Merkel says Greek bailout talks will not happen before referendum
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has dashed any hopes of a new bailout deal for Greece being agreed before Sunday’s planned referendum.
Markets across Europe were bouncing back on Wednesday on rumours that the 5 July plebiscite would be cancelled following reports that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was willing to accept his creditors’ bailout conditions tabled last weekend, with only a handful of minor changes.
However, in an address to the Bundestag on Wednesday afternoon, Merkel reiterated her stance that talks to solve the debt crisis in Greece would not take place before the poll.
“The door to talks with the Greek government has always been, and remains, open,” she said, but stressed that there was no point in having discussions before Sunday.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble on Wednesday also launched an attack on Tsipras, saying that the country was only in this “difficult situation […] purely because of the behaviour of the Greek government”.
He said: “The Greek government is not doing its people any favours at all if it keeps making completely false statements. Nobody else is to blame for their situation.”
Schäuble said the situation “has just ket getting more and more difficult since January”, when Tsipras’ Syriza party came to power.