German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, the leader of Germany's Social Democrats (SPD), urges the moneylenders to grant Greece debt relief. This announcement was made on Saturday, May 7.
The finance ministers of Eurozone approved measures which would help to ease Greece debt burden. At the moment, Athens owes 333 billion euros, or about 379 billion dollars.
According to Sigmar Gabriel, it doesn’t make any sense to put the country into the situation when they have to fight to get new credit to pay off old loans.
Earlier, the Greece government asked the euro group’s representatives to support reforms which the country was implementing in order to get financial aid. The Greek finance minister, Euclid Tsakalotos, in his letter appealed to Eurozone colleagues emphasizes that to restore investor’s confidence finance ministers of the euro group should write the joint statement to support Greece.
Over the weekend, Greece was hit by a strike against a tax rise and pension reform which the Greek government has to introduce upon the demand of international creditors.
It should be mentioned that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pushes creditors to forgive part of the Greek debt, however, some countries, EU members, are on opposite ends.
