Hollande urges Greeks to embrace austerity for sake of the Eurozone

FRENCH president François Hollande has praised the Greek people for putting up with painful budget cuts while urging them to do more to show their commitment to ­reforms to keep their country in the Eurozone.

“For me, the question should no longer be asked: Greece is in the Eurozone,” Hollande said yesterday after meeting Greek prime minister Antonis Samaras in Paris.

But, like German chancellor Angela Merkel, Hollande ­offered Greece no immediate relief from its current regimen of painful austerity measures.

The Greek premier has been on a tour through European capitals as part of a push to win more time to carry out cuts to avert a fiscal crisis.

On Friday, Merkel met ­Samaras in Berlin and said she expects Greece to live up to its commitments, while stressing Germany wants to keep it in the euro.

Hollande also said any decision on delays for Greece must wait for a report next month by the “troika” of Greece’s debt inspectors – the European Union’s Executive Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Hollande said Greece “must demonstrate the credibility of its programme and the willingness of its leaders to go all out, all the while making sure that it is tolerable for the population”.

He said Europe needs to make decisions about Greece “the sooner the better” – notably after the report is presented to a EU summit in October.

“On the European side, we are waiting for the troika report,” he said. “Once we have this report, once the commitments are confirmed, Europe has to do what it has to do.”

He added: “In the face of ­ordeals, we must show more solidarity. I hailed the efforts that the Greek people have committed to painfully for the last two years,” he said. “We need to be aware of all that has been done.”

Samaras, for his part, noted continued pressure within the financial markets amid concerns that Athens might not hold to its reform plans – and risk dropping out of the common currency.

“Some continue to speculate against Greece … to speculate by saying that Greece won’t pull through, that it can’t stay in the Eurozone,” Samaras said. “I’m here today to say that it will pull through – it will stay in the Eurozone.”

He added: “I also think we can fulfil our commitments and goals, reduce our deficits, reduce our debt, achieve the structural reforms that have begun – privatisations – and justice.”

Trying to emulate the “Merkozy” partnership under Hollande’s predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative Merkel and the Socialist French president showed a united front, insisting Greece must meet its targets before any new discussion of terms.