German Chancellor Angela Merkel regards the victory of pro-euro parties in the Greek election as "good news for the euro, for the eurozone and for Europe," a spokesman, Georg Streiter, said Monday.
Speaking in Berlin as Merkel was arriving in Los Cabos, Mexico,
for a G20 summit, he also appeared to rule out time extensions for
Greece to implement economic reforms - as suggested earlier by
Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.
On Sunday night, Westerwelle, who belongs to a different political
party from Merkel, said on Germany's ARD public television, "I could
well imagine we could talk again about time frames."
Asked Monday by Deutschlandfunk public radio to elaborate, he
said, "It's obvious that time has been lost through the election
campaigns, and we will have to discuss what this means for the
reforms and naturally for the (bailout)," he said.
"We are willing to talk about the time frame, since you can't
ignore the weeks that have been lost, and we also don't want the
people to suffer who now have a very harsh life through many reforms
being neglected in the past."
At a morning news conference at the Foreign Ministry, he again
stressed that time had been lost, but merely said this meant it was
even more important for the reforms to go ahead.
"There cannot be any substantial let-outs from the agreed
reforms," he said.
Asked if Berlin expected the terms to ease, Streiter said, "Now is
not the time for discounts."
He said Merkel assumed Athens would carry out its obligations. She
telephoned Antonis Samaras, leader of the New Democracy party, on
Sunday night and urged the rapid formation of a stable government, he
said.
ARD public television said Westerwelle, who belongs to the
pro-business Free Democratic Party, may not have coordinated his
stance with Merkel, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union.
The German Finance Ministry said through a spokeswoman that an
upcoming 31.3-billion-euro (39.6-billion-dollar) bailout payment
would only reach Athens when a stable government was in place.
A panel comprising the European Commission, the International
Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank would assess if Athens
had satisfied the terms to receive the funding, she said.
