BERLIN (MNI) – The sister party of German Chancellor Angela
Merkel’s CDU, the Bavarian CSU, is arguing that Germany’s share in the
European Central Bank’s new bond-buying program must be part of the E190
billion that parliament approved as the country’s contribution to
Europe’s permanent bailout fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM).
CSU party leader Horst Seehofer told German weekly Der Spiegel in
an interview released over the weekend that the agreed E190 billion for
the ESM must also include the ECB bond purchases. “The E190 billion is
what counts – including the ECB,” he said.
According to Der Spiegel, the ECB leadership is worried about the
announcement by the CSU and has called for a meeting with Seehofer.
The mainstream view of the government, however, is that the bond
buying program is separate from Germany’s contribution to the ESM. A
Finance Ministry spokeswoman said Friday that Finance Minister Wolfgang
Schaeuble “is backing” the ECB’s bond-buying plan. “The ECB is acting
within its monetary policy mandate,” she said.
Chancellor Merkel on Thursday praised the conditionality of the
ECB’s bond-buying plan. “I absolutely back [ECB President] Mario Draghi
that the homework has to be done in the [Eurozone member] states,”
Merkel said in a speech at a business conference in Berlin. “The ECB
cannot substitute for political action.”
The chancellor said that yields on German government bonds were
currently too low, while those of some other Eurozone member states were
too high. “We need to come back to more normal levels again,” she said.
“The measures decided by the ECB have to be seen against this backdrop.”
–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com
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