Over much – and probably not the formidable blows of bluff very cunning Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, 40 years old – impresses the austere Wolfgang Schäuble 73 years. The German finance minister, “Iron Man” of Chancellor Angela Merkel, alias “Mutti” (Mum), remains in all circumstances, marble.
Even when an unbalanced shoots him with a gun in October 1990 during an election rally in his constituency of Offenburg, a few kilometers from the Alsatian border. He falls to the ground. His spinal cord is severed. He will spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Not enough to make him give up. Even if he admits jokingly “for ball sports and the federal ball, I’m totally inappropriate!” But when it comes to the German Finance and the European Union (EU), Schäuble thinks is still the man of the situation.
Camp Leader “hard”
In a meeting on Saturday 11 July in Brussels, of the Eurogroup, described as “the last last chance” before a crucial summit Sunday, July 12, heads of state of EU on Greece, the oldest (since 1972!) his party of the German conservative right, still remained adamant.
If no agreement Saturday Eurogroup meeting should therefore continue Sunday. While most commentators felt that Alexis Tsipras, the leader of the Greek radical left had “capitulated”, accepting many of the austerity measures demanded by its European creditors, Wolfgang Schäuble is briefly out of three days of silence to deliver his sharp verdict: the Greek proposals, though welcomed by France, are “far from adequate”. Camp Leader “hard”, the great German silversmith and pillar of the CDU, the German Christian Democrats, ruled that the negotiations to reach an agreement and avoid the exit of Greece from the euro would therefore be “extremely difficult” .
We can not have confidence in the promise “of the Greeks,
he insisted. Featuring all his distrust of Alexis Tsipras and his government Greek Radical Left (Syriza, in power in Athens), the orthodox German Minister considered that the settlement of hopes raised at the end of last year had “been reduced to nothing incredible in recent months” by those he considers dangerous Mediterranean Marxists retarded, incompetent and misleading.
Qualified “psycho” by his opponents
“There is a big trust issue, “adds the head of the Eurogroup, Dutch Jeroen Dijsselbloem steep Worse. as the crisis seemed to dissipate, Schäuble, long a Minister of the Interior to the iron fist, made that he did not intend to live with “the Greek mess.” The rigid German minister, proposed a radical solution, although not final. Germany plans a temporary exit of Greece from the single currency if the country does not improve its reform proposals.
“If Greece can not guarantee credible implementation measures and debt sustainable, we should offer him speedy negotiations for a period outside the euro area, with a possible debt restructuring, if necessary (…) for five years, “according to a scathing document issued after Saturday’s Eurogroup. This topic would however not yet been discussed by EU finance ministers in Brussels. And Schäuble is not insulated. “Well over half of the member countries think that the Greek proposals [for a third aid package] does not go far enough,” said a diplomatic source in Brussels cited by AFP.
practicing Protestant born in 1942 in Freiburg, Christian Social supporter of Rhineland capitalist model, Schäuble is a high idea of his duty. Then he stands firm on austerity measures to be imposed on Greece, the surpluses that the country must generate to repay its huge debt (more than 320 billion euros and more than 170% of GDP). Yet whatever his opponents call “psycho” had stepped evoking this week and for the first time, a possible restructuring of Greek debt, causing the crisis. But a very small step. The German minister sees “very little scope for a restructuring, a” reprofiling “or other things like that,” had said his spokesman. It is also opposed to a discount of the debt and everything that would lead to “significantly lowering the value of this debt,” added the spokesman, showering the optimism of those who believed that the German Minister s’ was suddenly eased after the Greek concessions
A supporter of Grexit
No doubt. Wolfgang Schäuble, regarded as “the architect of unification” of Germany , is actually a supporter of the exit of Greece from the euro (“Grexit”). Although he has never even openly said.
Many Germans [at least 60%, according to surveys], which Schäuble want Greece exits the euro. For they think that the euro without Greece would be a much more stable currency “,
said a political analyst in Athens Clearly. Rid of a lascivious” Mezzogiorno “Greek, just good to take cheap holiday and sunny, industrious worker Germany and Northern Europe would thus be most successful.
Another hawk, Finns support the Schäuble line. The Finnish Parliament has summoned Saturday his finance minister negotiate an exit of Greece from the eurozone, according to state television. Between inflexible North and Greeks, Paris is still trying to play the negotiators. However, according to Yanis Varoufakis, the flamboyant Greek Finance Minister sacrificed by Alexis Tsipras in earlier this week, it is the French who are actually in the viewfinder Schäuble. The Greek ex-minister said, in an article published in by “The Guardian”, entitled “Germany does not want to end the suffering Greece, it had better break us, “Wolfgang Schäuble wanted a Greek exit from the euro area to” put the record straight “:
” My belief is that the Minister of Finance Germany wants Greece is forced out of the single currency to elicit a fear of the devil in French and make them accept his model of disciplinary euro area. “
But even if it is tough with Paris, which does not always meet the criteria sacrosanct of the euro convergence, Schäuble is considered an advocate of Franco-German cooperation.
The German finance minister, accused by the Greeks to have, from the outset, conducted negotiations deadlocked for ejecting the euro, he will succeed in imposing its “hard-line” to France and his Chancellor? “Mutti” cares about all European children even more turbulent. And Angela Merkel looks instead for a compromise with Athens, after a light punishment. But it must take into account not only the opinion of its High Treasurer, but also public opinion exasperated by the Greeks and especially the Bundestag, the German Parliament, which must ratify any agreement with Athens.
Schäuble The last survivor of the Helmut Kohl era is uncompromising but it is also of utmost loyalty. Merkel and Schäuble sometimes difficult relations but maintain Chancellor has nothing to fear from a man, who after Helmut Kohl’s gray eminence, after narrowly Chancellor or President of Germany, waived all great ambitions. From a man who has agreed to become Finance Minister in economic crisis and is nearing retirement. Victim of blows of fate, many political failures and an attack, Wolfgang Schäuble, tragic figure of German policy, ensures that he learned “not to take it too seriously.” The Greeks, however, would probably be wrong to do so.
Jean-Baptiste Naudet
No comments:
Post a Comment