Schaeuble compares Grexit with the assassination attempt against him

“A Grexit would be a terrible step, but things would become much better over the next days,” he said

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble compared the assassination attempt against him with a Grexit.

At a dinner organized in his honor by German financial newspaper, the German Finance Minister referred to former Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos with whom he had discussed the possibility of a Grexit.

Mr. Schaeuble also revealed that in an effort to convince his interlocutors that Greece’s exit from the Eurozone would not have been a bad thing, he referred to his personal life and the assassination attempt against him leaving him in a wheelchair for life.

“A Grexit would be a terrible step, and people would suffer. But, things would become much better over the next days. I experienced this personally. Someone shoots you, and you’re on the ground. But at the same time, your health is getting better and better day by day, ” said Mr. Schaeuble.

Among other things, he referred to Greece’s debt and Yanis Varoufakis.

“Former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, a very clever economist, once said: ”If you write off our debt, in three years, we will be back to where we are today, ‘” Mr. Schaeuble said, adding: “I just mentioned what he said. Varoufakis. The problem with Greece is that it spends more than it earns. So we have to discuss with Greeks about how they could become more competitive, otherwise we are talking about a “bottomless pit”.”

Finally, Mr. Schaeuble clarified that if the results of the program review are positive, there will not be cut.