Saturday 18 September 2010

Darling Attacks Germans Over Help for Greece

THE TELEGRAPH: The euro has been permanently damaged by Germany's failure to intervene swiftly during the sovereign debt crisis earlier this year, Alistair Darling has said in an unusually frank attack.

The former Chancellor, who was in 11 Downing Street when Greece, Spain and Portugal came close to economic meltdown in the spring, made his unguarded comments at a conference of senior German and British officials on Thursday.

Privately, he is known to have been infuriated by Germany's failure to act swiftly as the markets scented blood, but has never before made his opinions public.

Speaking from the audience of the Königswinter Conference, he told Germany's Economics Minister Rainer Bruederle that the country had completely failed to come to terms with its responsibilities as a leader of the eurozone. He added that its reluctance intervene quickly "will have consequences" for the political future of the bloc. Read on and comment >>> Philip Aldrick, Economics Editor | Friday, September 17, 2010