Matteo
Renzi picks fight with Angela Merkel
‘You
cannot say that you are giving your blood to Europe,’ the Italian
premier told the German chancellor at the EU summit.
By JACOPO BARIGAZZI
12/18/15, 6:28 PM CET Updated 12/18/15, 7:19 PM CET
Italian Prime
Minister Matteo Renzi has built a reputation as a mischief-maker on
the European scene, but at a Brussels summit Friday he took it to the
next level: He went after Germany.
Renzi’s clash with
German Chancellor Angela Merkel during the meeting of EU leaders
Friday spiced up what turned out to be a somewhat lackluster set of
accomplishments from the two-day summit.
“It
was very impressive how tough he was” in confronting Merkel on
several key EU issues, said a minister who was in the room.
The clash with
Merkel highlights Renzi’s increasingly confrontational posture
towards EU officials. In the last six months, he’s quarreled with
European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission
President Jean-Claude Juncker, and other leaders and diplomats often
gripe about him as pushy and full of himself.
Among Renzi’s
issues with Merkel was a deposit guarantee system in the eurozone.
Germany is reluctant to go ahead with the proposal as German savers
could be exposed to risks from polices implemented in other
countries.
With
Italians increasingly disillusioned with German-led Europe, his more
aggressive strategy could be popular with voters.
The Italian premier,
who has been pushing for the proposal, accused Merkel of reneging on
an earlier pledge to support it. In his remarks on the deposit
guarantee system, Renzi had the backing of two left-wing governments,
Portugal and Greece, according to the source.
“Merkel was on the
defensive,” said the minister, who added that the German chancellor
denied she had changed her view on the proposal, saying it had never
been a priority for Berlin.
Enough is enough
Tensions between
Italy and Germany had already been rising ahead of the summit. After
the success of Marine Le Pen and her National Front party in the
first round of French regional elections two weeks ago, Renzi took to
Facebook to blame European economic policies for the rise of the
far-right party, falling short of openly accusing Berlin for its
austerity push.
A top Italian
official before the meeting expressed the view of his government when
asked about the fight with Germany, telling POLITICO: “genug ist
genug” which in German means “enough is enough.”
Renzi is under
political pressure at home, facing local elections next year in which
he is expected to lose ground to populist, Euroskeptic parties.
During the course of the two-day meeting in Brussels, Renzi went on
the attack against Berlin several times, according to sources. And
with Italians increasingly disillusioned with German-led Europe, his
more aggressive strategy could be popular with voters.
Pipeline problems
Renzi also accused
Merkel of a political double-standard over the involvement of German
companies in the construction of a gas pipeline with Russia, Nord
Stream, at a time when the EU is about to approve the extension of
sanctions against Moscow, according to a diplomat.
Renzi said he was
opposed to automatically renewing the sanctions without opening a
discussion on the pipeline project. During the summit, leaders
discussed the merits of the controversial project after several
others raised concerns.
Renzi also accused
Germany of profiting from the euro crisis, pointing to moves by the
German airport operator Fraport to buy airports in Greece after
Merkel urged Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to privatize them.
“You cannot say
that you are giving your blood to Europe,” Renzi told Merkel after
the German chancellor spoke of Berlin’s push for European growth,
according to an official.
“I
get on very well with Angela” — Matteo Renzi.
After the summit
ended, both leaders sought to downplay their confrontation.
Merkel, while
acknowledging a spirited exchange with Renzi over the pipeline issue
and deposit insurance scheme, refused to give ground.
“The German
position is that we reject a collectivization of deposit insurance,”
Merkel said. “I made the German position clear again.”
Renzi also went for
a soft line: “I get on very well with Angela,” he said, denying
that he attacked Germany. “I did not attack it and I will never
attack it.”
The Italian premier
told journalists that his raising of the Nord Stream issue “triggered
a nice discussion. For the first time a majority of countries
supported Italy. Those against it were only Germany and the
Netherlands.”
Another signal of
Renzi’s combative posture came just before the summit started with
the news, confirmed by other sources, that he was planning to remove
the Italian ambassador to the European Union, Stefano Sannino,
because he considers him too soft.
Sannino will be
replaced by Italy’s current ambassador in Moscow, Cesare Maria
Ragaglini, according to press reports confirmed by sources. Ragaglini
knows less about Brussels than the EU veteran Sannino, but Renzi
likes him because he is much more aggressive, diplomats said.
Awkward customer
Renzi has a history
of rubbing EU leaders the wrong way. EU officials said that often
during summits, he spends his time looking at his mobile phone,
checking messages, and refusing to pay attention to other speakers.
When he speaks, some leaders and diplomats leave the room, the
officials said, adding that he often comes across as brash, said one
official.
His relationship
with Tusk has been described as “often difficult” by officials on
both sides. After a meeting in October, Renzi openly attacked Tusk
after the former Polish prime minister put Italy and Hungary in the
same basket of countries that are not respecting EU rules on
migration.
“What President
Tusk said showed little respect for the efforts of the Italian
people,” Renzi said.
Two months ago,
Juncker vented his frustration at Renzi during a breakfast with
journalists. Juncker argued that the Commission had done more to help
Italy than to help France in approving their budgets for next year
but Renzi still insisted on attacking the Commission, according to a
source who was at the meeting.
Renzi’s relations
with European Parliament President Martin Schulz are also not always
easy. In October, Renzi complained to Schulz that he had invited
Merkel and French President François Hollande to speak to the
Parliament.
According to a
parliamentary source, Renzi said he was upset that he was not
invited.
Schulz, according to
the source, reacted angrily, saying that if Renzi wanted to be more
present in Europe he should do a better job of showing it.
Hans von der
Burchard, Matthew Karnitschnig and Quentin Ariès contributed to this
article.
Authors:
Jacopo Barigazzi
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