominent economists like Paul Krugman saying he does not know how the Euro structure operates. The vision of doctor Schauble for Europe involves more regulations and stricter adherence to policies that produce healthy state finances in order to generate more faith and strengthen the euro.