German Greens MP: Greece needs action on debt before 2018

Germany took a "wrong path" during the crisis and imposed a failed policy of "austerity to the death," according to the German Green Party's MP in the federal Parliament's Budget Committee Sven-Christian Kindler. In an exclusive interview to the ANA-MPA on Wednesday, Kindler expressed his satisfaction with the Budget Committee's decision to approve the disbursement of loans to Greece but noted that postponing discussion on debt relief until after 2018 did not offer Greece much-needed stability.

"The German government was forced to abandon its stance of blocking this and there is finally a discussion on debt relief. The problem is that we will talk about substantive, therefore broad, debt relief as of 2018. This comes too late and is too unclear in order to give Greece what it needs most: stability. The result will be more poverty and unemployment in Greece," he said.

The lack of clarity was extending the crisis in Greece, since there was no steady framework for investments, Kindler noted and for this reason the Greens had asked for steps to reduce the debt before 2018. The reason why Wolfgang Schaeuble wanted to postpone the discussion on the debt until after the German elections, he added, was not to give the German government the necessary democratic legitimacy but the "divided" CDU/CSU Parliamentary group and the fact "that he doesn't want to publicly admit that his line failed."

"The previous years have shown this: the policy of austerity to the death has failed. To 'continue as is' will not get Greece out of the crisis," he added, noting that a sustainable solution for Greece would come about through fairer and reasonable reforms, investments along the lines of a "Green New Deal" and a "socio-ecological" clean-up of the budget.

Kindler also commented on the Bundestag vote recognising the Armenian Genocide, which was strongly promoted by the Greens, and his shock at Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's reaction, saying that Turkey was growing in the wrong direction under his leadership.

With respect to the refugee crisis, Kindler said he was in favour of changes to the Dublin treaty system and called for European decisions that do not abandon Greece in the face of challenges, while rejecting a “quid-pro-quo” attitude and the linking of the refugee to the economic crisis as "cynical and wrong".

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