The head of the ECB, Jean-Claude Trichet, begins understanding that things have changed. Contrary to his words less than three weeks ago, he now hints that some countries could leave the euro.
On May 27th, Trichet totally ruled this out. He gave an interview and said that it is entirely realistic for a country to leave the euro zone. He also added:
Trichet said that there is no provision in the EU treaty to allow a country to leave the currency zone. “The euro area is a community that shares the same destiny: each member is dependent on the others.”
Well, things are somewhat different now. In a speech in London, he said that “It is not a working assumption that any government would leave the euro”.
So, while it is not an assumption, this cannot be totally ruled out.
This statement joins his remark in the press conference regarding restructuring of Greek debt: “we will say it is an enormous mistake” – it seems that Trichet is already looking from afar, given up on his stubbornness to prevent some kind of restructuring or default.