Fresh from an electoral victory in the small Land of the Saar, the Cdu of the Mrs Merkel it sails on very generous percentages even at the federal level. A sign that, despite the crisis in the Eurozone anything but over, the prudent policy of the Chancellor convinces or, at least, does not worry German voters too much. Strengthened by the support revealed by the polls and so far confirmed by the polls, Angela Merkel once again makes some concessions on the front of financial stabilization vehicles. As announced in these columns already last February, Germany is ready to extend the existence of the EFSF, without being more willing its absorption into the ESM, the permanent fund, whose launch is scheduled for June.
The news, which appeared in the German newspapers yesterday afternoon, joins the one circulated a few weeks ago, when it was Mrs Merkel herself who announced a payment in shorter times than the installments of the share capital that each Member State must pay to set up the ESM. This choice, in relation to which the definition of all the technical details of the case is still missing, nevertheless risks colliding with the internal opposition of the Christian-liberal coalition. In early March, Mrs Merkel in fact lost the support of her deputies on the subject of European anti-crisis policies and every new change that passes through Parliament risks being rejected if the red-green opposition does not offer to act as a crutch.
In particular, last December the Bundestag voted a resolution which committed the Executive to enter into negotiations within the European Union, without ever overriding that figure of 211 billion in guarantees plus interest, set following the entry into force of the EFSF. In reality, that same resolution also envisaged the use of an instrument such as financial leverage and the internal law which governs Parliament's participation in decisions on financial aid, sets clauses for which it is easy to derogate from the "political ceiling" of the 211 billion.
That's it the CSU is on a war footing. The Bavarian governor Horst Seehofer, having given up his role as interim head of state, has returned to counter Mrs. Merkel; now the only one left who can afford it, given that the liberals of the FDP, overwhelmed by yet another electoral cyclone in the Saar, seem to no longer have any say in European matters. To date, therefore, it would seem that Seehofer has made it a condition that the EFSF and ESM march parallel only until 2013 and no further. In fact, we would therefore pass from a firepower of 500 billion to one of about 700. At least this is how the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. New concessions could arrive in the coming months, in view of the parliamentary approval of the "Fiscal Compact". Since it is an international treaty that affects the sovereign powers of the Federal Republic, it in fact requires the favorable vote of two thirds of the parliamentarians, just as if it were a normal constitutional revision law. In return, the SPD and the Greens are therefore asking for a commitment from the Chancellor for the introduction of a tax on financial transactions, even if only in the Eurozone, and for an increase in the share capital of the European Investment Bank (EIB) to be able to launch a plan for growth in Greece.
