Schmidt: Delete the Debt

Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt called for the deletion of a large part of the unpayable Greek debt, in a 12-minute interview with the Greek semi official press agency, ANA-MPA. This comes only a few days after the Paris Schiller Institute Conference where Lyndon LaRouche pointed to Helmut Schmidt, along with former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeir, as playing a key role in preventing the danger of war, of which the Greek crisis could serve as a trigger.

While saying an unorganized Grexit could lead to disaster, Schmidt said that Greece should never have joined the Eurozone and if it still had the Drachma the problem could have been solved in an easier way. But on the debt he was clear. When asked about the cancellation of Greek debt as modeled after the German London Debt Agreement in 1958, Schmidt replied: “I want to tell you that I think that it is completely excluded that Greece will be able to repay its debt. The majority of it should be deleted.”

On the issue of German war reparations to Greece he said that since Greece did not participate with the U.S., Britain, France, the Soviet Union, who with Germany agreed, by treaty “2 + 4” not to receive war reparations with the sole exception of the payment of the Soviet Union, Schmidt said that the views of the Greek Finance Minister, on the issue can not be considered totally erroneous in all cases. “I do not believe that these claims for compensation have been closed legally and politically.”

While he said it was a mistake for Greece to have joined the eurozone in 1991 in Maastricht, he said that it can be rectified retrospectively in a coordinated manner, but if it happens in a disordered fashion, it will have devastating effects, adding, “The wisdom of the creditors of Greece is not particularly great.”

He then made his own proposal saying “we need a European investment program for the benefit of Greece, which can not be financed only from Germany but also from Germany, and also an agreement to write off a large part of the accumulated debt of Greece.”

He also mad clear that it is “nonsense” to say that the German people have been “bled” by Greece, which is what Germans read every day in the lying media… More broadly when asked how he sees the future of Europe in view of the Greek crisis, he said you have to look at it more broadly saying it is not only in regards to Greece that Europe has acted inconsistently but also in relations to Russia and the conflict in the Ukraine. He also mention ISIS in Iraq and Syria. “There are many problems that are pushing Europe and which are not offered at this time solutions.”