German Chancellor Angela Merkel met Pope Francis yesterday and, apparently responding to his criticism of a heartless “dictatorship of the economy”, called for stronger regulation of financial markets.
Pope Francis made it clear that we need a strong, fair Europe and I found the message very encouraging
On Thursday, Francis appealed in a speech for world financial reform, saying the global economic crisis had made life worse for millions in rich and poor countries.
Merkel visited Rome for a few hours specifically to meet the pontiff and spoke with him privately in his library for 45 minutes, unusually long for a private papal audience.
She told reporters afterwards that the scandals and excesses criticised by Francis earlier in the week showed that vital checks and balances had not been functioning properly.
“Crises have blown up because the rules of the social market have not been observed,” she said, adding that tightening financial market regulation would be the main aim of the Group of 20 meeting.
“We have made progress but we are nowhere near a point where we could say that the kind of derailment that leads to market crises could not happen again and so the issue will again play a central role at the G20 meeting this year,” she said.
“It is true that economies are there to serve people and that has by no means always been the case in recent years.”
Merkel, the daughter of a Lutheran minister, said she and Francis had spoken mainly about globalisation, the EU and the role of Europe in the world.
“Pope Francis made it clear that we need a strong, fair Europe and I found the message very encouraging,” said Merkel, head of the Christian Democratic Union, which has a strong Catholic component.
In his first major speech about finance, Francis has also urged states to take greater control of their economies and protect the weakest.
Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany before the country was re-unified, said both she and Francis had “lived under dictatorships”, referring to the military junta that ruled the Pope’s native Argentina from 1976 to 1983.