Italy and Germany Stop the Sniping

It’s been a tough few months for the euro zone. In Italy, a populist government has reignited fears of a breakup of the currency union. Angela Merkel has poured cold water on the federalist dreams of Emmanuel Macron. The economy shows signs of slowing, and there are fears that a trade war could knock the recovery completely off course.

And yet. Comments at the weekend from two of the bloc’s most important finance ministers — Italy’s Giovanni Tria and Germany’s Olaf Scholz — show maybe not all hope is lost. Scholz said he was more optimistic than many of his countrymen about Italy’s new populist government behaving itself fiscally. Tria backed him up by saying: “We don’t want to boost growth via deficit spending.” If Berlin and Rome can maintain this surprisingly level-headed approach toward each other, maybe there’s room for a little Macron-style positivity after all.