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 On page two, Bild laid out a 5-point plan for Merkel to bring along
with her to a summit in Brussels in the evening that could prove
decisive in sealing Greece's fate. The first point in the plan: the
immediate exit of Greece from the euro zone.
Merkel heads to the summit under enormous domestic pressure to take
a hard line with Athens.
Bild is just the tip of the iceberg. Many members of her own party,
the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU), have come around to the
view that the euro zone may be better off without Greece.
And her center-left coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD),
are also talking tough these days, limiting Merkel's room to forge
compromises with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras that would keep
Greece in the currency bloc.
"After the political escalation of the past weeks, even Angela
Merkel needs to pay attention to whether she has majorities behind
her," Stefan Kornelius wrote in an editorial in the Sueddeutsche
Zeitung on Tuesday.
From Merkel's major allies in Europe the pressure runs in the
opposite direction. Key partners such as France clearly want a deal
with Greece and appear more willing to make concessions to get one.
Merkel visited French President Francois Hollande on Monday evening
to agree a common position before the summit, but differences in
tone were evident in statements they made to reporters before
sitting down to dinner.
On Tuesday, a chorus of European voices, seemingly pointed toward
Berlin, cried out for a deal with Tsipras, who is expected to put
forward new proposals in Brussels in the hopes of clinching a third
bailout package and avoiding a risky "Grexit".
"France is doing everything, and will do everything, for Greece to
stay in the euro zone because its place is in the euro zone," said
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
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European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, speaking in the
European Parliament in Strasbourg, warned: "There are some in the
European Union who openly or secretly are working to exclude Greece
from the euro zone."
German officials have signaled that they are open to stretching out
the maturities of Europe's loans to Greece, but first they want
Tsipras to commit to reforms of Greek pensions, the labor market and
the tax system.
They have all but ruled out a "haircut", or outright writedown of
the value of the loans, because this is seen in Merkel's entourage
as politically dangerous.
But pressure is rising on her to reconsider her stance. In recent
days, a host of top European officials, including the finance
ministers of France and Luxembourg, have said discussion of a debt
writedown should not be taboo.
And on Tuesday, Bild also came out in favor of a debt cut. Point
three of its five-point plan called for a 50 percent haircut on
Europe's loans to Greece. Its condition for doing so however, was
cutting Greece loose from the euro zone.
(Writing by Noah Barkin; editing by Anna Willard)
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