No basis for talks on a new bailout package with Greece: Germany

Berlin: Germany maintained a hard line on Monday after Greece rejected creditors’ austerity demands in a referendum, with Berlin saying there was currently “no basis” for talks on a new bailout package or debt relief. “In light of yesterday’s decision by Greek citizens, there is no basis to enter into negotiations on a new aid programme,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said. [caption id=“attachment_2326880” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Reuters[/caption] Regarding requests by Athens to restructure its debt, finance ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said: “I can see no reason to enter into discussions.” At a press briefing dominated by the Greece crisis, Seibert insisted that the ball was in Athens’ court if it wanted to stay in the eurozone. “It is up to Greece to make something of this. We are waiting to see which proposals the Greek government makes to its European partners,” he said. And Seibert played down the significance of the resignation of Greece’s flamboyant finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, who repeatedly attacked the reforms-for-aid strategy championed by Berlin. “It is not about people but rather positions,” he said. Asked how Merkel felt about Varoufakis leaving the stage, Seibert gave a tart response: “Varoufakis was never an interlocutor of the chancellor so I won’t comment on his departure or any feelings. I don’t think there were any.” In an opening statement, Seibert said Berlin had “acknowledged the clear ‘No’ vote” in yesterday’s referendum and “respected” it. “Of course the German government remains ready to talk, as the chancellor said last week in the Bundestag (lower house of parliament), the door for talks remains open,” he said. But he and Jaeger stressed that the terms laid out by Greece’s creditors had not changed. Seibert called Sunday’s vote “a rejection of the principle that has governed aid to countries (stricken eurozone members), the principle that solidarity and reforms go hand-in-hand”. “The German government remains true to this principle,” Seibert said, adding that other debt-mired countries had seen “major progress” through budgetary discipline and structural reforms. Merkel is due in Paris later on Monday for talks with French President Francois Hollande ahead of an extraordinary eurozone summit on Tuesday in Brussels. AFP