Angela Merkel, German chancellor, declared on Wednesday that “the euro will not fail” after the country’s powerful constitutional court rejected a series of challenges to the multi-billion euro rescue packages agreed last year for Greece and other debt-strapped members of the eurozone.
In a passionate restatement of Germany’s determination to defend the common currency, the chancellor welcomed the court’s judgement as “absolutely confirming” her government’s policy of “solidarity with individual responsibility”. Germany would continue to demand drastic debt reduction from its eurozone partners in exchange for providing them with financial guarantees, she said.
The eagerly-awaited constitutional court decision was greeted with relief in Berlin, after eight leading judges decided that the eurozone crisis measures did not infringe the budgetary authority of the Bundestag, the national parliament.
