Leave or stay within the walls of the Eurozone? In Germany, the question had been creeping in for months in the circles of the political and financial establishment without however being able to find space in the most accredited public discussions. Up to now the big companies, which with the euro have taken advantage of the favorable exchange rate by gnawing at ever greater export quotas, had remained very cautious, approving Mrs. Merkel's line without hesitation, but also without particular enthusiasm. The calls for an exit from the single currency had come only from Hans-Olaf Henkel, the former president of the BDI (German Confindustria), recently reinvented himself as the leader of a Eurosceptic movement, still only meandering in Germany.
However, a few days ago the managing director of the influential chemical group Linde Group, Wolfgang Reitzle, came out into the open. According to Reitzle, «it is not true that the euro should be saved at all costs. If Germany fails to discipline the budgets of crisis countries, it will have to leave the Eurozone.". Words that astounded economic observers, if one considers that the speaker was the head of one of the thirty German giants listed on the Frankfurt DAX index.
But which the consensus rate that such a thesis has among German entrepreneurs? According to the replies reported the following day by the business newspaper Handelsblatt, it seems very low. "The vast majority of German companies want the euro," stated Mario Ohoven, president of the SME association (Mittelstand), whose products are directed for about 60% within the borders of the Eurozone. However, Reitzle says he is convinced that after an initial period of difficulty, made up of unemployment and a partial collapse in exports, Germany could get back on track within five years.
Michael Hüther, director of the Institut der deutschen Wirtschaft, an economic research institute close to the powerful association of metallurgical and electrotechnical industries, Gesamtmetall, is not convinced: «There would be an immediate revaluation of the new currency with dramatic consequences for the from exports". Words that also agree with the head of the German chemical industries, of which the Linde group is also a part: «The currency and the common market are an indispensable factor for well-being and employment throughout Europe. It is precisely Germany that should contribute to the recovery of confidence in the euro and to carry forward European integration». The opinion of the group is no different Volkswagen, which in a mid-week press release announced that "it makes no sense to talk about a crisis of the euro, given that in recent years it has proved to be a very stable currency". The heads of Siemens, BMW, Daimler, Deutsche Telekom and Deutsche Post also followed the same line, all publicly united in the belief that saving the euro will always cost less than Berlin abandoning the single currency.
That from now on Mrs. Merkel must be more resolute on the side of aid to the Member States and less rigorous on the front of public finances, this the large German companies did not dare to say. The sensation, confirmed by the most recent polls all in favor of the CDU, is that the Chancellor's "carrot and stick" are a not so indigestible political tool for the German economic and financial establishment, which, in the two years of the PIIGS crisis , was able to greatly take advantage of the reputation of "safe harbor" of the Federal Republic.
