What will he do now?
Brussels sources brush aside ‘British bluster’.
Merkel in the driving seat in Brussels….and the hot seat in Berlin
In a move that puts David Cameron’s Coalition on the spot, Brussels sources told The Slog late last night that Britain must contribute to the new Greek bailout plan – and it will. As George Osborne gave a Mansion House speech that barely mentioned the EU at all, this latest move by the Union will blow the Camerlot Cuts further off-course unless it is confronted.
Two days ago in Brussels, German officials told a meeting of EU finance ministers that all 27 EU countries had to contribute to the proposed bailout. The Coalition was ‘resisting fiercely’ according to Treasury insiders yesterday, following the Treasury’s earlier insistence that ,”We do not want to be part of any second European assistance package for Greece. And no such proposal has been made”.
But according to The Slog’s EU mole, this is untrue.
“It is the usual bluster from Britain,” he told us, “But the British have no choice. They have an EU central bank, and the Germans are adamant that all EU central banks must contribute. This has been made perfectly clear to the UK’s officials here, and it is something they know they must do. There is no more to it than that”.
Meanwhile, more details of the hastily prepared deal are beginning to emerge, with figures of around a 103 billion euros being bandied about in Europe and its media. You may note that in the second paragraph above, ‘German officials’ told an EU finance meeting the way things were going to be; and in the paragraph immediately above, ‘the Germans are adamant’. Last night The Slog posted to confirm that the ECB’s exposure to clubMed debt is now half a trillion dollars. But despite this, Jean-Claude Trichet has been given his orders – and fallen into line. It is fairly clear to everyone now who appears to be running the show….Angela Merkel.
But Frau Merkel has big problems of her own. This morning Der Spiegel noted that, on her return from Washington, Merkel was ‘greeted with devastating numbers from the pollsters at Berlin’s Forsa Institute: Only 35% of Germans say they would vote today for the governing coalition, made up of her conservatives in combination with the business-friendly Free Democrats (FDP). A coalition of the centre-left Social Democrats and the Greens would attract just short of 50%.’
There is also a war going on between two ministers charged with developing a joint strategy to tackle the European monetary and debt crisis. The relationship between FDP Chairman Rösler, who is also economics minister, and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble is in meltdown, such that the lines of communication between them have been severed. This does help to explain the chaotic nature of the Greek bailout ‘plan’ – which looks increasingly like the takeover of a nation State….by an elite of denialists who will do anything to avoid the Franco-German banking collapse that must follow the default of Greece.
In that context, not only has the Greek population turned violent – Papandreou last night publicly pondered if his resignation might calm things down – but at some point along this road those people suffering from the mess in Britain must surely start asking why one earth the UK is bailing out a euozone shambles for which it bears absolutely no responsibility….and paying out to protect foreign banks who gave silly loans to Taverna owners.
The view in Camerlot remains that British outrage will never happen in a way that becomes a problem for the Coalitio. A senior Cabinet Minister confided to The Slog, “Voters get angry about some aspects of the EU, but it’s not a vital issue for them. Our future is inextricably tied up with Europe”.
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