Merkel pledges support for Greek austerity

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, here in Athens today pledged her support for Greece’s austerity programme and reforms, saying that if Greece stays the course, it will be able to recover.

Mrs Merkel made the statements after a 2-hour meeting with Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras, who pledged in his turn that Greece would stick to its tough course, even though he admitted, as he said, that the Greeks were bleeding, as there was no other way out.

The German chancellor hinted that German business would invest in Greek health and technology, to try and kick-start economic growth. She added she was not coming as a schoolmistress to hand out grades.

Mrs Merkel arrived in Athens at lunchtime today for a lightning visit, as the police tried to keep at bay thousands of protesters who blame Mrs Merkel for their economic hardship. Minutes after her white Airbus A318 touched down just before 1:30 pm local time, she was whisked past an honour guard to Samaras’s downtown office for a serious talk.

Mrs Merkel decided to make her 7-hour visit to Athens most likely to bolster the position of Samaras, who heads a weak and fractious coalition that could fall apart at any time. At the same time, the visit signals Mrs Merkel’s determination to keep Greece inside the Eurozone.

The visit, of course, has drawn a lot of international interest, which has centred mainly on the mass protest demonstration called by the powerful leftwing Syriza opposition party and the trade unions. By early afternoon Syntagma Square in the centre of Athens was crammed with thousands of protesters, and there were some clashes as the afternoon progressed. And that’s where the foreign camera crews were. In one case a jeep with people holding up Nazi flags tried to break through a steel police barrier in front of the Parliament building. Some of the Greek media are comparing Germany’s pressures on Greece with the Nazi conquest of World War Two.

After a courtesy call on the Greek president, Karolos Papoulias, Mrs Merkel was scheduled to fly back to Berlin in the evening. But it’s still too soon to tell if her visit did what it was meant to do – that is, stiffen the backbone of the Samaras government.

John Carr has the story: