Cypriots’ Criticism of Bailout Rattles Nerves and Raises Ire in Germany
By MELISSA EDDY, NYT
BERLIN — If Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany is bothered by images of her wearing a mustache like Hitler’s, which are being waved in streets from Cyprus to Spain, she has yet to show it, choosing instead to stress the importance of the protesters’ freedom of expression.
But the intense negative reactions to the bailout program for Cyprus appear to be jangling other nerves in Berlin, where politicians, and many Germans in the street, are bridling at the perpetual comparisons with Germany’s dark past.
Ms. Merkel’s justice minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, broke new ground on Wednesday by calling directly on European Union leaders in Brussels to do more to defend Germany’s role in helping the weaker members. According to the German Finance Ministry, Germany has contributed more than 220 billion euros, or $280 billion, pledged through loans and financial support packages for Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain, all negotiated with those countries’ euro zone partners.
“Germany acts in solidarity so that crisis countries will have a perspective in the future,” Ms. Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, a member of the Free Democratic Party, the junior partner in Ms. Merkel’s governing coalition, said in an interview with the newspaper Münchner Merkur. “I wish that those people at the top — the president of the E.U. Commission and the E.U. president — would defend Germans against unfair allegations.”
(More here.)
BERLIN — If Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany is bothered by images of her wearing a mustache like Hitler’s, which are being waved in streets from Cyprus to Spain, she has yet to show it, choosing instead to stress the importance of the protesters’ freedom of expression.
But the intense negative reactions to the bailout program for Cyprus appear to be jangling other nerves in Berlin, where politicians, and many Germans in the street, are bridling at the perpetual comparisons with Germany’s dark past.
Ms. Merkel’s justice minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, broke new ground on Wednesday by calling directly on European Union leaders in Brussels to do more to defend Germany’s role in helping the weaker members. According to the German Finance Ministry, Germany has contributed more than 220 billion euros, or $280 billion, pledged through loans and financial support packages for Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain, all negotiated with those countries’ euro zone partners.
“Germany acts in solidarity so that crisis countries will have a perspective in the future,” Ms. Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, a member of the Free Democratic Party, the junior partner in Ms. Merkel’s governing coalition, said in an interview with the newspaper Münchner Merkur. “I wish that those people at the top — the president of the E.U. Commission and the E.U. president — would defend Germans against unfair allegations.”
(More here.)
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