ROME/BERLIN |
ROME/BERLIN (Reuters) – Italy’s prime minister urged European policymakers on Friday to beware of dividing the continent with their efforts to fight its debt crisis, warning against a “short-term hunger for rigor” in some countries, in a swipe at Germany.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel gained some respite from domestic pressure for a tougher line in the euro zone crisis when Eurosceptics hostile to more bailouts lost a referendum in her junior coalition partner, the Free Democrats, aimed at blocking a permanent rescue fund.
Merkel — under pressure from the revered Bundesbank to force debt-saddled euro zone countries to reform and save their way out of crisis with austerity measures — has led a push for automatic sanctions for deficit “sinners” in the bloc.
This has fed concerns that excessive belt-tightening in southern countries could send their economies into a negative spiral with no prospect of growing out of the crisis, while feeding resentment in the prosperous north.
Italian Prime Minister
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