‘Impossible’ to kick Greece out of Euro: Germany

Thursday, 8 September 2011 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

BERLIN: It is “impossible” to exclude Greece from the euro as some people have been suggesting, German economy minister and deputy chancellor Philipp Roesler said in a newspaper interview Wednesday.

“You can’t turn back the course of history. Excluding a country (from the eurozone) would be impossible given the treaties currently in force,” Roesler, who is also the head of the small liberal FDP party, told the regional daily Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung.

His comments run counter to many voices within Roesler’s own FDP party, as well as those in the conservative CDU/CSU parties, which make up the ruling coalition, who have called for Greece to be expelled from the single currency.

In an interview with the mass-circulation daily Bild on Wednesday, CSU party chief Horst Seehofer said an exit by Greece from the euro “cannot be ruled out”.

The German government has taken an increasingly tougher stance towards Greece recently as resistance grows to a further financial bailout by the entire eurozone.