According to reporting by the French newspaper, during talks that the newspaper had access to regarding the decisions taken over Greece’s future, the German chancellor said, “We discussed whether Greece should leave the eurozone and how if that happened we would all have to abandon it at a later date.”

Le Monde also reported that Merkel stressed that as long as she remained chancellor of Germany she would continue to provide assistance but warned that she was not certain that she would be able to repeat a Greek-type bailout due to likely protests from German citizens. “That could be derailed at some point,” she said.