Ensuring that these lines remain sufficiently clear safeguards our independence, which, in a democratic system, can really only be justified by a narrow interpretation of our mandate.
In any case, we have successfully argued that, under the current government bond purchase 5/8  BIS central bankers' speeches  programme, the Bundesbank should only buy German bonds and not those of euro-area countries with poor credit ratings, as was the case between 2010 and 2012 under the Securities Markets Programme (SMP).