Germany plays the hero as well as EU villain

In a recent presentation, Trinity College Dublin’s economics professor Frank Barry said the modern European variation on the age-old question of “what do women really want” is “what do the Germans really want?”

It is a question that will decide the fate of the eurozone. The current spat over the bailout of Cyprus underlines the level of mistrust and growing antipathy between Berlin and the “Club Med” countries.

For many in the periphery countries, the Germans have become the pantomime villains of the never-ending eurozone saga.