| Submit your comments on this article |
| Economy |
| German endgame for EMU draws ever nearer |
| 2011-09-05 |
| We are so used to German self-abnegation for the sake of Europe that we can hardly imagine any other state of affairs. But the escalating protest against EMU bail-outs by Germany’s key institutions go beyond the banalities of money. The fight is over German democracy itself. Those who talk of a Fourth Reich or believe that EMU is a "German racket to take over the whole of Europe" – as Nicholas Ridley famously put it -- have the matter backwards. Germans allowed their country to be tied down with "silken chords". They are the most reliable defenders of freedom and parliamentary prerogative in Europe, precisely because they know their history. Finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble could hardly have chosen a more toxic term than "Bevollmächtigung" or general enabling power when he requested blanket authority from the Bundestag for EU rescues, as if Weimar were so soon forgotten. He was roundly rebuffed. You can feel the storm brewing in Germany. Within days of each other, President Christian Wulff accused the European Central Bank of going "far beyond" its mandate and subverting Article 123 of the Lisbon Treaty by shoring up insolvent states, and Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann said bail-out policies had "completely gutted" the EU law. Both believe the EU Project has taken a dangerous turn. Fiscal powers are slipping away to a supra-national body beyond sovereign control. "This strikes at the very core of our democracies. Decisions have to be made in parliament in a liberal democracy. That is where legitimacy lies," said Mr Wulff. Otmar Issing, the ECB’s founding guru, fears that the current course must ultimately provoke the "resistance of the people". Instead of evolving into an authentic union with a "European government controlled by a European Parliament" on democratic principles, it has become deformed halfway house. In its rush to save EMU, he said, Europe has forgotten that legislative primacy over tax and spending is the crucible of our democracies. It was monarchical assault on the power of the purse that led to England’s Civil War, and America’s Revolution. We will find out to what extent Germany’s constitutional court shares these fears when it rules this Wednesday on the legality of the EU rescue machinery, and delivers its verdict of life or death for monetary union. The opinion will be drafted by Guido di Fabio, a Wilhelmine nostalagic and declared enemy of "libertarian nihilism". The judge has an odd outlook perhaps for the grandson of an impoverished nobleman from the Abruzzi who found work in Duisburg steel mills. He is quintessentially German now. His remarkable 2005 book "The Culture of Freedom" decries the "enfeebled" societies of the West, and judges multiculturalism and the welfare state to have failed miserably. He calls for a "renaissance of marriage and family" and a return to "the nation as common destiny". One awaits his Nieztschean verdict on Europe with curiosity. The court is a formidable body, the last defender of sovereignty against EU overreach in a Europe of pliant judges. "European integration may not result in the system of democratic rule in Germany being undermined," was its verdict on the Lisbon Treaty. In a defiant warning to the European Court and the plotters and usurpers of Brussels, it ruled that the nation states are "masters of the Treaties" and not the other way round. Core areas of policy – especially budgets -- "must forever remain German". "The principle of democracy may not be balanced against other legal interests; it is inviolable." "A blanket empowerment for the exercise of public authority may not be granted by the German constitutional bodies." If democratic legitimacy is violated "in the course of the European integration", Germany must be prepared "in the worst case, even to refuse further participation in the European Union." Even to refuse. The Enabling Act (German: Ermächtigungsgesetz) was passed by Germany's Reichstag and signed by President Paul von Hindenburg on 23 March 1933. It was the second major step, after the Reichstag Fire Decree, through which Chancellor Adolf Hitler legally obtained plenary powers and established his dictatorship. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #8 Every time I conclude we are royally screwed, along comes a news item making me realize that the Europeans are adamant to be first over the cliff. After Greece inevitably defaults, how eager will northern European voters be to prop up Portugal, Spain, and Italy? If either of the latter 2 default, a few significant French and German banks will fail, and then what? Scary stuff. I'm tempted to stock up on food, guns, and ammo, but preparing for a Mad Max world doesn't exactly inspire me to action. |
| Posted by: kcs 2011-09-05 18:40 |
| #7 Stupid Germans! Your democracy means nothing! The Smart People[tm] will make the decisions now. It's nothing personal, it's just that The Smart People[tm] are better suited to rule, and not unreliable like a democracy. Voting is pure gambling, there is no guarantee of a positive outcome. They are also not susceptible to human weakness like the corruption of power, they are The Smart People[tm]. |
| Posted by: gromky 2011-09-05 17:29 |
| #6 NS I'm afraid that your strikeout was unnecessary and probably incorrect. Might I suggest "traitors (aka traders)" as a replacement? |
| Posted by: AlanC 2011-09-05 13:31 |
| #5 It's going to be another tough September once the |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2011-09-05 12:37 |
| #4 Euro stocks tanking hard today |
| Posted by: Frank G 2011-09-05 12:17 |
| #3 Somebody should explain to them that the EU and Nato are in Brussels and not Antwerp for a reason. The Germans' job is to build the cars, pay the bills and shut up. /sarc |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2011-09-05 12:15 |
| #2 There will be war... |
| Posted by: Secret Asian Man 2011-09-05 11:49 |
| #1 Using a word like "Bevollmächtigung" in Germany is about as bad as if he had paraphrased and said something like, "One European people, One European Nation, One European leader!" (after the Nazi "Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer" -- "One People, One Nation, One Leader". It probably made a lot of Germans collectively poop themselves. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-09-05 11:41 |