From the Chancellor to her most powerful minister, from the number one of the EU Commission to the leader of the European Council. After days of controversy and tension, today across the continent there is almost a competition to express approval of Mario Draghi. The president of the ECB yesterday announced a new anti-spread program which continues to make the fortunes of the equity and bond markets, with the main European stock exchanges rallying and the differentials of Italy and Germany in free fall. Faced with this scenario, the only voice against the Draghi plan remains that of Jens Weidmann, president of the Bundesbank, eventually abandoned even by the representatives of his own government.
In the morning Angela Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, reiterated that the European Central Bank "acts independently and within the limits of its mandate". Yesterday the chancellor herself, in a joint press conference with the Spanish premier Mariano Rajoy in Madrid, declared that with the new plan "the ECB operates within the framework of its independence and its statute".
Speaking at a visit to Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann, Merkel he said the ECB 'has indicated that the future of the euro largely depends on policy initiatives and conditionality is a very important point. It is the path we have always chosen”. The chancellor also reiterated that “the ECB is an independent and strong institution” and that “every country must continue to work to solve its problems. Only greater integration can support the euro in the long term.
even the German Finance Minister, the “repentant hawk” Wolfgang Schaeuble, he reassured the Eurotower's strategy, excluding that the OMT program foreshadows a violation of the prohibition of monetary financing of public debts (established by the European treaties) and criticizing the German press for the "very nervous" reception it gave to the decisions of Frankfurt. “I don't think we are at the beginning of monetary financing of public debt,” Schaeuble said today from Stockholm.
More explicit the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, which judges the plan developed by the ECB as "adequate". “If governments commit themselves to structural compliance and discipline on the rules – said Barroso -, then the ECB has the right to intervene to be sure that monetary policy remains intact”.
Finally Hermann Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, believes that “the ECB has completed the work done by the June European Council and by previous councils”. However, speaking at the EPP Bureau in Florence, Van Rompuy stressed that the situation will still be "tense" and that "without political action, the ECB will be unable to do anything".
