Greece should be prepared to declare itself insolvent if it cannot repay its debts, a director of the German central bank said in remarks published Friday, signalling a hard line against help for heavily indebted EU countries. Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin said that if Greece were unable to finance its debts, "it will have to do what all the indebted do, declare itself insolvent ... that would be the best warning example for other potentially weak states" in Europe. In his remarks to the Salzburger Nachrichten daily, Sarrazin did not name which countries he considered to be weak but did say that "The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg will not have this type of problem because we have a different mentality."
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