The stunning rise of Germany's anti-euro party threatens to paralyze efforts to hold the eurozone together and may undermine any quantitative easing by the European Central Bank, Standard & Poor's has warned.
Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has swept through Germany like a tornado, winning 12.6 percent of the vote in Brandenburg and 10.6 percent in Thuringia a week ago. The party has broken into three regional assemblies, after gaining its first platform in Strasbourg with seven euro-MPs.
The rating agency said AfD's sudden surge has become a credit headache for the whole eurozone, forcing Chancellor Angela Merkel to take a tougher line in European politics and risking an entirely new phase of the crisis. "Until recently, no openly Euroskeptic party in Germany has been able to galvanize opponents of European 'bailouts.' But this comfortable position now appears to have come to an end," it said. ...
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