Tonight at dinner with Merkel, Hollande won't let himself be convinced. The French president, François Hollande, in fact declared that he supports the solutions proposed by the Italian premier Mario Monti to get out of the crisis. Italy has "full political support" from France, Hollande said.
La Monti's proposal plans to use the temporary bailout fund (EFSF) to buy, on the secondary market, the government bonds of the peripheral countries of the Eurozone which at the moment are having to deal with interest rates (and therefore spreads with German bonds) that are too high to sustain in the long term.
The German chancellor, on the other hand, remains on the hard line Angela Merkel. “I say right away what can never be said enough: there is no quick and easy solution to this crisis“, he reiterated this morning to the Bundesbank. Yet last night the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble had leaked a possible opening towards Monti's proposal.
