Merkel and Hollande press Greece

The leaders of Germany and France today put the pressure firmly on Greece to keep pursuing painful reforms, suggesting they are hesitant to accept the new Greek prime minister’s demand for more time to fix his country’s battered economy and public finances.

German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Francois Hollande met to discuss how to deal with Greece before prime minister Antonis Samaras visits both of them over the next two days. Earlier in the day, Germany’s finance minister set the stage for tough negotiations by claiming that giving Greece more time to make reforms would achieve little.