This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jul/06/merkel-germany-greek-voters-austerity-german-reaction-referendum-eurozone-greece
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| What now, Merkel? asks Germany after Greek voters reject further austerity | What now, Merkel? asks Germany after Greek voters reject further austerity |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Waiting at Berlin’s Zoo station for an S-Bahn train to take her home from a night shift, Diana Well took a glance at the daily papers being sold on the platform. “What now, chancellor?” she said, reading out the headline in the tabloid Bild. “Yes, that’s just what I’d like to know,” the 54-year-old said. | |
| “I work hard, but I try to follow the news as best I can – Syria, the migrant crisis and Greece – and I can say while I’m dumbfounded by a lot of what goes on in the world, the situation in Athens just makes me shake my head and has done over five long years.” | “I work hard, but I try to follow the news as best I can – Syria, the migrant crisis and Greece – and I can say while I’m dumbfounded by a lot of what goes on in the world, the situation in Athens just makes me shake my head and has done over five long years.” |
| Looking at front-page photographs of Greeks celebrating their no vote victory against a backdrop of red-coloured fountains, Well asked: “Why would you celebrate the fact that you’re closer to leaving the euro, unless you have of course been led to believe by your young and dashing prime minister that because of a magic cross in a box, you’re now the controller of your own destiny? It reminds me of the emperor’s new clothes.” | |
| “Was nun, Kanzerlin?” as the headline read, is precisely what most Germans appeared to be asking, as Angela Merkel arrived at the chancellery in Berlin ton Monday morning looking tired and distinctly disheveled. While the electric storm that battered much of Germany on Sunday night after the hottest day of the year, might well have contributed to the chancellor’s obvious lack of sleep, it is more likely to have been late-night brainstorming with colleagues in Berlin and Brussels over how to avoid a Grexit that was to blame. | |
| Related: Greek referendum: optimism fades as eurozone says gulf has widened | Related: Greek referendum: optimism fades as eurozone says gulf has widened |
| The Greek debt crisis – particularly the past seven days of it – has been called by some commentators the lowest point in Merkel’s 10-year tenure, and one which could even see her swept out of office, just as signals were being sent that she would like to try for a fourth term in 2017. | |
| The German chancellor is coming under increasing pressure within her government to shift from her desire to reach a compromise deal with Athens – expressed by her oft-repeated phrase that has become akin to her mantra: ‘Where there’s a will there’s a way’ – to a more hardline approach that would envisage a eurozone without Greece. | |
| Merkel risks a growing band of rebellious CDU MPs if she does not alter her position, which largely stems from a fear of going down in history as the person who wrecked the European project. Certainly voices against further bailout packages for Greece are growing ever louder within her own conservative bloc and among her coalition partners, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD). | |
| The German government’s line was palpably hardened on Monday, with Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert repeating the sentiments of many across the main political parties, when he said it was time for the Greeks to start coming up with answers themselves. | The German government’s line was palpably hardened on Monday, with Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert repeating the sentiments of many across the main political parties, when he said it was time for the Greeks to start coming up with answers themselves. |
| Greece is a member of the euro. It is up to Greece and its government to act so that this can remain the case | Greece is a member of the euro. It is up to Greece and its government to act so that this can remain the case |
| “Greece is a member of the euro. It is up to Greece and its government to act so that this can remain the case,” he said. “It depends now on what proposals the Greek government puts on the table.” At the same time Seibert stressed that “the door is always open for further talks”. | “Greece is a member of the euro. It is up to Greece and its government to act so that this can remain the case,” he said. “It depends now on what proposals the Greek government puts on the table.” At the same time Seibert stressed that “the door is always open for further talks”. |
| The leftwing daily TAZ warned that while Europe’s elite would consider the Greeks’ collective no as a provocation, they should not rush into orchestrating a Grexit. The eurozone would instead be “well-advised to finally meet the Greeks halfway”, it said. | The leftwing daily TAZ warned that while Europe’s elite would consider the Greeks’ collective no as a provocation, they should not rush into orchestrating a Grexit. The eurozone would instead be “well-advised to finally meet the Greeks halfway”, it said. |
