Expectations from Friday’s scheduled meeting in Berlin between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and visiting Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras are low, according to a report by DW the same day.
The report comes a day after Merkel said she will not “interfere” in issues assigned to the Eurogroup, a direct reference to a controversial one-off welfare payment Tsipras announced last week for more than half of the pensioners in Greece.
Merkel did, however, say that the issue will be discussed with Tsipras.
“Regarding Greek decision there is a crucial discussion. The ESM has made this clear,” she said after Thursday’s EU summit in Brussels.
“I am sure that I will discuss the issue with the Greek prime minister, although I do not intend to interfere in negotiations over the Greek package,” she said.
On his part, a German government spokesman said this week’s “freeze” of short-term debt measures for Greece until creditors can “assess” the package cannot “overshadow” the meeting.
“I don’t foresee a shadow over (the Friday morning) … there are German positions that are well-known, both to the Greek government and the IMF. These positions have not changed,” the spokesman said.
Nevertheless, reports out of Berlin on Friday stated that the German chancellor will bring up the issue of illegal migration, namely, mostly Third World nationals entering from Turkey into Greece and then attempting to reach western Europe, especially Germany.
The development comes in light of the arrest this month of an Afghan man who was convicted of attempted homicide in Greece in 2014, released on parole in 2015 only to subsequently surface in Freiburg as a DNA-linked suspect in a rape-murder that shocked Germany.
