When George Papandreou addressed an audience of businessmen in Berlin on the painful subject of the euro crisis last week, he must have been surprised by the warmth of his welcome: far friendlier than anything the increasingly isolated Greek prime minister is used to back home.
Even more remarkable, given that Greece and its ever-expanding need for a bail-out is the cause of so much angst in Germany, the applause he received was louder than that for the Chancellor, Angela Merkel.
But the reason goes directly to the heart of the problem Germany faces. None of the industrialists – representatives of great German manufacturing companies like Siemens, BMW and Volkswagen – who gathered a 1960s conference centre in the former communist east of Berlin to hear him speak, want the euro to fail. Most would rather gamble just a little bit more of Germany's hard-earned cash to help Greece get out of its mess. And all wanted to believe his message, that the tough reforms promised by Greece would not only be delivered, but would work.
"We're not asking for applause, but we are simply asking for respect of the facts," he said. "Is there any hope? Will we ultimately succeed? My answer is yes, we can!"
As it turned out, last week was a decisive one for Mrs Merkel. On Thursday, she saw off a rebellion in her own ruling coalition and got the plan for an expanded bail-out fund through the German parliament, the Bundestag, with enough votes not to have needed the strong support that also came from the opposition.
But the question for Germany is still unanswered. Are Germans right to continue, grudgingly, to help their southern European cousins out of the mess that their bad habits have got them into? Or are we simply pouring good money after bad? Continue reading and comment » | Clemens Wergin*, in Berlin | Sunday, October 02, 2011
*Clemens Wergin is Foreign Editor of Die Welt
