politics for the 99%

Published on Spiegel Online International, by Peter Müller, René Pfister and Christian Reiermann, June 12, 2015 (Photo Gallery).

Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble appears to have given up hope of a satisfactory outcome to the Greek crisis. Unlike the chancellor, he is willing to cut the rope on Athens. But will he dare to dig in his heels and defy Merkel?  

It was a dramatic week. One in which the rumors did the rounds that Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble was basically as good as gone; that he had fallen out with Chancellor Merkel and was planning a coup. Then, at the end of this turbulent week, Schäuble made a joke … //

… His Own Man: … //
… Turning to Euphemisms: … //
… Refusing to be Blackmailed: … //
… Good Cop, Bad Cop: … //

… A Sinister Agenda?

That’s why she’s so annoyed with Schäuble. And he is suspected of having more sinister motives. Could he be out to destroy Kohl’s legacy because he has been denied the opportunity to build on it himself? It’s a stretch, to be sure, but the fact that many in the CDU are thinking in such Shakespearean terms suggests that they are keeping a close eye on Schäuble.

If he wanted to, Schäuble could easily drum up support for a rebellion against Merkel. In February, when the Bundestag voted to extend financial aid to Greece, over 100 members of parliament stressed it was for the last time — and only voted in favor of the extension because Schäuble had made his position on Greece clear. Were he to give it the thumbs down, Merkel will have a tough time persuading her party otherwise.

A recent meeting of the CDU parliamentary faction illustrated the extent to which parliament is on Schäuble’s side. The session would normally begin with the finance minister giving a brief summary of the state of negotiations with Athens, but this time he merely told his listeners that he had nothing to report. “The situation is the same as it was two weeks ago,” he said. “There’s been no change.”

A wave of mirth went through the room, with parliamentarians laughing in agreement. They knew exactly what he meant: He had lost faith that the Greeks would find a sensible solution. But first and foremost, he was implying that Merkel’s involvement had failed to move things along. Schäuble knows full well that the chancellor is not at liberty to bail out anyone as she sees fit. She has to take the IMF into consideration, as well as her counterparts in Germany’s partner countries — some of whom make Schäuble look like he’s positively soft on Greece.

Merkel could see the effect of Schäuble’s comment and chose not to respond with her own version of events. But she can only hope that he refrains from starting a rebellion. She knows how stubborn he is, but ultimately, he has always ended up toeing the line. He owes his longevity to his resilience. He put up with forever being Kohl’s crown prince, and he put up with Merkel passing him over and appointing Horst Köhler president. The expectation in Merkel’s circles is that he will now put up with her decision on Greece — reluctantly, perhaps, but he will be loyal nonetheless.

There is much to back up this theory. “The finance minister needs to accept that the chancellor might not always agree with him,” he said in the fall of 2009, shortly after he assumed office. But now that he will be turning 73 this September, he might no longer feel he needs to be as agreeable. Being obstinate, after all, is the prerogative of the elderly.

(full long text).

Related Links:

on en.wikipedia:

• Greek government-debt crisis (also known as the Greek Depression[3][4][5]) started between end-of-2009 and April 2010. It is seen as part of the ongoing European debt crisis …; /See also;
• Greek government-debt crisis countermeasures The Greek government-debt crisis is one of a number of current European sovereign-debt crises. In late 2009, fears of a sovereign debt crisis developed among investors concerning Greece’s ability to meet its debt obligations due to strong increase in government debt levels.[1][2][3] This led to a crisis of confidence, indicated by a widening of bond yield spreads and the cost of risk insurance on credit default swaps compared to the other countries in the Eurozone, most importantly Germany …;
• Greek withdrawal from the eurozone is the potential exit of Greece from the eurozone monetary union, primarily for the country to deal with its increasingly unmanageable public debt. The controversial and much discussed possible exit is often referred to in financial circles as “Grexit” or “grexit”, a portmanteau combining the words “Greek exit” introduced by Citigroup’s Chief Analysts Willem H. Buiter and Ebrahim Rahbari on 6 February 2012.[1][2] Proponents of the proposal argue that leaving the euro and reintroducing the drachma would dramatically boost exports and tourism and encourage the local economy while discouraging expensive imports. Opponents argue that the proposal would impose excessive hardship on the Greek people, cause civil unrest, destabilize and harm the reputation of the eurozone, and could cause Greece to align more with non-EU states. On 27 January 2015, two days after an early election of the Greek parliament, Alexis Tsipras, leader of the new Syriza (”Coalition of the Radical Left”) party, formed a new government. He appointed Yanis Varoufakis as Minister of Finance, a particularly important post in view of the government debt crisis. Since then, the chance of a Grexit or even a ‘Graccident’ (accidental Grexit) in the near future has been widely discussed[3][4][5][6] …; /See also; /External Links;
• Currency substitution / (example: Euroization) occurs when the inhabitants of a country use a foreign currency in parallel to or instead of the domestic currency … // … The major currencies used as substitutes are the United States dollar, the euro, the New Zealand dollar, the Swiss franc, the Indian rupee, the Australian dollar, the Armenian dram, the Turkish lira, the Israeli shekel, and the Russian ruble …; /See also;
• European Exchange Rate Mechanism ERM was a system introduced by the European Economic Community on 13 March 1979, as part of the European Monetary System EMS, to reduce exchange rate variability and achieve monetary stability in Europe, in preparation for Economic and Monetary Union and the introduction of a single currency, the euro, which took place on 1 January 1999 …;
• Treaty of Rome (of 1957) officially the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community (TEEC), is an international agreement that led to the founding of the European Economic Community EEC on 1 January 1958 …;
• Economic union is a type of trade bloc which is composed of a common market with a customs union …;
• CDU Donation scandal refers to the discovery of illegal forms of party financing by the German Christian Democratic Union CDU during the 1990s, which included the accepting of hidden donations, the non-disclosure of cash donations, the maintenance of secret bank accounts, and illegal wire transfers to and from foreign banks …; /See also;
• Wolfgang Schäuble born 18 September 1942) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union CDU …; /External Links;
• Yanis Varoufakis … born 24 March 1961)[2] is a Greek economist. He is the current finance minister of Greece.[3] In the January 2015 general election, he was elected to the Greek parliament, representing SYRIZA,[4] and took office in the new government of Alexis Tsipras two days later, on 27 January 2015.[5] He is a political economist, professor, and author, and has dual Greek-Australian nationality …; /External Links;
• Politics of Germany;
• Third Merkel cabinet;
• Angela Merkel;

