The “paradigm shift” in German fore ign policy

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Wat moet je anders als Dell van Ierland naar Polen kan verhuizen, omdat
het daar een betere tax-deal kan krijgen (en iets lagere lonen kan betalen)?

Groet / Cees

Antid Oto wrote:
> REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl
>
> The “paradigm shift” in German foreign policy
> 3 April 2010
>
> A number of recent commentaries in the German press have expressed
> alarm over the course adopted by German Chancellor Angela Merkel
> regarding the Greek debt crisis. At last week’s meeting of European
> Union heads of state in Brussels, Merkel dictated terms and made clear
> that any financial support from Europe for Greece would be linked to
> punitive conditions and would be forthcoming only as a last resort.
>
> While Merkel's stance has been hailed in a number of right-wing
> political commentaries and praised by Germany's tabloid press, other
> commentators have noted that it represents a fundamental shift in
> German foreign policy with far-reaching and potentially dangerous
> consequences.
>
> The latest edition of Der Spiegel magazine poses the issue with the
> headline: “How European is Angela Merkel? Chancellor Abandons Post-War
> EU policy." Applauding the role of "Germany's great pro-European
> chancellors"—the two conservatives Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl and
> the Social Democrat Helmut Schmidt—the magazine describes Merkel's
> approach to the Greek debt crisis as a "paradigm shift" in German
> foreign policy, representing a fundamental break with the policies of
> her predecessors.
>
> Previously, the magazine writes, the German chancellor's approach was
> to "quietly and steadfastly pursue her interests in Brussels with the
> help of key partners or the European Commission." Now, Der Spiegel
> remarks, Merkel has become “the first chancellor to have abandoned
> this principle on an important issue. She has made it clear that there
> are German interests and European interests, and that they are not
> necessarily the same.”
>
> The same point is made by Joschka Fischer, Germany's foreign minister
> and vice-chancellor from 1998 to 2005 and the leader of the German
> Green Party for almost 20 years, in a commentary published earlier
> this week in the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
>
> In a piece entitled “Frau Germania,” Fischer asks, "What is the matter
> with Angela Merkel? Only a short while ago, the German chancellor was
> celebrated as ‘Ms. Europe’; now she increasingly gives the impression
> of being Frau Germania. Instead of providing resolute leadership in
> the global financial and economic crisis, the EU's largest economy is
> withdrawing into its shell."
>
> Fischer points out that up to now Germany has been able to profit
> considerably from the process of European integration. He writes,
> "Germany has always been the motor of European integration, in
> accordance with its political and economic interests…. The motto was
> simple: Germany gives and profits in turn. Should Germany spurn the
> first part of this formula, the European project would suffer serious
> damage—and so would German national interests. Yet this is the
> direction in which Chancellor Merkel seems to be heading."
>
> Fischer goes on to criticize Merkel's call for the expulsion of
> Eurozone members that do not meet financial criteria, and asks, "Does
> she seriously believe that the euro and the EU would survive such
> punitive action?"
>
> He also points out that Merkel's insistence on harsh austerity
> measures on the part of Greece and other Eurozone countries will prove
> detrimental to German interests, leading to "deflation in these
> countries, which are the most important markets for German exports."
>
> The main responsibility for the current conflict within the EU,
> according to Fischer, rests with Germany and France. "Rather than
> lead, the Franco-German couple is constantly, and publicly, at each
> other's throats. While this quarrel is about who should pay for
> restructuring Greece, the real issue is the latent distrust between
> the two partners, which carries the danger of a permanent estrangement."
>
> Fischer speaks on behalf of a layer of the German bourgeoisie that is
> eager to use the vacuum of power opened up by the decline of the US to
> increase German and European influence on the world stage. In a speech
> at Humboldt University in Berlin in 2007, Fischer had deplored
> “Europe’s growing insignificance in the world” under conditions of
> "the self-weakening of the United States due to its politics of
> unilateralism…."
>
> One year later, Fischer called for the establishment of a “European
> avant-garde” to advance the interests of German and European
> capitalism under conditions of mounting trade conflicts with the US on
> one side and China and Asian countries on the other. The motor for his
> "avant-garde" was to be a strong German-Franco axis.
>
> Now Fischer is forced to acknowledge that his hopes of a harmonious
> union of European states have been dashed. In the wake of the
> 2007-2008 financial crisis, naked national interests are increasingly
> dominating the political stage in Europe. There are powerful economic
> factors behind this development. The latest figures for labour costs
> provide an insight into the enormous economic gulf prevailing across
> the European continent.
>
> With labour costs averaging €30.9 per hour, Germany ranks seventh
> among European countries. In Poland, a mere two hours drive eastwards
> from the German capital of Berlin, labour costs are nearly 80 percent
> cheaper at €6.9 per hour. EU member Bulgaria ranks last, with average
> hourly labour costs of €2.9.
>
> At the same time, the financial crisis has led to a pronounced social
> polarization within individual countries.
>
> These underlying economic differences are driving European nations
> apart and leading them to adopt increasingly nationalist policies.
>
> The change in German policy towards Europe has profound political
> implications. For over four decades, peace in Europe was linked to the
> division of the continent's leading industrial power, Germany,
> overseen by a powerful America on one side and the Stalinist
> bureaucracy in Moscow on the other. The collapse of the Stalinist
> states, the end of the cold war and the weakened position of the
> United States have created the conditions for a reunited Germany to
> once again assert its interests on the world stage.
>
> Fischer writes that the stance taken by Merkel represents withdrawal
> by Germany into its national shell, but there can be no retreat from
> the world market by the biggest and most export-oriented economy in
> Europe. The powerful productive forces unleashed by a united Germany
> are forcing the German bourgeoisie to step out from behind the scenes
> and find a way to "organize Europe" more directly and nakedly in
> accordance with Germany’s financial interests.
>
> Twice in the last century, German expansionism was a decisive factor
> in drawing Europe and the world into war. A renewed attempt at a
> forceful reorganization of Europe by Germany will inevitably revive
> old antagonisms, with catastrophic consequences for the continent.
>
> This underscores the necessity for the working class of Europe to
> advance its own independent perspective, based on the united struggle
> of European workers against the European bourgeoisie on the
> revolutionary program of the United Socialist States of Europe, in
> solidarity with the world working class.
>
> Stefan Steinberg
>
> http://wsws.org/articles/2010/apr2010/pers-a03.shtml

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