SALON

Monday, Aug 6, 2012 11:15 AM UTC

German minister warns of euro debate tone

By

Topics: From the Wires,

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s foreign minister warned on Monday that arguments about European policy are taking on a “very dangerous” tone as worries mount about the future of the euro.

Guido Westerwelle didn’t specify who his comments were aimed at. But they came after Italian Premier Mario Monti warned over the weekend of tensions that “bear the traits of a psychological dissolution of Europe,” and a regional official in a German governing party said Greece must leave the euro this year.

“The tone is very dangerous. We must take care not to talk Europe down,” Westerwelle said in a statement.

He added that attempts to grab domestic political attention “cannot be the yardstick for our action in any European country, including Germany — the situation in Europe is too serious for that.”

Politicians from the Christian Social Union, the Bavaria-only sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, have made particularly hardline comments in recent days. Bavaria is due to hold state elections this time next year, shortly before German national elections.

Markus Soeder, the state’s finance minister and a CSU member, called in an interview published Sunday for Greece to leave the 17-nation eurozone before the year is out.

“An example must be made of Athens (to show) that the eurozone can show its teeth,” Soeder was quoted as telling the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. “The Germans can no longer be Greece’s paymaster … further help to Greece is like pouring water into the desert.”

Bailing out eurozone strugglers hasn’t been popular in Germany, Europe’s biggest economy. Westerwelle’s own Free Democrats — another junior partner in Merkel’s center-right coalition — have also talked tough on Greece. Vice Chancellor Philipp Roesler said recently that the idea of Athens leaving the euro has “lost its horror.”

The German government’s room for maneuver in the crisis is limited by the need for it to get Parliament’s approval for practically every rescue measure — something that the country’s supreme court has insisted on.

In his interview with the weekly Der Spiegel, published Sunday, Monti — who leads a government of technocrats — was quoted as saying that governments have to “educate” their parliaments as they try to reach agreements on the eurozone’s future.

‘If governments let themselves be fully bound by the decisions of their parliaments without preserving any room for maneuver, Europe breaking apart would be more likely than closer integration,” he said, according to the report.

Westerwelle responded that parliamentary oversight of European policy could not be questioned.

“We need a strengthening, not a weakening of democratic legitimation in Europe,” he said.

The CSU was less diplomatic. Its general secretary, Alexander Dobrindt, told the daily Die Welt: “Mr. Monti clearly needs a clear announcement that we Germans will not be prepared to abolish our democracy to finance Italian debt.”

More Geir Moulson.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Journalists file suit against Manning's trial secrecy: Plaintiffs including Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange demand press, public access to trial and documents
164 points165 points | comment
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
146 points147 points | 96 comments
vote
Report: Nearly a quarter of Americans struggle to afford food
142 points143 points | 12 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
140 points141 points | 59 comments
vote
Ted Cruz against the world - How the Junior Senator is igniting the GOP civil war
78 points79 points | 21 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations