By Erik Kirschbaum BERLIN (Reuters) – The German government wants Greece to continue within the euro area and no contingency plans in case Otherwise, said Sunday the German Deputy Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, responding to a media report said that Berlin believes that monetary union could proceed without Greece. Gabriel, who is also finance minister and leader of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD party acronym in German), also told the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung that the euro zone had become stronger in recent years and could not be “blackmailed”. “The goal of the German government, the European Union and even the government itself is in Athens Greece to remain within the euro zone,” Gabriel said in the interview, which will be published on Monday. “There was and is no other plans for the opposite,” said political , noting that the euro zone had become more stable in recent years. “That’s why we can not extort money and why we expect the Greek government, regardless of who lead, respect the agreements made with the EU,” Gabriel said, referring to the Greek elections on January 25 and the possible change of government. Earlier, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, Georg Streiter, said the German government expects that Greece complies with the terms of its agreement to the rescue of 240,000 million euros from the European Union and International Monetary Fund. Streiter however refused to comment on a report Saturday magazine Der Spiegel stating that Berlin had changed his mind and now believes that the eurozone could deal with-a potential Greek exit scenario known as “Grexit” in English if necessary. Der Spiegel reported that Berlin considers the “Grexit” as almost inevitable if the leftist opposition party Syriza, which has a narrow lead in opinion polls, wins Greek elections . Syriza wants to cancel the austerity measures and a part of Greece’s debt. Continued …
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