Finance chief ’s rules made EU hate Germany, minister says

GERMANY’S foreign minister launched an extraordinary attack on the country’s outgoing finance minister yesterday, accusing him of “reducing Europe to a pile of rubble”.

Sigmar Gabriel’s attack on Wolfgang Schäuble, which came as he was elected speaker of the German parliament, exposed deep divisions within Angela Merkel’s government of the last four years.

In an interview with several German newspapers, Mr Gabriel said the former finance minister had “succeeded in turning almost all EU member states against Germany” with his hardline stance against eurozone bailouts.

Mr Gabriel served alongside Mr Schäuble as economy minister and vice-chancellor for much of the period he was describing.

Mr Schäuble has long been a divisive figure in European politics. As Mrs Merkel’s long-serving finance minister, he is feted in Germany for presiding over a period of economic strength.

But he is hated in countries such as Greece for his deep-seated aversion to bailing out the poorer performing economies of southern Europe.

Mr Gabriel led his Social Democrats (SPD) into coalition with Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) in 2013 only for his party to suffer its worst ever defeat in last month’s election.

The 75-year-old Mr Schäuble agreed to become speaker to free up the finance ministry, which the FDP is widely expected to demand. He was elected unopposed in the first chaotic sitting of the newly elected parliament.

The Bundestag is renowned as one of Europe’s most staid parliaments, where the level of debate rarely rises above a polite murmur. But if yesterday’s sitting was anything to go by, it is in for more colourful times ahead.