Greek Tragedy: Will the Contagion Spread?
After weeks of hesitation, Euro fears force Merkel to act on Greece.
— -- After weeks of hesitation over the German response to the Greek crisis , Chancellor Angela Merkel is suddenly calling for swift action.
"It is clear that the negotiations must now be accelerated," she said Wednesday at an appearance together with Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in Berlin. A serious-looking Merkel called for an agreement on assistance for Greece "within the next few days," adding: "We will not back out."
Observers were surprised by Merkel's strong words. Until now, the chancellor has not exactly come across as a driving force when it comes to action on the Greek crisis.
On the contrary, she has long been reluctant to promise the Greeks billions of euros in European aid, something which has earned her the nickname "Madame Non" in the European Union. At home in Germany, however, she has been feted by the tabloid press as the "Iron Chancellor" because she had rebuffed the "bankrupt Greeks."
Merkel thought she could sit out the crisis, postponing any unpopular promise to give aid to the Greeks at least until after key state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia on May 9. The vote is crucial to Merkel because it will determine whether her conservative Christian Democrats and their coalition partner, the business-friendly Free Democrats, are able to maintain their majority in the Bundesrat, Germany's upper legislative chamber which represents the interests of the states.
But Merkel's calculation that the markets could be kept calm until then with vague promises did not work out. After all, the forces of globalization do not care about a German state election.
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