Angela Merkel will not candidate for the CDU party leadership in the coming party congress in december. That's the first step of ending her chancellorship. https://www.focus.de/politik/deutsc...t-nicht-mehr-fuer-cdu-vorsitz_id_9808617.html After the CDU debacle in the Hessian election (federal state election, -11 % for the CDU) on Sunday and the late debacle in Bavaria Merkel just has finished and will only have to manage her succession. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hessian_state_election,_2018 Being party leader since 2000 she is responsible for the CDU losses and the stagnation in the German government. Good news for Germany and Europe, in my opinion she waited too long to pass on her responsiblities.
It has been quite clear that this will be her very last term as chancellor, so stepping down as the party leader of the CDU seems the first logical move. It's indeed time for something and someone new. I've hardly ever agreed with her politics and think she's overdue. Late Roger Willemsen put it very nicely when he said "Merkel hat die Demokratie eingelullt".
Hopefully German dominance of the EU economy will follow Merkel out the door. Her treatment of Greece has been horrible. She may stay on as chancellor but she'll be weakened.
Backwards: Germany dominated the EU and got the strongest economy. Look at the criminal activity concerning automobile emissions. For decades they treated their workers in a substandard fashion. The result is that they undercut France and other EU countries with lower wages. With a common currency, the euro, countries like Italy and Greece couldn't devalue in order to compete. Too many people idolize Germany. Remember Germany's military is 0 for 2.
Germany, back then West-Germany, had a strong economy for decades, it didn't become strong with the introduction of the Euro, besides, Greece and Italy wanted to join the common currency. There are documents from 1994-'98 that show that German advisors argued against Italy joining the Euro. Unfortunately Helmut Kohl as well as Romano Prodi ignored these warnings. http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausla...-beitritts-von-italien-zum-euro-a-831590.html The back then Greek government insisted on being part of the Euro, so they did, despite warnings from other countries' financial experts. The claim that workers in Germany were treated in a substandard fashion for decades is false. In fact, standards were very high and Germany was a high-wage country for many decades. That has changed in the last 12-14 years, was initiated under chancellor Schröder and continued under Merkel. This interactive graphics shows that wages in Germany and France are actually very similar, data from Jan. '18, the claim that Germany undercuts France with lower wages is incorrect. http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/einkommen-so-stehen-sie-im-europaeischen-vergleich-a-1188143.html
Wow! Eight reply's to this tread in 6 days. At this rate you should be blowing up the charts in a couple years. Guess Merkle just has no interest with Americans.
Greece just overstepped their economic capability, and was able to pay most of the bills. Germany made sure they did. Lots of Northern European countries fully supported getting their own money back. Greece was free to default on their debts. It was their fault, their choice how to solve it. Utterly ridiculous an entire country should receive a handout from other taxpayers, so they could go on their early retirement plans. And it sounds like Merkel is going to start to enjoy her retirement. She has passed the Greek retirement age years ago already.
The loans were set up by Wall Street and London banks. They were set up so Greece could qualify for EU membership rules. These banks knew Greece would have problems and the loans should not have been written. The Wall Street and London banks then sold all these loans to the banks in Frankfurt. These German banks in Frankfurt were stupid for buying the loans without due diligence. They were suckered by the Wall Street and London banks. They should have shouldered some of the pain also. In the end the citizens of Greece suffered greatly for the dishonest activities of their government, the Wall Street banks, and the London banks. Also why should the stupidity of the Frankfurt banks be rewarded.
https://www.cfr.org/timeline/greeces-debt-crisis-timeline Go down the timeline to 2001 and read: "It is subsequently made public that U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs helped Greece conceal part of its debt in 2001 through complex credit-swap transactions."
You seem to hint that Greece was too dumb to realize what it was getting into and became the victim of the banks. Ridiculous. The country is responsible for it's own actions. Among things, policies that a civil servant is unable to get fired. And their utterly fanatic early retirement plans. And utterly wide spread corruption and tax fraud. It was not sustainable. And you're not even taking one glimp of that into account.
It was the free choice of Greece to accept the loans. It's a big boy, and so responsible for it's own actions. And you're treating Greece as a retard that needs mental help. Just utterly weird.
