Germany gets its way in bailout clash with Greece

Berlin

GERMANY'S 7-1 drubbing of Brazil in the soccer World Cup last summer was uncomfortable to watch, even for jubilant Germans whose cheers turned to sheepish smiles as the goals piled up.

The bailout extension deal that Germany and its European partners clinched with Greece on Friday after weeks of public jousting between the countries had a similar feel. In the end, it looked like a total triumph for the Germans, who forced Alexis Tsipras, Greece's new leftist prime minister, to swallow virtually all of their demands.

But it was not a feel-good victory, nor one that bodes well for a single currency bloc struggling to emerge from a half-decade of financial and economic crisis, and increasingly threatened by populist political forces. Mr Tsipras and his finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, a charismatic economist with a passion f…