Amid growing dissent among her own supporters, German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday rejected calls for Greece to be expelled from the eurozone, saying such a course was neither feasible nor legal.
“I think that if we did, we might set off a domino effect that would be extremely dangerous for our monetary system,” she told reporters in Berlin.
Merkel said what was important was that Greece carried out the promises it made to obtain emergency loans.
Merkel has a struggle on her hands persuading her own Christian Democratic (CDU/CSU) bloc and her Free Democratic allies in parliament to pass legislation on September 23 to boost the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).
In a straw poll to test sentiment in the CDU/CSU caucus, which includes Christian Social Union legislators from Bavaria, 12 voted against the government legislation and seven abstained.
Referring to the threat that some of her supporters may forsake the government in the vote, Merkel earlier on Monday said she was “confident” that the bills would be passed “by our own majority” and without the help of opposition parties.
The legislation to be introduced this week will ratify EFSF treaties and make the bailout commitments part of German law.
Separately, the country’s highest court on Wednesday is to hand down its verdict on a legal challenge to last year’s bailout of Greece.
Carping in Merkel’s federal coalition has come to a head in recent weeks over the likely cost to Germany of bailing out weak eurozone governments, with critics accusing Merkel of weak leadership.
Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, who is trying to coax the eurozone nations toward unity, was scheduled to visit Merkel late on Monday at her Berlin office. Aides said they would not meet the media before or afterwards.
A former chancellor of Germany, Gerhard Schroeder, meanwhile attacked Merkel, saying it was wrong to blame Greece.
“I think that the federal government made a major mistake at the beginning of the crisis,” the Social Democratic (SDP) politician said in Brussels, where he took part in a discussion chaired by Nicolas Berggruen, a German billionaire philanthropist.
“In order to gain consensus in Germany they engaged in Greek-bashing, but that was a mistake,” Schroeder said.
DPA
