Let Greece go, says Germany’s Bild

Germany’s top-selling daily Bild called for Greece’s exit from the eurozone in an editorial Monday, just ahead of an emergency summit where EU leaders will try to find ways to avoid “Grexit.”

The tabloid-style newspaper, which has about 12 million readers a day on paper and on its website, has long rallied opposition in Germany against using European taxpayers’ money to help Greece cope with its debt crisis via international bailouts.

It escalated its campaign Monday by putting out a piece in the name of its whole editorial board, rather than its usual format of individually bylined editorials. The editor-in-chief of Bild.de, Julian Reichelt, said it was the first time Bild had published a U.S.-style editorial, which highlights the intensity of the debate in Europe’s biggest economy about EU solidarity with Greece.

“For Greece there is no future within the Euro. Grexit is overdue. It’s time to let Greece go from the euro, in the hope of a better future,” said the editorial. “In Bild we believe that this bailout makes no sense, is expensive and has been a mistake since the beginning.”

Bild once sent a reporter to Athens to hand out drachmas on the street, and published an article in Greek calling on the country to revert to its former currency.

The decisive point is that Greece is not solvent without Germany’s billions.

The strong stance by Germany’s biggest paper puts further pressure on Angela Merkel to balance the interests of German taxpayers and the founding principle of solidarity among EU member states.

She does not want to be remembered as the chancellor who let Greece fall out of the eurozone — but many German voters are instinctively in favor of the kind of fiscal discipline that she prescribes, both for Germany and for its EU partners.

EU leaders meet in Brussels later Monday under increasing pressure from a fast-approaching deadline for Athens. Greece will default on a €1.6 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund due on June 30 unless it can access a further €7.2 billion in funds from its second international bailout, which also expires at the end of the month.

Leftist Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and creditors represented by the European Commission, IMF and European Central Bank have been deadlocked for months, with the leftist-led Greek government trying to uphold its campaign promise to oppose public spending cuts demanded by the creditors.

The Bild editorial said, “Another deal with Greece will not solve the problem, it will just postpone it a few more months.”

“The decisive point is that Greece is not solvent without Germany’s billions,” read the editorial, adding that Greece is “effectively bankrupt” without the €3 billion it needs to pay pensions and salaries by the end of the month. Leaving the eurozone would give Greece a chance to remain within the broader EU with more stability and self-confidence, it said.

Bild is published by Axel Springer, which also co-owns POLITICO Europe.