Merkel engaged in an act of statesmanship on Friday when she decided that she would set aside objections on the part of German voters and try to preserve the euro as the currency for all of Europe. She would back the ECB-French initiative to hammer out an gentlemen’s agreement for Greek debt financing modeled after the 2009 Vienna Accords when banks agreed to continue loans in Eastern Europe during the financial crisis. It will be a hard sell back home, but she is popular and can probably pull it off. After all, Germany had a very prosperous year last year and continues prosperous this year. They just have to spread it around all over the continent. This has been reported in the Saturday edition of the Wall Street Journal, “Greek Crisis Eases For Now” with a dateline both in Berlin and Athens and a picture of Merkel and Sarkozy.
Merkel is probably looking to build a legacy for herself when she is out of office. Maybe it will make her slightly unpopular this year, but she is making decisions for the ages and the history books. After all, didn’t she say earlier this year that the euro was “Germany’s destiny”?
But how successful Merkel is depends on the execution. On Sunday and Monday the European Finance ministers must meet in a group in Luxembourg. Jean-Claude Juncker’s group must hammer out the exact language of what is being agreed to. Because then on June 24 Merkel and Sarkozy must sign it into law. Maybe they will even take another walk. Anything that would look good in a history book! Drama will probably help voters accept it, too.
Merkel and Sarkozy