Starving Europeans? Never again!

By Alexander Görlach

Germany decided to shift its policy on the euro before the elections in Greece. This became clear when Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed the European Central Bank to flood the market with fresh euro bills. During the peak of the currency crisis and until most recently it was completely unthinkable that the German chancellor would ever grant the ECB a political role. But she has done so now.

Greece then voted and the result was unsurprising - both for Berlin and for Brussels. The rhetoric used by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and his Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis is brutal but - and this is crucial for Europe - they have suggested that Greece will comply with its previously-agreed obligations. That they are willing to discuss the conditions of paying back their loans is far better than writing taxpayers' money off completely.

By nature, the perception in Germany is different from that in Greece: The Greeks wanted to be part of the eurozone and snuck their way in at a time when the country was not ready for the common currency. Once they had entered, they could borrow money at lower interest rates, based on conditions that did not reflect Greece's true credit-worthiness. All this was intensified by the antics of corrupt elites, which feasted on the country's precarious economic situation for years.

Of course this is just one side of the story but it is crucial: Europe in general and Germany in particular is not responsible for the plight that has befallen the Greeks.

Now to the other side of the story: the German public expected the 240-billion-euro bailout to go into poor mothers' pensions and secure the jobs of Greek fishermen. We now learn that none of that money appears to have...