Iron Chancellor

Europe’s Iron Lady is getting tired of the Greek situation. Spiegel on what we can expect from Merkel going forward.

Antonis Samaras’ trip to Germany next week will be a complicated one. The Greek prime minister is expected to ask Angela Merkel for his country to be given two more years to adhere to the austerity conditions attached to the country’s EU-IMF bailout program. With political resistance growing in Berlin, the chancellor has little leeway for compromise.

The German guest on Greek public television had pleasant words. He said he was very consciously taking his vacation in Greece, a country of “hardworking people who support their families by working.” He said he hoped the “Greece-bashing” would finally come to an end back in Germany. Athens, he added, needs to be given additional time for its reform efforts because an exit from the euro isn’t up for debate. “I am pretty certain,” he said. “I hope and I expect that Greece will remain (a part of the euro zone).”

Unfortunately, at least from the perspective of the Greeks, it wasn’t Chancellor Angela Merkel doing the talking. It was her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder, who is currently vacationing on the Greek island of Kos. The center-left politician with the Social Democratic Party took a brief break from his holidays to give an interview to public broadcaster NET. During it, he sought to provide a few words of encouragement to the Greeks and to also offer sharp criticism of Merkel’s ruling conservative coalition.

Full article here.