Reuters reports that praise for Angela Merkel's tough negotiating skills in forcing through a deal on European budget rules has given way to warnings that the chancellor risks using up her political credit among Germans.
Britain's rejection of last week's agreement, backed by the EU's other 26 leaders, gave Merkel respite from foreign media caricatures casting her as a Kaiser or Fuehrer intent on dominating Europe. But she won only fleeting relief, as U.S. magazine Newsweek brought out a cover warning: "Achtung! It's Angela!"
While mainland Europe looks aghast at Britain's growing euroscepticism, polls suggest Germans are growing weary of the euro zone and are less impressed by their chancellor's crisis management than post-summit headlines first suggested.
Even her allies warned Merkel not to assume easy passage of decisions taken at the summit, such as handing over some budget sovereignty to Brussels and moving up the launch of the euro zone's permanent bailout mechanism by a year, to mid-2012…
Wait, wait...there's more at http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/12/13/uk-eurozone-merkel-idUKTRE7BC16220111213
It's a most interesting article and contains information I've suspected for a while now. I wonder if it lends credence to rumours about Germany dumping the Euro and returning to it's beloved Deutschmark.
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