May 16, 2011
European finance ministers on Monday pressed ahead with efforts to control the debt crisis, approving a bailout package for Portugal and demanding that Greece start a privatization program before it gets any further help.
Still, the absence of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, cast a long shadow over the meeting, depriving ministers of the advice of a powerful and experienced European with a pivotal role on the global financial stage.
A former French economy minister, Mr. Strauss-Kahn was a member of the political generation that created the euro. He also had the respect of the euro zone’s most senior politicians and officials.
“He’s a good friend of mine,” said Jean-Claude Juncker of Luxembourg who is chairman of the euro zone finance ministers. “I didn’t like the pictures I saw on the TV this morning,” Mr. Juncker said at a news conference. “It was deeply sad and traumatic. But Mr. Strauss-Kahn is in the hands of the American justice. It’s not up to us to comment on this, but it makes me deeply, deeply sad.”
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