Italians Are Starting to Like the Germans
Angela Merkel's support for fiscal transfers and her sound pandemic management are winning her new friends in Rome.
Friends again?
Photographer: JOHN MACDOUGALL/AFPThe last decade has seen a progressive worsening of the relationship between Germany and its southern euro zone partners. At the height of the bloc’s sovereign-debt crisis, Greek protesters depicted Chancellor Angela Merkel with Adolf Hitler mustaches, a crass way to criticize the painful structural reforms and austerity measures that creditor nations negotiated with Athens.
Where Greece and Germany once personified the rift between Europe’s south and north, Italy has taken on the former’s role in recent years because of its huge sovereign debt. The early days of the pandemic made things worse between Berlin and Rome, as Italian politicians blamed the Germans for a lack of solidarity at a time of deep crisis.