Michaela Rehle / Reuters-Landov
European leaders inched toward a solution Saturday to the economic crisis roiling the continent’s monetary union. German chancellor Angela Merkel has been hesistant to embrace a deal, but it’s not, as she claims, because the German people refuse to accept it, writes James Angelos at The New Republic. In fact, the solution to the Eurozone crisis is just a bargaining chip in an intense domestic political struggle at home for Merkel. The parties in her fracturing coalition are capitalizing off of the crisis, and she hides her reticence to bail out Greece behind alleged domestic opposition. Germans are actually quite apathetic about the bailouts, but Merkel’s “cautious approach has hindered prospects for a broad and durable solution, one the German public could be convinced to support.”