Chafing at insults, Germany loses patience with Greece

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The sight of Greek anti-austerity protesters and politicians blaming Chancellor Angela Merkel for their plight provoked anger in the patriotic pages of Germany's best-selling daily, Bild.

Greeks and other European recipients of aid to which Germany is the biggest single contributor "should put flowers outside our embassies and send the chancellor thank-you notes."

"Instead the demonstrators insult their German helpers and liken our government to Nazis, which is intolerable," it said.

Officially, Merkel's government remains committed to enabling another aid package for Greece and doing what it can to avoid the first sovereign default in the euro zone.

"The chancellor knows her place in history is tied to Greece and she won't want to be remembered as the one responsible for a default," said a conservative lawmaker, asking not to be named.

But the MP said the Greek parliament's approval of the unpopular savings plan, including a 22 percent cut in the minimum wage, did not arouse much interest in Berlin "because nobody really believes any more that Greece will deliver."

'NOT THE END OF THE WORLD'

While Merkel's own Christian Democrats (CDU) remain largely on message with the chancellor and European Commission on the need to keep Greece in the euro, more eurosceptic allies from the Christian Social Union (CSU) and Roesler's Free Democrats (FDP) are taking a more aggressive line with the Greeks.

"There can be no more concessions. Now only deeds count," said the FDP Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle while CSU leader Horst Seehofer spoke of German referendums on future bailouts - something Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert ruled out.