Handelsblatt this week refers to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's now "lenient" stance, as it said, towards Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, a day before the powerful German leader returns to Athens for a meeting with a government that once vilified her as of the main European culprits behind the woes associated with two memorandum bailouts in the country until 2015.
In an extensive article entitled "Dangerous gifts", the German financial daily mostly focuses on the issue of low interest rates extended by the European Central Bank, maintaining that Eurozone member-states have saved 1.42 trillion euros over the last 10 years via this policy - 368 billion by Germany alone since 2007.
Even debt and recession-plagued Greece, according to Handelsblatt, saved up to 55 billion euros from low ECB interest rates.
In turning to specific Greek-German relations in the wake of the Merkel visit to Athens, the newspaper reports: "For Alexis Tsipras Angela Merkel a few years ago was the 'most dangerous politician in Europe'. However, in the meantime, Greece is no longer under Europeans' yoke. After an initial period when relations between the German chancellor with the Greek prime minister were on ice, she (Merkel) has now become a significant partner (for Tsipras). It's reported that the pair speak to each other frequently by phone. In contrast to the climax of the Euro-crisis (in the summer of 2015), when the chancellor was greeted with posters featuring the swastika along with mass demonstrations, Angela Merkel now looks forward to a friendly reception on Thursday in Athens," Handelsblatt wrote.
In gauging the relationship from Berlin's view, Handelsblatt assesses that Merkel now doesn't view Tsipras as a political "pariah" but as a "pragmatist", citing a compromise over the fYRoM "name issue" and the contentious Prespa agreement negotiated and being spearheaded by the poll-trailing coalition government in Athens.
Handelsblatt reminds that ratification of the agreement by Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM) will open the way for NATO accession by the latter and a path towards European Union membership as well.
