Merkel to meet Cameron with Germany in a spin over his EU demands

[unhappycamper]

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/29/merkel-to-meet-cameron-with-germany-over-his-eu-demands



German chancellor Angela Merkel greets British prime minister David Cameron upon his arrival at the chancellery in Berlin.

Merkel to meet Cameron with Germany in a spin over his EU demands
Kate Connolly in Berlin
Friday 29 May 2015 06.54 EDT

Berlin’s rather bombastic cuboid chancellery building, with its round glass front, is known in the vernacular as the Washing Machine, so it’s a rather appropriate place for Angela Merkel to be meeting the man who has put Europe – and not least Germany – into a spin with his demands.

Having greeted David Cameron on the red carpet with a military guard of honour outside Berlin’s chancellery on Friday, she has two aims in mind: to keep Britain in the European Union while appearing not to concede to his demands. If a Brexit were to happen on her watch she would consider it one of the failures of her tenure as German chancellor, her advisers have cautiously admitted.

Having Berlin as the last stop on his “roadshow for a new EU” – as a Die Welt headline referred, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, to Cameron’s European trip – could be seen as something of a boost for the pro-EU camp and puts a positive spin on the freshly elected leader’s charm offensive. He is welcome here in the most powerful EU country and, says Stefanie Bolzen in a commentary for Die Welt, the world’s most powerful woman “is an unconditional apologist for keeping the kingdom in the union, despite all the infuriation surrounding Cameron’s manoeuvring”.

Despite the frustrations over what the German government sees as Cameron’s rather overly confident approach, and the distinct impression that he is “spoiling for a fight”, as Bolzen puts it, in a country more used to consensus than confrontation, there are few in Berlin who want to see Britain leave.