The head of the powerful Orthodox Church in Cyprus
said in an interview published on Saturday that he favored the
debt-ridden island nation leaving the euro.
"It's not easy, but we should devote to this as much
time as was spent on entering the eurozone," Archbishop Chrysostomos II
said in an interview with the Greek daily Realnews.
"The euro cannot last," said Chrysostomos, who this week
offered to help bail the country out of its financial crisis by putting
the church's considerable assets at the government's disposal.
"I'm not saying that it will crumble tomorrow, but with
the brains that they have in Brussels, it is certain that it will not
last in the long term, and the best is to think about how to escape it,"
he said.
The Orthodox church is the largest landowner on the
island and also has stakes in a wide range of businesses, including in
the country's Hellenic Bank, with total assets estimated to run into
tens of millions of euros.
On Wednesday, Chrysostomos met with Cypriot President
Nicos Anastasiades, offering to mortgage the church's vast property
holdings to buy government bonds.
