BERLIN (Reuters) – Greek voters dealt a serious blow on Sunday to the fragile political consensus that has kept Europe’s currency bloc intact through more than two years of crisis, rejecting the austerity-for-aid policies that have shielded the country from bankruptcy and a euro exit.

Greece’s vote, combined with the victory of Socialist Francois Hollande over incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in a French presidential election, will raise pressure on Europe’s paymaster Germany to pursue a more growth-oriented approach to the crisis.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Greek voters dealt a serious blow on Sunday to the fragile political consensus that has kept Europe’s currency bloc intact through more than two years of crisis, rejecting the austerity-for-aid policies that have shielded the country from bankruptcy and a euro exit.

Greece’s vote, combined with the victory of Socialist Francois Hollande over incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy in a French presidential election, will raise pressure on Europe’s paymaster Germany to pursue a more growth-oriented approach to the crisis.

BERLIN (Reuters) – While its European partners agonize about recession, austerity and rising unemployment, Germany is shifting its attention to a very different, and yet familiar, source of angst – inflation.

Despite recent data showing German consumer prices rose by just 2 percent in April, the slowest pace in over a year, some economists see the beginnings of a dangerous price bubble that could come back to haunt the country in the years to come.

April 27 (Reuters) – Germany expects the dilemma of boosting
growth and employment while cutting debt to dominate a summit of
EU leaders in June, a government spokesman said, in a sign
Berlin is relaxing its focus on austerity as the way out of the
bloc’s crisis.

Francois Hollande, the Socialist favoured to win a French
presidential runoff on May 6, promises to shift the debate in
Europe towards promoting growth if he is elected, criticising
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s emphasis on economic reform and
budget cuts.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Just over a week before French voters choose their president, a tentative pas de deux has begun between Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel which seems likely to result in a new pact to boost growth in Europe if the Socialist comes out on top.

Until recently, Europe’s months-long growth versus austerity drama had cast Merkel in the role of an unyielding Queen of Consolidation and Hollande as an irresponsible Big Spender ready to lead France back to the dark ages of his former mentor Francois Mitterrand, defying financial markets.

BERLIN (Reuters) – Just over a week before French voters choose their president, a tentative pas de deux has begun between Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel which seems likely to result in a new pact to boost growth in Europe if the Socialist comes out on top.

Until recently, Europe’s months-long growth versus austerity drama had cast Merkel in the role of an unyielding Queen of Consolidation and Hollande as an irresponsible Big Spender ready to lead France back to the dark ages of his former mentor Francois Mitterrand, defying financial markets.

BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives have agreed plans to introduce a mandatory minimum wage for sectors of the economy that do not already have one, in the latest policy shift to try to win over left-leaning voters before next year’s election.

Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) have long opposed a blanket minimum wage, arguing that it would amount to excessive political interference in the wage-bargaining process between workers and employers.

BERLIN (Reuters) – A European backlash against austerity could force Germany to adjust its savings-first approach to the debt crisis, although political tumult and economic decline will still test the ability of euro zone leaders to hold their currency bloc together.

The strong performance of Socialist Francois Hollande in the first round of the French presidential election and the Dutch government’s collapse in a row over budget cuts this week highlight the risks of a rebellion against Berlin’s hardline emphasis on cutting deficits.

GUETERSLOH, Germany, April 23 (Reuters) – Two years ago
voters in this industrial city on the eastern edge of North
Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) narrowly backed German Chancellor Angela
Merkel’s conservatives in a regional election.

But next month, voters like Jochen Venker may vault the
rival Social Democrats (SPD) into first, strengthening the
centre-left party’s hold on Germany’s most populous state and
dealing Merkel a heavy blow before a federal vote in 2013.

BERLIN, April 20 (Reuters) – German business sentiment
unexpectedly rose for the sixth month in a row in April in a
sign that Europe’s largest economy continues to outpace peers
and shrug off persistent worries about the euro zone debt
crisis.

The Munich-based Ifo think tank said on Friday its business
climate index, based on a monthly survey of some 7,000
companies, inched up to 109.9 in April from 109.8 in March,
taking it to its highest level since July 2011.