Wolfgang Schaeuble, Germany's Sisyphus

摘要

The embattled leader of Germany's scandal-embroiled Christian Democrats, Wolfgang Schauble, once likened himself to Sisyphus, condemned for ever to push a stone up a hill, only to see it roll back down just before he reached the top, then to have to start all over again. Now, perhaps more even than after the attack by a mad gunman ten years ago, which left Mr Schauble a paraplegic in a wheelchair, he must be reflecting on the awful appropriateness of that simile. Many onlookers in Berlin reckon that this time the stone is going to crush Mr Schauble and put him out of political action for good. But he is nothing if not durable. Can he survive, and start struggling back uphill yet again?