French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said on Monday that Germany’s firm stance on Greece’s debt position was right in some ways, but the euro zone must also respect the change of government in Greece. “The Germans are right from a certain point of view,” Sapin said on France 2 television. “Greece, not the government of today, the country, signed a number of agreements. They must respect those agreements independently of the change of government. But the Greeks say, and they are right, I support them, ‘we have just changed government, so we are not going to do everything as before.’ “What we have to do is to find a way of functioning together.” Sapin was speaking ahead of a meeting of euro zone finance ministers later on Monday at which Greece’s finance minister and his euro zone peers and ECB President Mario Draghi will discuss how to proceed with Greece’s bailout programme, which runs out on Feb. 28. Asked about the chances of a deal being reached at the talks, Sapin said “thankfully,” but he declined to quantify them. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said in a radio interview on Monday that he was not very optimistic for an agreement. “From what I’ve heard about the technical talks over the weekend, I’m very sceptical, but we will get a report today and then we’ll see,” he said. (Reporting by Andrew Callus and Yann LeGeurnigou; Editing by Nicholas Vinocur and Susan Fenton)