Berlin Students Don’t Buy Trichet’s Vision

TOM FAIRLESS, The Wall Street Journal

If Jean-Claude Trichet was hoping for a statesmanlike send-off from the capital of his adopted country of eight years, the students of Berlin’s Humboldt University had other ideas.

In what may be his last public speech before his term at the European Central Bank ends, Mr. Trichet developed his idea for a tighter institutional structure in Europe, including a single European finance ministry–an idea that he first proposed four months ago in another German city, Aachen.

But the contrast with Aachen could hardly have been greater. Rather than deferential silence and rapturous applause, Mr. Trichet was met with heckling and aggressive questions about the ECB’s actions in Greece and its support of European banks.

Minutes after he started speaking, nine students stood up and silently unfurled large black-and-white banners that criticized the repeated bailouts of European states and banks. “Get the troika out of Greece,” read one, a reference to the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the ECB.

Moments later, another student loudly interrupted Mr. Trichet with a lengthy tirade about the iniquity of bank bailouts.

Mr. Trichet listened for a while before continuing determinedly with his speech, and the student was eventually silenced.

In Aachen, Mr. Trichet’s speech at the local University was met with respectful silence, and questions focused on his European achievements.

The different reception reflects growing public frustration in Germany at ever larger bailouts of troubled euro-zone states, as well as anger across the world against bailouts of financial institutions.

Half a mile away up Berlin’s chic Unter den Linden Avenue, German politicians in the Bundestag prepared to debate leveraging Europe’s rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility–a move that will increase risks for German taxpayers.

The question-and-answer session after Mr. Trichet’s speech was also lively. One female student tackled him on fiscal cuts in Greece. “Could you, Mr. Trichet, live with a wage of €470 a month after 10 or 12 hours of work,” she asked. “I know it’s a bit less than you earn.”

Another student received a storming round of applause for a question citing a sharp rise in Greece’s suicide rate since the start of the crisis.

Mr. Trichet defended the troika’s actions in Greece with reference to long-term growth and tackling youth unemployment.

“It seems to me that the right question is, are we creating prosperity for all the economy,” he said.

“Do you know that unemployment has decreased in Germany since the start of the crisis?” he added.

“You’re a liar,” shouted one female student.

“All that we do is directed to improve resilience and correct the anomalies that you are deploring and that we are deploring,” Mr. Trichet replied, and was rewarded with a round of applause.