If you've been following the European Union after last week's election you're aware about the economic doldrums and how much hope is riding on the the Dragester, ECB President Magic man Mario Draghi..
For now Magic Mario is being given the benefit of the negative interest rate doubt. But if things go haywire, as they sometimes do, he'll mostly be known in history as Mario the Faker.
But there's more than the threat of deflation facing the EU. Right after the election who would become the next president of European Commission grabbed the headlines. And it's still there. Jean-Claude Juncker, the so-called tried and true candidate they came up with has caused a divide that could get much wider.
In a recent speech in Germany Prince Andrew, we don't know if he does stand up comedy on the side, boasted: "In the modern era , relations between Britain and Germany have never been closer."
That might be news to Bristish Prime Minster David Cameron and Germany's Chancellor Angel Merkel.
The fight over who will become the next Commission president has reached Berlin. And that means that an issue that was already one of the most complicated that Merkel has ever faced has become even more so. The number of contradictory interests is unusually large. She wants to keep Britain in the European Union, she doesn't want to antagonize the SPD, she doesn't want to anger people within her own party and she doesn't want to be seen as the one who ignored the election result and prevented election victor Jean-Claude Juncker from taking what many see as his rightful position as Commission president. Economists call such a situation "lose-lose." Novelist Joseph Heller called it a "catch-22." For Merkel, it is a serious political problem.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/merkel-likely-to-seek-eu-compromise-with-london-a-973962.html
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