Germany ‘won’t give a cent’ to Greece

Germany and the chairman of the group of countries using the euro ruled out immediate financial aid for Greece before talks on Friday with prime minister George Papandreou. Greece’s hopes of solving its debt crisis got a boost when it attracted heavy demand for the sale of an important bond issue on Thursday,but an opinion poll on Friday showed the government faces stiff opposition to planned austerity measures.

The EU and ECB have praised the proposed new pay cuts,pension freeze and tax increases. But Greece’s biggest public and private sector unions called a new strike for March 11 and Athens faced a fresh call from a senior ECB member for the steps to be closely monitored. Papandreou hoped to win support at talks in Luxembourg with prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker,chairman of the 16-country Eurogroup,and at talks in Berlin with German chancellor Angela Merkel,who leads the EU’s biggest economy.

“Greece really has to do something. Greece is doing that now,” Juncker told Deutschlandfunk radio. “If all this were not to suffice,the euro zone would be ready to guarantee the financial stability of the euro area but I do not expect that to be necessary,” he said.

Merkel said the bond issue raised optimism for further measures and described it as a good sign,underlining that Germany should stand at Athens’ side. A spokesman said her meeting with Papandreou would be about offering political support and not financial aid.