BERLIN (MNI) – Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and the new
French President Francois Hollande, at their first official meeting
here, stressed that they both wanted Greece to remain in the Eurozone.
“We agree very much that we want Greece to remain in the euro,”
Merkel said at a joint press conference of the two leaders.
Hollande said he was “in favor of telling the Greeks that Europe is
ready to undertake further growth measures so that growth can return to
Greece.” Merkel said Germany was willing to ponder further growth
measures for Greece “whenever Greece wants this.”
The French president reaffirmed that he wants a growth chapter to
be added to the EU fiscal compact. Merkel and Hollande announced that
Germany and France will each present their ideas for stimulating growth
in Europe at the upcoming EU leaders’ summit in June.
Hollande said Germany and France “have the joint will to work
together.”
On his first day in office, after formally taking over power from
outgoing President Nicolas Sarkozy earlier Tuesday, Hollande flew to
Berlin for his first foreign visit as France’s new head of state. In a
strange twist, his airplane was struck by lightening and had to return
to an airfield in France, where the new president boarded a different
aircraft for his flight to Germany.
Financial markets have feared potential tension between the
Eurozone’s two largest economies, since Hollande has been critical of
the EMU austerity strategy that Merkel staunchly champions. But since
Hollande was elected on May 6, he and Merkel have been making more
conciliatory noises.
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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