German President Wolfgang Schauble revealed in the BBC documentary Inside Europe he proposed Greece to leave the eurozone for five years to tackle the financial crisis still hitting the Brussels bloc in 2015. The then German Finance Minister claimed all his European counterparts agreed “unanimously” it was better to lose Greece than to keep trying to help the Mediterranean country recover financially.
He said: “Certainly among the finance ministers of the Eurogroup we came to a conclusion that this can’t continue.
“That’s why we were virtually unanimous that it would be better if Greece made the decision to suspend its membership for a while.”
The eurozone leaders called an emergency summit to discuss the German proposition.
But President of the European Council Donald Tusk claimed everyone was aware “temporary” would really mean forever.
He told BBC: “In the letter of Schauble he suggested this temporary Grexit but it was clear for all of us – and for sure for Tsipras – that this was pure illusion.
“Pure fiction – this ‘temporary’ exit.
“If you leave, you leave for good.”
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras ended up with his back against the wall.
He was forced to make a difficult decision between the two evils of leaving the eurozone or accepting more austerity measures from Brussels.
Mr Tsipras decided to accept the EU’s conditions and was eventually rewarded with re-election two months later by Greek citizens.