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I am still missing any evidence Germany exerted any pressure in that regard. It would be different for Greece, obviously. > That said, if you listen to German
by generic92034 3y ago
I am still missing any evidence Germany exerted any pressure in that regard. It would be different for Greece, obviously.
> That said, if you listen to German politicians they still don't believe Portugal is out of the GFC and would reinstitute austerity there in a heartbeat given the chance.
If you listen to the larger parties of the current German government they would like to "modify" the "Schuldenbremse" (self-inflicted limitation on debt, fixed on constitutional level) to be able to raise more debt. And even in the conservative party the respect for austerity is declining along with the financial well-being of the German federal states.
- pas 3y agoI guess there's a huge difference between raising funds (selling bonds) to fund domestic projects and sending it to other EU states as "aid", no?
- generic92034 3y agoI am not quite sure what you are hinting at. Could you please clarify? The only large-scale aid Germany is providing to other EU countries I am aware of are their (internally not disputed) EU contributions. But if I remember correctly Spain is not a large net receiver from those contributions either (barely a net receiver). Also, Germany could not change that without leaving the EU, so I am not sure how that would be any leverage.
- pas 3y agoI mean the realpolitik of increasing the EU budget, currently for the aid for Ukraine. (If I'm not mistaken.) Back after 2009 the whole discourse was about bailing out the southern banks, of course not via direct aid, but via ECB operations, standing up various credit/emergency facilities, basically anything that leads to more gross EU credit risk (or risk sharing).