Strange Bedfellows? Debating Greece’s and Germany’s Role in the Eurozone Crisis Across Borders

The severe crisis in various Eurozone countries has put the European integration project into question. Greece and Germany are the main protagonists of the Eurozone crisis. Greece was the first Eurozone country coming close to bankruptcy and an EU (and IMF) mechanism led by Germany (as the main creditor) was enacted to save the vulnerable Eurozone economies. This puts both countries in opposing and conflicting positions. This situation should be an occasion for a discourse on these matters which transcends national borders. While formerly public debates in Europe have been mostly confined within national borders, in this specific constellation we can expect mutual references in blaming and requests across borders. The high salience of the issue in combination with its controversy underlines the likeliness of strong discursive references between both countries. Based on a running Greek German standardized content analysis project, focusing on the attribution of responsibility within the media reporting in both countries, the presentation will discuss the extent, content, arguments and dynamic of mutual references between 2009 and 2013. On which issues do they address each other, what type of attributions do they raise and based on which reasons? The presentation will describe the developments and offer explanations.