Word: kohl
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...German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, though, all talk of tinkering with the Maastricht rules is anathema--and a potential threat to his re-election chances next year. "Kohl's already having trouble selling the German public on the idea of exchanging their hard D-marks for soft euros," says Paul Horne, a Paris-based international economist with Smith Barney. "If Jospin puts conditions to the Germans that they can't accept, it's goodbye euro." No wonder Kohl made a long phone call to Chirac the day after the election to seek assurances on France's future European policy...
...usual, the European locomotive on this track is Germany and the engineer is Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who announced he will seek re-election yet again next year, mainly to shepherd monetary union and the euro into existence. For its own good, he believes, Germany must be anchored in a strong European Union and not left to throw its weight around between East and West. Chirac demonstrated his commitment to monetary union, if not his political smarts, when he called the snap election in hopes of securing control of his parliament for the next five years. The Benelux countries...
...French, for example, have siphoned the entire pension fund of state-owned France-Telecom into the national treasury in order to bring down the deficit. In Germany, Kohl has plunged into a furious fight with the stick-to-the-rules Bundesbank by moving to revalue the country's gold reserves closer to a "market" price to add $10 billion to the federal coffers. The Bundesbank warns that such a trick could undermine "the credibility and stability" of the euro...
...Kohl can hardly say no to political fudging, even though it was Germany that insisted on the 3% rule in the first place. For him, the creation of the monetary union and a more integrated E.U. is the essential goal, so he need not squint too hard at the technicalities. Not so the grumbling German people, who still shiver at the memory of the hyperinflation that wiped out the nation's savings in 1923. Germans put great store in a strong, reliable currency and are not thrilled at the prospect of giving up their beloved mark. If they...
...much more hostile to European federalism; the campaign proved that the British people do not want a common currency or a European superstate. With a united party to back him, Blair ("I am a British patriot, first and foremost") will prove to be a much tougher proposition to Chancellor Kohl and President Chirac than the volatile and spineless Major. I said to Blair not long ago, "It may be your historic role to take Britain away from the European federation and towards a mere free-trade relationship." He replied, "I believe you may well be right...