Angela Merkel was locked in talks about the euro crisis when the phone rang in the gleaming chancellery in Berlin.
The Portuguese prime minister, José Sócrates, was on the line from Lisbon with a plea for help. Portugal is tipped to be the third of 17 eurozone countries to collapse under the weight of its sovereign debt, needing a German-led bailout. Sócrates sounded desperate and eager to please, according to witnesses.
He asked Merkel what he should do, promised to do anything she wanted, with one big exception. He would not ask for money – for a eurozone bailout with extremely tight strings attached.
[This update was inserted on 19 January 2011. Since publication of this story, a spokeswoman for Portugal's prime minister has contacted the Guardian to say that the phonecall described in this story did not take place, and that no such conversation between the two leaders had occurred: "This is not true," Mafalda Costa Pereira said.]
According to accounts circulating in Berlin, Merkel left Sócrates to wait while she sought the views of her high-powered visitors – Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French head of the International Monetary Fund, and Giulio Tremonti, the highly regarded Italian foreign minister who has recently been lobbying for the introduction of "Eurobonds" as part of a solution to the year-long crisis.
Merkel asked Strauss-Kahn about Sócrates' dilemma. The German-speaking IMF chief was dismissive. The Portuguese plea was pointless, he said, because Sócrates would not follow any advice he was given.
The Portuguese prime minister, José Sócrates, was on the line from Lisbon with a plea for help. Portugal is tipped to be the third of 17 eurozone countries to collapse under the weight of its sovereign debt, needing a German-led bailout. Sócrates sounded desperate and eager to please, according to witnesses.
He asked Merkel what he should do, promised to do anything she wanted, with one big exception. He would not ask for money – for a eurozone bailout with extremely tight strings attached.
[This update was inserted on 19 January 2011. Since publication of this story, a spokeswoman for Portugal's prime minister has contacted the Guardian to say that the phonecall described in this story did not take place, and that no such conversation between the two leaders had occurred: "This is not true," Mafalda Costa Pereira said.]
According to accounts circulating in Berlin, Merkel left Sócrates to wait while she sought the views of her high-powered visitors – Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the French head of the International Monetary Fund, and Giulio Tremonti, the highly regarded Italian foreign minister who has recently been lobbying for the introduction of "Eurobonds" as part of a solution to the year-long crisis.
Merkel asked Strauss-Kahn about Sócrates' dilemma. The German-speaking IMF chief was dismissive. The Portuguese plea was pointless, he said, because Sócrates would not follow any advice he was given.
