German Chancellor Angela Merkel Wednesday ruled out a return to the deutschmark amid a debt crisis that has led to calls in some quarters for Europe's top economy to ditch the euro. "There will be no return to the D-Mark," Merkel said in an interview with Stern magazine due to appear on Thursday. She reiterated that Germany was committed to the European currency and "would do everything necessary to guarantee a stable euro."
Merkel also dismissed the notion of a split in the eurozone between fiscally prudent northern countries, such as her own, and the debt-stricken south, where Portugal is seen as most at risk after debt bailouts for Greece and Ireland last year. "Not with me. For Germany, this is a definite 'No'. And relations in Europe are not that black and white in any case," she said.
As the richest country in Europe, Germany is the biggest contributor to a multi-billion-dollar fund designed to help ailing eurozone nations while polls have shown that rescuing Greece and then Ireland was unpopular. Merkel also called for "more intensive co-operation" between the 17 countries that share the euro but insisted that this should not be limited only to eurozone members.