Schäuble's advice to Athens is right

Germany's Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schäuble on Wednesday called on Greece to provide guarantees that the country will abide by its promises to enact reforms even after the parliamentary elections planned for April. President Karolos Papoulias rejected this as an insult. The business paper Il Sole 24 Ore supports Schäuble's initiative: "Instead of interfering with Greek democracy behind the scenes it actually makes better sense to openly and clearly demand that the major parties form a grand coalition under the leadership of current Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, as German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has done. Moreover the reliability of the parties is compromised by the fact that the troika's recovery programme has failed to provide the hoped for improvement. The creditors will have to waive the interest on their loans if they don't want Athens to go bankrupt. So under such conditions is it really inappropriate interference on the part of the partner countries to propose that Athens form a grand coalition or a technocrat government?"

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