How Angela Merkel allowed the Greek crisis to turn into a debacle for Europe

(Image credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

published 6 July 2015

With Greek voters declaring "enough" to the harsh austerity measures that have kept their country in a deep recession for years, the possibility of Greece's exit from the eurozone is more likely than ever — an outcome that would shake the great European project of integration that has dominated the post-communist era. In a long article that is, all things considered, very sympathetic to the German position, Der Spiegel shows how Chancellor Angela Merkel, the most powerful official in Europe, allowed the crisis to metastasize into a debacle for the continent.

The main criticism is that Merkel allowed the situation to drift, failing to take a strong stance that would either allow Greece to leave the euro with minimal damage or soften the so-called troika's terms to keep Greece in the currency union:

Merkel saw what was happening, but she didn't have the courage to face the consequences. And there were alternatives. She could have offered Greece a safe and supported path out of the eurozone. That is the course of action that Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has supported internally for years. She could also have offered Greece a debt haircut. Had she done so at the right moment, she could at least have prevented the radicalization of Greek politics.None of these options would have been free of risk. They would have required courage and money, and they would have opened up Merkel to attack. And that is something she didn't want.So she hid behind the troika, behind the hated technocrats, thereby accelerating the rise of Syriza. Indeed, Tsipras is, to a certain extent, a product of Merkel's vacillating leadership style. In the Chancellery, people are expressing relief that Tsipras was unable to drive Europe apart and that nobody is blaming Germany for the current impasse. That may be true, but it is also a rather simplistic view. Success for Merkel is when nobody is pointing their finger at her. [Der Spiegel]