In Germany, as in other euro are countries, there were and are forces in disagreement with the Monetary Union, analysts and economic agents who considered the break-up of the euro as likely. But what counts is what the German Government’s position was and its support, at key moments, to save the Monetary Union and the euro, its support to the programmes for stressed countries and the Banking Union process. Rather, we can say that the new hegemon is the culture of monetary and fiscal stability that has gained in strength over the course of the crisis. The strengthening of the institutions and of the rules to ensure fiscal stability is essential for maintaining the stability of the Monetary Union and of the euro. This is because, as we all know, the source of the Monetary Union crisis lay basically in certain countries’ fiscal performance, even more so than in the banking crisis which has also affected – to differing degrees of intensity – virtually all the euro area members. 2  BIS central bankers’ speeches
Christine Lagarde: ECB press conference - introductory statement Introductory statement by Ms Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank, and Mr Luis de Guindos, Vice-President of the European Central Bank, Frankfurt am Main, 4 May 2023. *** Good afternoon, the Vice-President and I welcome you to our press conference. The inflation outlook continues to be too high for too long. In light of the ongoing high inflation pressures, the Governing Council today decided to raise the three key ECB interest rates by 25 basis points. Overall, the incoming information broadly supports the assessment of the medium-term inflation outlook that we formed at our previous meeting. Headline inflation has declined over recent months, but underlying price pressures remain strong. At the same time, our past rate increases are being transmitted forcefully to euro area financing and monetary conditions, while the lags and strength of transmission to the real economy remain uncertain. Our future decisions will ensure that the policy rates will be brought to levels sufficiently restrictive to achieve a timely return of inflation to our two per cent medium-term target and will be kept at those levels for as long as necessary. We will continue to follow a data-dependent approach to determining the appropriate level and duration of restriction. In particular, our policy rate decisions will continue to be based on our assessment of the inflation outlook in light of the incoming economic and financial data, the dynamics of underlying inflation, and the strength of monetary policy transmission.