GERMANY's domestic debate about monetary union erupted again yesterday with strong opposition to delaying the euro and calls for more flexible criteria.
Senior leaders of the Chancellor Mr Helmut Kohl's Christian Democrats (CDU) and his Free Democrat (FDP) coalition partners warned of dire consequences if the euro was delayed beyond 1999 because the criteria were too strictly interpreted.
Most analysts agree that domestic events in Germany are now vital to the outlook for EMU.
The Bavarian-based Christian Social Union (CSU) has maintained the pressure on its chairman, Finance Minister, Mr Theo Waigel, for a watertight interpretation of the 3 per cent target for budget deficits as part of gross domestic product.
The debate, which flared up after Mr Waigel's failed manoeuvres on Bundesbank gold and the left-wing shift in France, revealed cracks in the political establishment's hitherto united pro-EMU stand which is not shared by the more sceptical voters. New opinion polls say 71 per cent of Germans want EMU put off.
Mr Heiner Geissler, deputy CDU parliamentary leader and a key voice on the party's left wing, said Bonn had set itself a trap with its "criteria fetishism" over the euro.
Former foreign minister, Mr Hans-Dietrich Genscher, still an influential voice on foreign affairs and within his FDP, warned delaying EMU was a dangerous game "that would lead Bonn into "ice-cold isolation".
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