> For the welfare of the people in Greece the greek government is responsible, not Angela Merkel.
That is correct, but one could ask that people don't go around and say "Germany saved Greece!", cause no .. it didn't. It saved its banks.
That is correct, but one could ask that people don't go around and say "Germany saved Greece!", cause no .. it didn't. It saved its banks.
Without paying back the money (-> to the banks), Greece would have been bancrupt within days. Thus saving the banks saved Greece from being bancrupt. Without banks and without government money from the outside, nobody would have given Greece any credits...
The currency union was just very badly thought out. A currency union without a fiscal union is probably a bad idea. That was recognized somewhat by the stability criteria for new members that were then swiftly ignored for various reasons.
That's highly debatable and in a changing political landscape there was no future for that. A tiny country next to the EU and a large Eurozone? Greece needed reforms and some (not all) of them were long delayed. That's also the point of the EU and the Eurozone. It provides the framework for the reforms. The largest win for Greece is a stable democracy, after a long phase of political instability and military governments.