Merkel’s Crown Tarnished as Critics Accuse Her of Coup in Greece
by Leon Mangasarian
July 13, 2015 — 10:16 AM EDT
Europe’s deal with Greece was variously denounced as blackmail, an attack on national sovereignty and an end to the European dream. The accord’s detractors could at least agree on one thing: the chief culprit was Angela Merkel.
Having held sway in the unequal struggle with Alexis Tsipras over the terms of a third bailout, Merkel has ensured that the 19-nation euro area remains a club whose members abide by the rules or are shown the door. The question is what toll that stance has taken on her reputation and the extent of the damage to the international standing of Germany and Europe.
“This is, to all intents and purposes, a German-led economic coup d’etat,” said Nicholas Spiro, the managing director of Spiro Sovereign Strategy, an advisory firm in London. The “ultimatum to Greece is a reminder, if any were needed, that there’s no appetite whatsoever for the kind of large-scale integration required to shore up Europe’s shaky single-currency area.”
Merkel and her finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, were the chief protagonists in a weekend of negotiations that left Tsipras holding Greece’s continued membership of the euro as the main prize. Simply to open talks on as much as 86 billion euros ($95 billion) in aid, he had to capitulate on positions including pensions, taxes, the involvement of the International Monetary Fund and surrendering control of Greek state assets.
EU Acrimony
Shada Islam, director of policy at the Friends of Europe advisory group in Brussels, said that months of EU acrimony since Tsipras’s election in January as Greek premier at the head of an anti-austerity coalition has tarnished the bloc in the eyes of both its own citizens and globally.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-13/greek-deal-makes-europe-more-german-but-at-what-cost-
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