Public anger grows as taxpayer-funded bailouts prove costly failures

LESS than a month after European leaders unveiled a “comprehensive package” they said would fix the eurozone, their anti-crisis strategy is fraying and may be in need of a radical rethink.

Rising public anger in northern Europe at a series of taxpayer-funded bailouts is sending tremors through the political landscape, boosting anti-euro parties such as the True Finns in Finland and sparking policy rows in Germany. The emerging consensus that Greece will have to restructure its €327bn in sovereign debt, in spite of the EU/IMF rescue it secured one year ago, has made Europe’s promise to delay any private sector pain until 2013 look increasingly untenable.

The flaws in the eurozone strategy are being exposed just as it negotiates what is expected to be an €80bn aid deal for Portugal, whose own politicians have been arguing for months that the Greek and Irish bailout model is a failure.