As the Greek state coffers look conspicuously empty and the tension created between the Finance Ministers of Greece and Germany doesn’t seem to ease up, the upcoming meeting between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been the subject of wild speculation. On Monday, the two leaders spoke on the phone for 20 minutes and at the end of their conversation Merkel invited Tsipras to Berlin next Monday. The invite was certainly not for coffee and strudels. At the moment, relations between the two countries could not be worse. In Greece, mass media depict Germans as merciless Nazis who want to steal whatever’s left of the crisis-stricken country. On the other side of the trenches, German media portray Greeks as greedy beggars who want to live on other people’s money forever. Greece’s comeback is the demand for World War II reparations. As for the two Finance Ministers, they go at it like heavyweight champions. Recently Yanis Varoufakis was accused of extending the middle finger, literally, to Germany, while Wolfgang Schaeuble never misses the opportunity to state how undiplomatic, naive and clueless the new Greek government is. The first thing that comes to mind is that the German Chancellor wants to end this “cold war” between the two countries that, after all, are allies and partners. Contrary to Scheuble’s repeated jabs on Greece, Merkel never forgets to reiterate that Germany will do everything so that Greece remains in the Eurozone. She has also been suspiciously silent through all this bickering between the two countries. Maybe Schaeuble and Merkel play good cop/bad cop. Despite the orchestrated talk that a Grexit would be relatively bloodless for the Eurozone, Merkel knows that the blow will be hard. Euroskepticism is growing, the common currency has reached rock bottom, even little Iceland said “no, thanks” to the European Union. With Greece leaving the common currency bloc, Europe will lose face. And the German Chancellor doesn’t want that. There is a lot at stake if Greece leaves the Eurozone and looks for alliances elsewhere. The new Greek government has often hinted at it. A little flirting with Russia, new trade deals with China, a hinted threat that illegal immigrants will flood Europe via Greece, and all of a sudden, Tsipras seems like he has a negotiating ace up his sleeve. No wonder, then, Washington is anxious that negotiations between Greece and its creditors have a positive outcome for all. U.S. President Barack Obama has often shown interest in Greece’s bailout negotiations and has urged the German Chancellor to be more lenient with Athens. The country’s geopolitical position is crucial for the U.S. and NATO, much more so now that the Islamic State is approaching through Libya. On Tuesday, Tsipras asked to meet with the four key figures of Europe in the sidelines of Thursday’s European Union Summit in Brussels: European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Merkel, of course. The Greek problem is not on the summit agenda. Ukraine and Russia are the issues to be discussed. However, the Greek Prime Minister wants to include the issue on the agenda. So what this invitation probably means is that Merkel wants to deter Tsipras from distracting the summit. This way, she will also take the matter into her own hands. She will probably offer an “honorable compromise” that the cash-strapped Greek leader will accept. After all, he wanted a political solution to Greece’s financial problem. As it is now, no matter what the Greek negotiating team is trying, numbers don’t add up. It is very likely then that the German Chancellor wants to take credit for solving the Greek problem. It will be a personal victory for her if she manages to make the defiant Greeks finally comply to European rules. Eurozone stability will be restored, Greece will breathe, for a few months at least, and the German Chancellor will prove that she is the undisputed leader of Europe and at the same time she will please Obama. Especially knowing that on April 8 Tsipras is heading to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin.
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