All eyes on German leader at make-or-break summit
GERMANY: On her Facebook page, German leader Angela Merkel
lists as her favourite quote a line from former chancellor Konrad
Adenauer: "The point of policy is not to be right but to be right after
all."
That sums up her leadership approach: pragmatic, cautious, waiting to
see which way the wind blows before acting. But analysts say the euro
crisis has galvanised her and that Europe's future lies as much in
Berlin as in Brussels.
It is Merkel's Germany that kicked off the debate on bank
recapitalisation in Europe, is now pushing investors to take harsher
losses on Greek debt and is driving root-and-branch reforms to turn the
eurozone into a fiscal union.
But it has not always been this way. Merkel earned herself the
soubriquet "Madame Non" during the 2008 crisis for appearing to dither
over a stimulus package for Europe's powerhouse economy. This time
around, she seems to have realised the seriousness of the crisis. As she
reiterated again on Wednesday ahead of the summit: "If the euro fails,
then Europe fails. We will not let that happen." AFP |