Whatever it takes to save the euro

In case you were in any doubt about how committed eurozone leaders are to the survival of the single currency, Angela Merkel has put out another statement on doing ‘everything possible to protect the eurozone’, this time with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti. The pair had a phone conversation on Sunday and their remarks follow the joint statement released by Merkel and François Hollande on Friday, and Mario Draghi’s announcement last Thursday that the European Central Bank would do ‘whatever it takes’ to protect the euro.

The markets are looking forward to something decisive later today as US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner arrives in Europe to meet German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and then Draghi later on.

But Merkel has not swept up her own country with her in her enthusiasm to preserve the eurozone. A poll in German newspaper Bild Am Sonntag found that 51 per cent of Germans thought their own country should leave the euro, while 71 per cent called on Greece to leave the single currency if it does not meet its austerity commitments.