they are renouncing exactly that as a result of wage cuts across all sectors. but this is still easier to do inside the euro area rather than outside it. bild : is there a limit to the support? or will it just continue like this? draghi : i can ’ t answer that. we will have to see how things develop in the country. generally speaking, the fact remains that if we want to protect taxpayers ’ money, the euro area cannot be turned into a transfer union, where one or two countries provide the money, the rest spend, and the whole thing is financed by joint eurobonds. that cannot happen. bild : many parties, also in germany, are calling for that. draghi : a community must be founded on trust – trust that shared rules will be adhered to, for example, with regard to budgetary discipline. that is why the new fiscal pact among euro area states is the right thing and why eurobonds would be premature. bild : is the german chancellor ’ s stance winning through? draghi : let me put it this way : without pressure from the markets and from the germans, much of the progress we have made in the various euro area countries would not have been possible. bild : how often do you speak on the telephone with the chancellor? draghi : not very often. the ecb is very mindful of its independence. and the chancellor fully respects this. bis central bankers ’ speeches

moves, the ecb has put almost €1 trillion into circulation. that ’ s inflationary, surely? draghi : the banks to which the ecb has lent the money have, by and large, not fed this into the economic cycle but have used it to meet old liabilities. so the money in terms of inflation has, so to speak, been neutralised. this action is not inflationary. and we will watch very carefully if and how the money is fed into the economic cycle. bild : but the head of germany ’ s bundesbank, jens weidmann, has issued a sharp warning about this flood of money. draghi : i get on very well with jens weidmann both professionally and personally. our difference of opinion has been blown up. bis central bankers ’ speeches bild : was he exaggerating? draghi : he is a typical central banker, like all of us. we like to worry about things that nobody else worries about. and of course there are risks and side effects if you use such a strong drug, such as the almost €1 trillion of central bank money. it was right of jens weidmann to point that out and i agree with him. bild : is there a rift between north and south in the governing council? draghi : no, there is no divide between north and south. all members of the governing council have taken to heart germany ’ s stability culture. the time of conflicts is over. but let me also say that the situation in the autumn was really critical. it could have led to a dangerous credit crunch at the banks and thus to bankruptcies ; companies would have suddenly been left sitting high and dry financially. we had to prevent that. bild : and the banks are doing nicely out of it, right? draghi : the ecb ’ s money has got to the right places. in germany alone, 460 banks participated in the action, many more than usual. so it wasn ’ t just the acutely suffering banks, but also many others, many of them small. that particularly helps the small and medium - sized companies that account for 70 % of all jobs in europe. bild : this all sounds very optimistic. is the euro then a safe currency? draghi : yes, it is. bild : is the crisis over? draghi : the worst is over, but there are also still risks. the situation is stabilising. the key data for the