Greek Bailout Increasingly Unpopular in Germany

By NICHOLAS KULISH
NYT

BERLIN — As European finance ministers refused Monday to name specific measures to rescue Greece and the Continent’s common currency, opposition grew among Germans to bailing out what they call spendthrifts to the south after years of belt-tightening by workers at home.

The fiscal crisis, shaking the Greek government while driving down the value of the euro, is forcing taxpayers and voters across Europe to confront the fact that their fortunes are tied together more closely than their politicians confessed in the late 1990s, in the rush to create the common currency over public objections.

In the process it has revealed how deeply national identity, rather than a common European identity, remains the reality on the Continent. Solidarity, at least in the eyes of most voters, still stops at the border.

Despite popular opposition to helping Greece, analysts expect big countries like France and Germany to reach some kind of deal, since the prospect of economic chaos without an agreement is more frightening than even the wrath of voters.

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