What Will Merkel Do?; Technical Glitches Hit NYSE and United Airlines
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN HOST (voice-over): Tonight: as U.S. authorities continue to investigate suspicious computer glitches that have closed the New York Stock Exchange and I.T. troubles that grounded some United Airlines flights, here across the pond we monitor the glitches that Greece could cause the Eurozone. Athens hands in its homework to the E.U. one day late but promising credible reform in return for another bailout. Will creditors give this demand a passing grade? German foreign policy spokesman Philipp Missfelder joins me live in the studio. Also ahead while world powers must clinch that Iran nuclear deal, the former British foreign secretary Jack Straw makes his case.</s>JACK STRAW, FORMER U.K. FOREIGN SECRETARY: My hope and belief is that there will be a deal, because far too much has been invested in this.</s>AMANPOUR: Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the program. I'm Christiane Amanpour. At the 11th hour signs that Greece may be changing its tune as the Spanish prime minister said today. Just last night, European leaders issued their most dire warnings yet after Greece again delayed delivery of its reform proposals. But this morning Greece formally did submit its request for a third bailout, a step at least towards the concrete agreement that has been so elusive.</s>ALEXIS TSIPRAS, GREEK PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We all understand that this debate is not exclusively about one country. It's about the future of our common construction, the Eurozone and Europe.</s>AMANPOUR: So how will this financial fiasco end? Nobody can say for sure but much of it does depend on the decisions of this woman and she is the German chancellor, Angela Merkel. Tonight an opportunity to hear from her camp. With me now is the foreign policy spokesman for Germany's ruling coalition, Philipp Missfelder. Welcome to the program.</s>PHILIPP MISSFELDER, GERMAN POLITICIAN: Thank you so much.</s>AMANPOUR: Things are getting dire for Greece but very dire for Angela Merkel. Is that not true? Absolutely. We are on the situation because we as Germans always wanted to have the euro and we want to keep it like it is. But Greece may give us a hard time and it becomes more and more difficult by every hour.</s>AMANPOUR: Let's just stick with the problems that Chancellor Merkel is facing. She's in a tough spot, the public is very, very anti-Greece, more than ever. The "Bild" cover, the magazine, "What now, chancellor?" it asks. And "Der Spiegel," with Merkel sitting atop the ruins in Greece, if the euro fails, Merkel's chancellorship fails. Is it that bad?</s>MISSFELDER: No, the euro will not fail but we will do everything and that it is not happening. The problem with Greece is separated from the problems we are facing in Italy or in other countries in the periphery; also the economic weakness of France is nothing which is related to Greece but in fact it is a big challenge right now and again, we want to keep the euro like it is today and therefore Greece has to come back to the table.</s>AMANPOUR: I know; we've been hearing this; more and more officials have become sterner and sterner, particularly now with this new deadline this week. But you say the euro won't fail. Well, Greece might leave the euro. Is that a failure?</s>MISSFELDER: It is not a failure of the whole currency but we don't want to have it happen. Because I think there will be a lot of collateral damage also for the German economy. So everybody will pay at the end, not only the Greeks, so also the rest of the Eurogroup, maybe the whole continent. And therefore we are convinced that everything keeping together is still the best option.</s>AMANPOUR: Do you think there's going to be a deal -- and let me just say this; Reuters' poll of economists, this latest one, now says the probability of Greece leaving the Eurozone is at 55 percent.</s>MISSFELDER: That's extremely high. But it's never too late in politics. So they have the chance also after this bad referendum to come back to the table and to negotiate with us.</s>AMANPOUR: It's never too late but there's been a lot of bad blood. Now do you agree with what the Spanish prime minister said, that there seems to be a change in tone; obviously the new finance minister has a different tone. But in substance, is Greece changing its tune?</s>MISSFELDER: I think we will know that in 24 hours because then it's a time when Greece has to present concrete and specific ideas. So the tone is good but the tone is not important. At the end of the day, the facts count. And this is when they have to present much more.</s>AMANPOUR: So the facts are presumably on the Greece side what the Greek prime minister says. And here is what he said today about the situation he finds himself in.</s>TSIPRAS (through translator): It is not -- it's no exaggeration to say that my country has, over the past five years, been transformed into an austerity laboratory. However, this experiment, I think, all of us have to accept, has not been a success.</s>AMANPOUR: So he doesn't seem to be giving much ground and he says that no country under austerity is being treated as harshly by its creditors as Greece has been treated. Has your government, has your party, has your chancellor treated Greece unfairly and too harshly? Many people think so.</s>MISSFELDER: I know that many people think so, but and Tsipras should go back to the people from Estonia, for example, or Slovakia, Slovenia. Many Eastern and Central European countries suffered much more than Greece did and they did their homework. So at the same time, saying this to Greek officials since quite a while, we don't -- we have to make one point to the international audience: Germany does not believe that you can create economic growth just by austerity. Austerity is not the solution for every problem but it is exactly not the same with spending. Spending and quantitative easing is a solution. So you need both. You need the QE measures of the ECB. You need substance and in the reforms, in the infrastructure sector, in the whole institution sector of Greece. You need reforms and then you can also talk about a potential haircut also, but not a haircut in the only quantitative easing that's definitely not the solution for Greece.