The Great Debate UK
Germany at the crossroads
By Laurence Copeland. The opinions expressed are his own.
Baby-boomers like me, who grew up in the shadow of World War II, have to acknowledge with gratitude that the Germany which again dominates Europe is in most respects a model democracy – multiracial, prosperous and contented. However, there is one worrying aspect of the German mentality which seems to have survived intact from its unhappy history, and it is an aspect which is likely to be tested to the full in the coming weeks and months.
From the moment when the Maastricht Treaty was dreamed up in the early 1990s to the inception of the euro zone in 1998, Germany had any number of opportunities to kill the project off and indeed, time and again, policymakers in Bonn or Berlin or Frankfurt voiced their reservations in public. The Bundesbank, in particular, with its overwhelming prestige, spoke out forcefully against what it saw as the dangers of premature monetary union.
Yet, while Tony Blair, who dared to take Britain to war in Iraq in the face of overwhelming public opposition, nonetheless baulked at taking his country into the euro zone without a referendum, and while France actually had one (which the pro-Maastricht side only won by a whisker), Germany’s leaders felt no such need. On the contrary, Chancellor Kohl famously rejected the idea of consulting his electorate on the grounds that, if the opinion polls were to be believed, he would almost certainly lose.
What is it about the Germans that makes them willing blindly to follow a leader, even though they fear he is taking them over a cliff? Am I alone in finding this a worrying national peculiarity?
I raise this question now because the problem of what to do about Greece means that Germany stands at another fork in the road. Forget the technicalities and the small print, important though they are, and focus on the critical issue of principle which precedes it: is Germany going to give in and allow some form of fiscal integration to be introduced by the front door (unlikely), by the back door, the tradesman’s entrance or the catflap? It is coming under increasing pressure to do so from all sides – euro-politicans, commentators, economists, right-thinking or unthinking members of the chattering classes – in fact, almost everyone except those who will end up footing the bill i.e. the taxpayers of Germany itself, who for some obscure reason are a lot less enthusiastic.
This may be the last chance for Germany. One shudders to think what will happen if Germans are saddled with supporting the rest of Europe in perpetuity – which is what is involved, as Frau Merkel seems only too well aware.
