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10 March 2013

Telegraph: Germany's anti-euro party is a nasty shock for Angela Merkel


"An end to this euro", is the motto of the newly-founded Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). "The introduction of the euro has proved to be a fatal mistake, that threatens the welfare of us all."

It advocates German withdrawl from EMU and return to the D-Mark, or a breakaway currency with the Dutch, Austrians, Finns, and like-minded nations. The French are not among them. The borders run along the ancient line of cleavage dividing Latins from Germanic tribes. The party hopes to contest the federal elections in September, winning enough votes to scramble a tight race. Chancellor Angela Merkel suddenly has a "UKIP problem" on the her right flank.  Should she sign off on a bailout out for Cyprus -- safeguarding the "dirty funds of Russian oligarchs", as the AfD puts it -- she will be raked by heavy fire.

The slide towards fiscal union is a constitutional revolution. It erodes the budgetary supremacy of the Bundestag and threatens to eviscerate Germany's vibrant post-war democracy. Large matters. The AfD leader Bernd Lucke says Beppe Grillo's threat to default on Italy's external debt has demolished claims that Germany's rescue pledges will never be called. "The Italian election shows how dangerous the whole euro crisis really is. Whether countries can and will pay back their debts is dependent on the unpredictable voting choices of their peoples", he said.

Full article



© The Telegraph


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