Photo Gallery Good Cop, Bad Cop
Chancellor Angela Merkel would like Greece to remain in the euro. Not necessarily at any cost, but she's prepared to pay a high price. Her Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble is not.
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, seen here (left) with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, was in Berlin to meet Schäuble last week. The German finance minister makes no secret of the fact he no longer has much desire to talk to Varoufakis, telling his confidantes that he feels too old to keep flogging the same dead horses.
Unlike Merkel, Schäuble doesn't need to worry about looking as though he doesn't care enough about Europe. He wrote the book on the EU, penning papers on how to intensify the union when Merkel was still only a freshly-minted member of the Cabinet. She, in contrast, often has to field accusations that her EU policy is austerity-driven and nothing else. In terms of Europe, she lacks Schäubles street cred.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and Greek counterpart Yanis Varoufakis (left) are seen here arriving at a meeting of euro zone finance ministers in Brussels in May. As far as Schäuble is concerned, negotiations with Athens are going nowhere.
