Looks like Merkel (does not rhyme with “miracle”) may be in trouble.
… With its handling of Greece’s bailout package, Germany is at risk of losing that trust, some European analysts say. By taking what sounded to many as an aggressive, punishing, contemptuous tone toward Greece, the German leadership may have undercut its moral authority, they say. And by floating the notion that Greece might be better off leaving the common currency, Germany displayed its national interest more nakedly than in the past and made it clear there are limits to its willingness to put European unity first.
The German Parliament assented on Friday, with a bit of grumbling, to negotiations on another large bailout for Greece. But Chancellor Angela Merkel and her finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, have appeared as unenthusiastic about the deal as the Greeks. …SteveErlanger, NYT
It hasn’t been fun watching the German government reprising its onetime role as Europe’s lead imperialist and know-it-all in what has to be an embarrassment to the German people. Lately the references to the 1920’s and Versailles underline the problem.
The idealism behind the development of the European union has evaporated and now Merkel’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, is being called (by some) a “Nazi.”
… For many in Europe, especially on the center left, the Greek crisis “revealed a more brutal Germany, embodied in Schäuble,” said Hans Kundnani, the author of “The Paradox of German Power.”
“But we see, with this crisis, a qualitative transformation of the European Union into a more coercive bloc, different from the one the founding fathers had in mind, or even the creators of the single currency,” he said. “And Germany is at the heart of that.”
The fight over Greece, Mr. Kundnani said, “took these developments to a new level — a more German Europe and a more coercive E.U.”
One could argue, as many have, about the correctness of the German prescription of austerity in a time of recession. But the brutality of the negotiations over Greece in Brussels has damaged Germany’s reputation inside the European Union, said François Heisbourg, a French analyst. …SteveErlanger, NYT
“Austerity” is a tactic one should reserve for one’s own behaviors, not others’.