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On October 26, just hours before Chancellor Angela Merkel flies off to the eurozone summit in Brussels, the Bundestag (lower Chamber) will vote to approve or reject the new measures proposed to save the euro and recapitalise European banks. But for the Tageszeitung, punning on the German expression for the eurozone bailouts, “the rescue umbrella has blown open.” Caught in the storm, this umbrella can no longer shield anything, whatever the outcome of the vote.
Süddeutsche Zeitung, meanwhile, defends Germany's MPs, who many accuse of forcing the entire eurozone to wait on the Bundestag vote. “Germany cannot allow parliamentary democracy to be neutered because of Greece,” stresses the Munich daily. “The strong position of [the Chancellor] in Brussels is, among other things, down to the fact that everyone knows there is a Bundestag in Germany that must approve the bailout.” Throughout the EU's history, the daily adds, “Brussels has got so used to bypassing direct democracy that now representative democracy is annoying it too.”
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