Merkel wants Greeks to have less vacation time
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Greece needs to raise the retirement age and reduce vacation days in order to help solve its economic problems.
In a speech at an event held by her party, the conservative Christian Democratic Union, in the western German town of Meschede, Merkel said that keeping debt under control is not the only priority.
“It is also important that people in countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal are not able to retire earlier than in Germany — that everyone exerts themselves more or less equally. That is important,» she said, according to Germany?s Spiegel online version.
She added: «We can’t have a common currency where some get lots of vacation time and others very little. That won’t work in the long term.”
“Of course we want the euro and of course we don’t want to see that a country goes broke, so to speak, and that we all then follow,» she added. «But we can’t just show solidarity and then say that these countries can continue as before.”
