Sarkozy: Letting Greece Join Euro Was a Mistake

Nicolas Sarkzoy has made it clear that tensions remain in the eurozone despite agreement on a debt crisis deal. The French president says that while he backs reforms intended to allow Greece to remain in the euro, it was a mistake to let the country join the single currency a decade ago because the country's economic figures were false and it wasn't ready, the Guardian reports. "If the euro had exploded on Wednesday night, all of Europe would have exploded," he told French TV. "If Greece had defaulted there would have been a domino effect carrying everyone away."

Greek officials weren't happy about their country being singled out by Sarkozy. "Greece is in the middle of the storm, but it is not the source of the problems of European debt and deficits," Greece's foreign minister told the BBC. "We see this with Portugal, Ireland, Spain, and Italy. So it doesn't help to scapegoat a particular country when you're dealing with a European problem." (More eurozone stories.)