</s>AMANPOUR: Let's go back about 70 years to 1953, because people are finding all sorts of parallels and pictures. Let's just put up this picture of the German official who basically cut at that time, back Hermann Josef Abs, signing an agreement that effectively cut West Germany's post-World War II debt in half. So what's good for the goose is good for the gander surely. People are saying, hey, Germany was let off at a crucial time. Why not us at this similarly crucial time?</s>MISSFELDER: I think you are absolutely right. And Germany benefits a lot from the solidarity from the Allies at that time. And this is exactly how we want to see Greece. But as a partner and not as an enemy. And if you're listening to the language from the past six months on both sides, I have to admit, it sounds not like partners; it sounds more like enemies.</s>AMANPOUR: So what would you say on your side you wish had been done differently? What language specifically?</s>MISSFELDER: I don't want to blame the Greeks all the time because they elected; they got a strong vote also from the people by the referendum. So at the end of the day, they still are our partner. We have to deal with. But it is not good that if Germans try to lecture them and if they come back and say don't -- we don't negotiate; we just inform you about our ideology on a Communist platform.</s>AMANPOUR: You know, I have been struck by the very heated language that's been thrown around. On the one hand, you know, from the Greek government or Greek officials, you've heard the word "terrorists" and other such things thrown at European leaders. From the IMF and other -- you've heard childlike, not adults are at the table. Is this any way to actually negotiate on something that is so crucial? Does it -- I mean, you may say no, but it's there. It's out there, this temperature. Does it spoil the broth? Does it make it impossible?</s>MISSFELDER: It definitely. The use of the language was the problem. You're referring to the quote of Christine Lagarde. I was wondering why she said this, because if you want to achieve a deal, you should have to treat your partner with respect. And this is exactly what our chancellor is still doing. Even she was very -- she -- even she was very disappointed by the behavior of Tsipras; she treats him still with respect and the door is still open for him to come back to the table.</s>AMANPOUR: Do you think he treats her with respect?</s>MISSFELDER: In the meetings, I'm sure that he does. But if he standing in front of a big crowd in essence I'm not so sure if he's really behaving as responsible as he has to behave as a European leader.</s>AMANPOUR: Last night we had the Maltese finance minister on this program, who basically said, similar to you, we want to keep the Eurozone together but the trust has simply seeped away because of the statements, because of the, for instance, lack of seriousness; because yesterday they came to the table, the Greeks, without the new demands and a whole load of these accumulated grievances. Is there trust there? Let's say they come up with a bailout proposal.</s>MISSFELDER: If the bailout proposal has also conditions inside and a new reform agenda, and it is --</s>AMANPOUR: Do you expect it to?</s>MISSFELDER: -- I expect it. So with probability by 60 percent, if they come up with something serious --</s>MISSFELDER: -- tomorrow and that we can -- that we can prove it also in their parliament and afterwards, several times in the German parliament because also the German Bundestag has to say what they want. And it's not like they -- like our chancellor has -- is -- be able to do the decisions on her own.</s>AMANPOUR: Do you think the mood in the parliament is to accept -- will their proposal be good enough, do you think?</s>MISSFELDER: I hope so but now if you would ask me this second, a lot of parliamentarians put a lot of criticism on Greece because they were really disappointed by the referendum and the way the referendum was communicated. If we would have had it six weeks earlier, no problem. But to have it in the last, in the very last moment of the negotiations was really ridiculous. But in politics, we have to focus on pragmatism and this is exactly the way our chancellor is working. And I hope that the proposal will be reliable and that we can make a deal in the next few days because I -- at the same time, I don't want to see the Greek people suffering or starving.</s>AMANPOUR: Which they are --</s>MISSFELDER: Yes, there's a lot of people are starving. That cannot be our common goal in Europe.</s>AMANPOUR: There's a deadline for this Friday. There is another -- yet another emergency summit called for Sunday to discuss this. And Monday, we could see one way or the other, obviously. What will happen if they don't come up with the proposal, the conditions, the reforms that you all say have to be there to incur another bailout? What is the process? What happens on the Monday morning?</s>MISSFELDER: Most likely two things will happen. They will not be able to open the banks again. They told their own electorate that they would be able to open the banks after the referendum. So we see they just announced a few minutes ago that they're not able to open the banks soon. So they will not do it in the next week. They can't do it without the ELA from the ECB. At the end of the day, this is going to happen and then most likely, if they fail with the negotiations with us, they're not able to pay back the ECB on the 20th of July, which is a crucial date because the ECB then has to declare their default as a country. And that could create a domino effect where nobody can hold Greece any longer.</s>AMANPOUR: And then it's a slide out.</s>MISSFELDER: Unfortunately, that is the downside scenario.</s>AMANPOUR: Philipp Missfelder, spokesman for the CDU foreign policy, thank you very much indeed for joining us. And as you just heard and news just in, the Greek banks will remain closed Thursday and Friday. Greece bringing a new proposal to the table as we've discussed after their finance minister only brought a hotel notepad the day before, bearing, amongst other things, the words "no triumphalism" to the first meeting. It was caught out by the cameras but he's not the only one. Britain's former Labour leader, Ed Miliband, left out his pre-debate memo to self, reminding himself to be, quote, a "happy warrior" on stage. In the United States, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was captured with, quote, "lift American spirits" scribbled on her hand as she spoke to the Tea Party. Of course that's a struggle faced not just by Ms. Palin then; ah, the insights into high politics. And next I asked former British foreign secretary, Jack Straw, for his insights into the Iran nuclear deal -- coming up.