Eurozone crisis/Catalogs
The Principal Actors
Jose Manuel Barroso
President of the European Commission since 2004. Previously Prime Minister of Portugal and leader of its Social Democratic Party.
Silvio Berlusconi
Prime Minister of Italy since 2008 (having served two previous terms). Businessman and media proprietor. Founder of the conservative Forza Italia political party. The subject of alleged sex scandals. Has been accused of embezzlement, tax fraud and false accounting, and attempting to bribe a judge, but has never been convicted. Trust in his administration has fallen by about 30 percentage points since 2008. A range of polls in September 2011 indicated that some 80 per cent of Italians have "low" confidence in Mr Berlusconi's ability to govern. Opinion polls show that the ruling right-of-centre alliance is losing support to centre-left and centrist groupings, and also that confidence in political parties generally is declining[1].
Pedro Passos Coelho
Prime Minister of Portugal since June 2011. Economics graduate and former businessman. Leader of the Social Democratic Party.
Mario Draghi
Governor of the Bank of Italy since 16 January 2006. President of the European Central Bank from November 2011.
Jean-Claude Juncker
President of Luxembourg since 1995. Previously leader of the Christian Socialist Party. Chairman of the Eurogroup of eurozone Finance Ministers. Proponent of eurobonds.
Angela Merkel
Chancellor of Germany since 2005. Leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union and head of a coalition with the centre-right Free Democratic Party since re-elected in 2009 (the next elections are due in 2013). Under international pressure to rescue Greece and under domestic pressur [2] to abandon it (a poll conducted in September 2011 by the Forsa Institute, 80% of Germans are against rescuing Greece).
George Papandreou
Prime Minister of Greece since 2009. Leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement.
Mariano Rajoy
Leader of the Spanish Partido Popular (PP) conservative party.
Olli Rehn
European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs since 2010. (website)
Nicholas Sarkozy
President of France since 2007. Previously president of the conservative Union for a Popular Movement.
Wolfgang Schaeuble
German Finance Minister since 2009.
José Sócrates
Former Prime Minister of Portugal (2004-2011). Leader of the Socialist Party. Succeeded as Prime Minister by Pedro Passos Coelho in June 2011.
Giulio Tremonti
Italian Finance Minister since 2005. Professor of Law. Has a reputation for fiscal prudence. Weakened by rumoured connection with a graft scandal in 2011[2].
Jean-Claude Trichet
President of the European Central Bank since 2003 (term of office ends November 2011).
Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero
Prime Minister of Spain 2008 to 2011. Leader of the ruling Socialist Party. Has called a general election for 20th November 2011 and he does not intend to seek re-election.
Christian Wilhelm Walter Wulff
President of Germany since June 2010. Formerly Premier of Lower Saxony. Member of the Christian Democratic Union.
References
- ↑ Italy politics: Under siege, Economist Intelligence Unit, September 29th 2011
- ↑ Merkel's Government Remains Divided on Euro Policy, Spiegel, 15 September 2011[1]