German anger is growing over the 750 million Euro bailout to defend the debt crisis from spreading to Portual and Spain. Today, the headline in one of the country's biggest newspapers reads "We are Once Again the Smucks of Europe". They are very worried that the underlying problems of the countries with the worst debt will not be addressed and fear the bailout isn't going to fix the problem.
Germany has a floundering coalition government and taxpayers are being asked to make more sacrifices to save a currency they never wanted in the first place. Britain's bill for the bailout could be up to 43 billion pounds but there is no doubt that Germany is picking up the lion's share of the bill. On Monday Angela Merkel said Germany's share would be 123 million Euros for its bankrupt neighbours. That leaves no money for promised tax cuts which must now be shelved.
Voters are spitting chips and in a regional election last Sunday, they showed their disgust by kicking her party out and there are rumours that the right-wing of her conservative CDU party are plotting her demise.
"It's the biggest 'all in' in the history of poker" was how one economist called the massive aid bailout to save the Euro from collapse. But unfortunately, many people see it as delaying the end of the Euro, and not preventing it.
Scary times in Europe affect us all, even us Aussies, way down under and so far away.
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