By DW
Greece had formed a contingency plan to open corruption investigations into German companies in the case of a “Grexit,” reported local media. Targeted companies included Germany’s Siemens, Lidl and Allianz.
he Greek government produced a contingency plan that would “raise the cost of rupture” for Greece’s creditors – the European Commission, European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monteryary Fund – if the country was forced out of the eurozone, according to a report published by Greek daily “Efimerida Ton Syntakton” on Saturday.
Citing Greek government officials under condition of anonymity, Efimerida Ton Syntakton reported that the plan included opening corruption probes into prominent German companies, including Siemens, Lidl, Allians, MAN and Hochtief.
“In basketball terms, the government would apply ‘pressure defense,'” the Greek periodical said.
According to “Efimerida Ton Syntakton,” the plan also included nationalizing Greece’s gaming monopoly OPAP, which was privatized in 2013.
The report comes on the heels of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ statements to parliament on Friday, revealing that the young premier had instructed former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis to produce a “defense plan” in the event of a “Grexit” – a Greek exit from Europe’s monetary union.
“I personally gave the order to prepare a team to prepare a defense plan in case of emergency,” Tsipras said, adding that plans to leave the eurozone were “never prepared” by his administration.
“If our creditors were preparing a Grexit plan, should we not have prepared our defenses?” the prime minister asked, without going into further details of the plan.
Germany holds the largest share of Greece’s bailouts since 2010, ahead of France and Italy. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has been critical of a third bailout to Athens, stating in the past that a temporary exit from the monetary union could be the best alternative.
