By Gernot Heller
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's economy minister rejected on Sunday speculation that Greece should abandon the euro zone and return to the drachma, arguing that this would only weaken Europe at a time when it needs to be strengthened.
"I am not for that ... rather I am much more of the opposite opinion," Rainer Bruederle told Reuters on the sidelines of an internal parliamentary group meeting of the Free Democrats (FDP) in Berlin.
"Our goal instead must be to strengthen Europe."
On Saturday, fellow FDP MP Frank Schaeffler said Germany should constructively support Athens should it choose to leave the euro zone.
Schaeffler was joined by Ifo Institute President Hans-Werner Sinn, who told Sunday weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FASZ) that a Greek exit is preferable to permanent fiscal transfusions from German coffers.
Moreover, by pursuing austerity simply to remain in the euro zone, Athens condemns its population to a brutal internal devaluation through ever lower spending and wages, potentially bringing .
"The country would then come close to a state of civil war," he told the paper, likening the situation to the fiscal crisis of Weimar Germany, when the deflationary policies of Chancellor Heinrich Bruening helped bring the Nazis to power.
Clemens Fuest from the University of Oxford, who is also a senior advisor to the German finance ministry, argued for a restructuring before Athens considers abandoning the euro.
"An exit is feasible in principle," Fuest told the FASZ.
"But the first step to solve the debt problem within the euro zone must be a haircut. Then one can think about whether Greece wants to stay in the euro zone."
Speaking to Reuters, Bruederle said the Greeks needed time to execute their reforms, something made more difficult by constant market talk over a possible debt restructuring and now an exit from the euro zone.
"That the Greeks have a hard road ahead of them is an open secret," the German economy minister said.
"Speculation day in and day out only leads to more speculation and does not strengthen Europe."
Bruederle also criticised as "irritating" the communication policy surrounding a Friday meeting of major euro zone finance ministers in Luxembourg, first reported by Spiegel Online only to be subsequently denied as "totally wrong" by the spokesman of Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker.
A government official on Saturday said that the meeting was only informal and as such was not empowered to make decisions on the current Greek crisis.
(Writing by Christiaan Hetzner; Editing by Hans Peters)
