I consider tax cuts for the rich a neolib race to the bottom. (One Germany participated in in the past, though didn't drive it.) But tax cuts for the rich, like the ones Sarko implemented and Steinbrück criticised, are certainly not a result of fiscal conservatism preached by German finance ministers and the ECB.

In fact, I see such a glaring contradiction that even though there is a merit to your arguments about the structural advantages and disadvantages for different countries coming from Euro and VAT decisions, and Sarko did rail against the ECB, there is no way you can rationally explain the Sarko-Merkel distance with it. Sarko's economic policies make no sense.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}