on Spiegel Online International:

• Euro Crisis;
• Greece;
• Grexit;

Articles:

• Greece running out of time to avoid default, leaders concede, on The Guardian, by Ian Traynor in Brussels, June 12, 2015: Until Friday EU executives have refused to countenance the prospect of default and the issue has not been discussed at any official level;
• Greece defies creditors’ demands for decisions on reform, on Financial Times FT, by Peter Spiegel in Brussels and Michael Hunter in London, June 12, 2015;
• Stocks retreat as Greece worries weigh, on Financial Times FT, by Dave Shellock, June 12, 2015;
• Athens Defies Washington, Greece to Join Russia’s Turkish Stream Pipeline Project, on Global Research.ca, by Stephen Lendman, June 2, 2015;
• Breaking the Resistance: How Brussels Is Integrating Its Euro-Skeptics, on Spiegel Online International, by Manfred Ertel, Julia Amalia Heyer and Christoph Scheuermann in Brussels and Strasbourg, June 1, 2015: (Photo Gallery): One year ago, more euro-skeptics got elected to the European Parliament than ever before, including a number of MEPs from Austria, Britain, France and Greece. They wanted to attack Europe from within, but instead the EU transformed them;
• Interview with French EU Commissioner Pierre Moscovici: A Grexit Would Be a Catastrophe, on Spiegel Online International, by René Pfister and Gregor Peter Schmitz, March 13, 2015: … Pierre Moscovici, 57, discusses efforts in Brussels to ensure that Greece remains in the euro zone and why he believes a Greek exit would be a disaster for Europe;

zu Griechenland im Spiegel online:

• Tsipras: kompromissbereit – doch EU und IWF streiten, 13. Juni 2015;
• Griechen-Krise: Varoufakis hofft auf Merkels Milde, 13. Juni 2015;
• Insolvenzordnung für Eurozone: Schäuble will Fahrplan für Staatspleiten entwickeln, 13. Juni 2015;
• Griechenland-Verhandlungen: Am Abgrund, 12. Juni 2015;
• Griechenlands Regierungschef Tsipras: Im Ausland der Buhmann – zu Hause ein Held, 12. Juni 2015;

Other Links:

Pentagon seeks network of new US military bases in Iraq, on World Socialist Web Site WSWS, by Thomas Gaist, 13 June 2015, June 13, 2015;

Hackers compromised US security-clearance database – report,on Russia Today RT, June 13, 2015;

The Strategic Defeat of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on The Bullet, Socialist Project’s E-bulletin no 1127, by Sungur Savran, June 12, 2015;

Police killed over 500 people in the US this year, on World Socialist Web Site WSWS, by Tom Hall and Andre Damon, 12 June 2015;

German Companies Stop Sales of Monsanto’s “Roundup” Herbicide, on Global Research.ca (first in german on Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten), by Eric Zuesse, June 12, 2015;

Audio: Two Decades After – a Different Kind of State, 23.12 min, on Academia.edu, June 2, 2015: on the Continuing Need for Democratic Administration. Presentation at the 2015 Congress of the Humanities and Social Science/Society for Socialist Studies.