Another deep interview with SKAI and “Kathimerini” director Alexis Papachela was given by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday, who is in our country on the occasion of the release of her book entitled “Freedom” by Editions.

Among other things, Angela Merkel referred to how she was dealing with what was heard and written at a time when as Chancellor of Germany was called upon to manage the Greek debt crisis and her relationship with Alexis Tsipras.

The former German Chancellor said she was saddened that the Greek newspapers at the time of the referendum linked her to Nazism. But he added that “politics is not an event to enjoy it”. She noted that the important thing was that she was convinced that Greece could do it.

She said that she was clearly saddened by her that some social groups might have to suffer more than others, but stressed that these were decisions of Greek politicians, adding that she had to be careful to secure the German majority support. She even said that she had to fight in her own party for Greece.

Speaking about the first time he met Alexis Tsipras as a prime minister, he noted that he was concerned because he had previously attacked the troika.

“I was waiting for him outside the Chancellor, where he was concentrated on the left, and he went and talked to them before he came to me,” he says.

He said the former prime minister told her the incident that “we must support ours”

Merkel considered it politically intelligent.

With Tsipras we didn’t say lies

With Alexis Tsipras, “we were not lying, we were honestly chatting,” he added.

He then talked about Tsipras’ phone call to her and French President Francois Hollande on Friday to announce that he was going to a referendum. Merkel was surprised, as Tsipras had told her that she would first discuss it with the party.

But he eventually phoned to say that he was going to a referendum.

“There was no ready -made plan for Grexit, I never wanted Greece to get out of the euro,” Merkel told Alexis Papachela.

When did it realize that there was debt crisis in Greece

“Between 2009 and 2010, I realized for the first time that there was Christx debt in Greece,” Merkel said. To continue saying that “George Pandreou announced debt gravity and then the international creditors were activated”.

For the “lazy Greeks”

Answering a question of what he thought for the Greeks at a time when German headlines were lazy, Merkel replied that she did not like stereotypes and that there may be some Greeks who are less workers, exactly the same is the case with some Germans. Just as there are corrupt German companies, so are Greek.

“I never judge a nation base of stereotypes,” Merkel said.