Think twice before you ask Angela for help IF THE Greeks hoped their vote would mean a respite from German harangues, they were quickly disabused. There can be no “rebates” for Greece, said Angela Merkel, the chancellor. Greece must honour its obligations, added Wolfgang Schäuble, the finance minister. When Guido Westerwelle, the foreign minister, mused about shifting the “time axis” for Greek reforms, the government swiftly clarified that he was talking of weeks, not months. Bavaria’s premier, Horst Seehofer, even revealed that his Christian Social Union, part of Mrs Merkel’s government, wants a constitutional change to require a referendum each time Germany considers a bail-out.Mr Seehofer knows the result for Greece would be negative. That is why German policy on the euro is unlikely to change soon. As Germans, like all Europeans, struggle to understand the euro crisis, one storyline has replaced another. In the language of archetypes, Germans now seem to have changed from philhellenic good Europeans into bean-counting Swabian housewives.Thus in May 2010 most Germans said it was...
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