By Roger Cohen
March 12, 2000
Berlin - The fiasco over the appointment of a new managing director for the International Monetary Fund has caused serious damage to the critical German-American relationship and revealed deep personal rifts within the governing coalition of Gerhard Schrí¶der, the Social Democratic chancellor. With accusations flying between Berlin and Washington over one aborted German candidacy and another whose fate remains unclear, two things are evident: Germany's new political assertiveness makes the United States uncomfortable, and the German perception of America is increasingly critical.
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
Michael Steiner, the chief diplomatic adviser to Mr. Schrí¶der, said: "It has been quite an experience trying to hit this moving target set by the Clinton administration. We have discovered that the superpower sees its global role not only in the military area but also in setting the rules of globalization through the I.M.F."
He added, "The superpower in Washington grew stronger, but Europeans are also gaining consciousness of themselves and cannot share the view that the role of the I.M.F. is simply to transport the philosophy of the superpower."
His words reflected a strained moment in a German-American relationship that has stood at the core of Germany's postwar growth into a European power. "The fight with America" was the unambiguous headline in the influential paper Die Zeit this week over a lead article that was a chronicle of discord.
Chief among the disputes, for the moment, is that surrounding the fund. The collapse of the candidacy of Caio Koch-Weser, Germany's deputy finance minister, after it was rejected by the United States has left a bitter residue marked by charges and countercharges as to who misled whom and who really made the mess. The atmosphere was not improved when the government of Social Democrats and Greens this week proposed a more conservative official, Horst Kí¶hler, and the Clinton administration scarcely rushed to embrace him.
Mr. Kí¶hler, the German president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, appears likely to gain at least the formal approval of European Union finance ministers on Monday. But Italy is known to have strong private reservations, and the position of the
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