Forget Nicolas Sarkozy. Ignore Gordon Brown. Angela Merkel, taking advantage of Germanyâs economic heft, is now the European Unionâs dominant figure. And leaders from Warsaw to Washington had best not forget it.
Just as the German chancellor vetoed a bailout for eastern Europe on March 1, she is now leading European opposition to U.S. President Barack Obamaâs call for a global pump-priming package. Sheâll determine the fate of a 5 billion-euro ($6.4 billion) infrastructure proposal at an EU summit in Brussels later this week.
âItâs Merkel who holds the key to the cashbox, and she doesnât want to give it up,â says Jean-Dominique Giuliani, chairman of the Robert Schuman Foundation, a research center in Paris.
Merkelâs rejection of more stimulus touched off the first trans-Atlantic clash of the Obama administration and led critics to say she risks deepening the global recession. Even as finance ministers from the Group of 20 nations were meeting in southern England March 14, seeking to paper over differences with a pledge to deliver a âsustained effortâ to boost growth, Merkel was 42 miles (67 kilometers) away in London, defending her opposition to further spending.
âGermany really has contributed its share,â said Merkel, 54, as she stood alongside Brown, the U.K. prime minister.
Nein, und BASTA !