Germany was ruling out any substantive shift in its approach to Europe's debt
crisis despite a rising chorus of opposition to Berlin's austerity policies
that reached a crescendo in the elections in Greece and France on May 6, 2012.
On the following day, Merkel “rejected the notion that Europe was on the brink
of a major policy shift after Socialist Francois Hollande defeated her fellow
conservative Nicolas Sarkozy and Greek voters punished ruling parties who
slashed spending to secure a foreign bailout. . . . Merkel herself made clear
that, while there was scope to discuss tactics, the overall strategy EU leaders
committed to by agreeing a compact on fiscal consolidation was ‘not negotiable.’”[1] That seems a bit presumptuous, considering that the “fiscal pact” had yet to be
ratified in enough of the states to go into effect.
The full essay is in Essays on the E.U. Political Economy, available in print and as an ebook at Amazon.
1. Noah Barkin and Stephen
Brown, “Germany Austerity Policies: Berlin Unmoved by Votes in France, Germany,”
The Huffington Post, May 7, 2012.
