BERLIN — Germany has not yet decided whether it will agree to Greece’s request for financial aid, the country’s finance minister said Sunday.
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told weekly Bild am Sonntag the fact that neither the European Union nor Germany have made a decision regarding Greece’s aid request until now means that the answer could be either positive or negative.
The decision depends on whether “Greece will continue its tough savings plan for the coming years,” the minister said.
Greece said Friday it would ask for a joint euro zone-International Monetary Fund financial rescue — a move that has the German public concerned that their tax money is going to bail out another country.
German lawmakers have been hesitant to embrace the deal because the country’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia, will elect a new state parliament on May 9 and the government is trying to delay the decision for the highly unpopular financial aid package until afterward.
In Athens, a government spokesman responded to Schaeuble’s interview by saying Greece must do its part to fix its finances and that its eurozone partners have “done their duty” by agreeing last month to the aid package.
“From now on, it is up to us...to implement the (austerity measures) and show we are worthy of this momentous responsibility,” government spokesman Giorgos Petalotis told reporters.
Greece’s Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou said in Washington that negotiations with European governments and the International Monetary Fund were going well and that his country has no intention of repaying less than what it owes creditors. He said Greece would be able to meet the deadlines for bond payments due in mid-May.