FRANKFURT (MNI) – Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfang Schaeuble
criticized Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann over the weekend for his
public opposition to the European Central Bank’s new bond buy program,
OMT.
“I am not sure that it contributes to confidence in the central
bank when this debate is being carried out semi-publicly,” Schaeuble
told German weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
Weidmann was the only member of the 23-strong ECB Governing to
oppose the central bank’s new program, warning that bond market
interventions go beyond the central bank’s mandate and threaten to
undermine its independence.
“The population is deeply insecure, and the central bank is one of
the institutions that citizens generally trust,” Schaueble told the
paper.
Schaeuble’s public criticism of the Bundesbank President is highly
unusual. In Germany, the Bundesbank’s independence has traditionally
been held in high esteem, which has made government officials reluctant
to challenge the Bundesbank’s positions in public.
–Frankfurt bureau tel.: +49-69-720142. Email:jtreeck@mni-news.com
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