| In the south of Germany, the Münchner (Merkur said that while the government of Alexis Tsipras had “placed everything on red in their game of Greek roulette, and won”, the victory was pyrrhic. “As soon as the jubilance in Athens dies down and the government’s propaganda lies have evaporated, the Greeks will realise they have taken a path … that will not lead to the promised socialist paradise, but back to the drachma,” it said in its main editorial. | In the south of Germany, the Münchner (Merkur said that while the government of Alexis Tsipras had “placed everything on red in their game of Greek roulette, and won”, the victory was pyrrhic. “As soon as the jubilance in Athens dies down and the government’s propaganda lies have evaporated, the Greeks will realise they have taken a path … that will not lead to the promised socialist paradise, but back to the drachma,” it said in its main editorial. |
| The Dithmarscher Landeszeitung, from Germany’s North Sea coast, said the Greek government had destroyed any goodwill towards them “by insulting their partners in calling them terrorists and vampires”. It added that Greece’s only option now was to introduce a parallel currency or borrower’s notes. | The Dithmarscher Landeszeitung, from Germany’s North Sea coast, said the Greek government had destroyed any goodwill towards them “by insulting their partners in calling them terrorists and vampires”. It added that Greece’s only option now was to introduce a parallel currency or borrower’s notes. |
| Related: Greek referendum: what happens now after the no vote? | Related: Greek referendum: what happens now after the no vote? |
| Amid such anger the German government was left with its usual dilemma: whether to take the lead but then face, as it so often has in this crisis, accusations of heavy-handedness bordering on dictatorship; or to stand back and wait for a consensus to form, but then risk being chided for failing to take the initiative as Europe’s largest economy. | |
| Merkel will hope that her suppertime meeting with the French president, François Hollande, in Paris on Monday will at least help to give the impression of a common stance. | Merkel will hope that her suppertime meeting with the French president, François Hollande, in Paris on Monday will at least help to give the impression of a common stance. |
| So far on Monday there has been no word from Wolfgang Schäuble. Germany’s finance minister has been at odds with Merkel in recent weeks, after making it plain that he favoured at the very least a temporary exit of Greece from the eurozone, in contrast to her desire to keep on talking and in the event of a yes in Sunday’s referendum, negotiating a third bailout. Last week his popularity ratings had reached an all-time high, with the majority of Germans welcoming his stance while Merkel’s judgment has been increasingly called into question. | |
| Hans Michelbach, a representative of small- and medium-sized companies in the CSU, the sister party of Merkel’s CDU, told German radio the Greek people “did not deserve to have been ... taken hostage by their own government”. He predicted that the rest of Europe would soon be delivering humanitarian aid to Greece, but ruled out the idea of a debt write-off. | Hans Michelbach, a representative of small- and medium-sized companies in the CSU, the sister party of Merkel’s CDU, told German radio the Greek people “did not deserve to have been ... taken hostage by their own government”. He predicted that the rest of Europe would soon be delivering humanitarian aid to Greece, but ruled out the idea of a debt write-off. |
| But Günter Verheugen, a member of the SPD and a former EU commissioner, said the European project threatened to fall apart if Berlin did not overcome its fear that to make concessions to Greece would mean other countries would be lining up to receive similar conditions. | But Günter Verheugen, a member of the SPD and a former EU commissioner, said the European project threatened to fall apart if Berlin did not overcome its fear that to make concessions to Greece would mean other countries would be lining up to receive similar conditions. |
| “I think this is the reason that this row is so bitter and so deep,” he told public radion Deutschlandfunk. “But it has in the meantime gone so far beyond that, that we really need to be recognising today that our Europe is threatening to fall apart. … and we cannot let that happen.” | “I think this is the reason that this row is so bitter and so deep,” he told public radion Deutschlandfunk. “But it has in the meantime gone so far beyond that, that we really need to be recognising today that our Europe is threatening to fall apart. … and we cannot let that happen.” |
| The DAX lost about 2% of its value on Monday morning, falling by 10.854 points to 3371, far less than expected, as most German analysts were agreeing the risk of a Grexit had increased. | The DAX lost about 2% of its value on Monday morning, falling by 10.854 points to 3371, far less than expected, as most German analysts were agreeing the risk of a Grexit had increased. |
| In neighbouring Poland, a survey carried out for the rightwing daily Rzeczpospolita by polling institute Ibris suggested that almost 60% of Poles rejected continued financial support for Greece. |