MaxedOutMama
Tuesday, June 07, 2005
NOFP On Germany
This is a superb summary of the position in Germany by No Oil For Pacifists.
To add to the pain, various media outlets are now conducting mock referendums about the EU Constitution ( the Germans weren't permitted to vote). Needless to say, more "responsible" news outlets find this unhelpful and uncalled for:
Spiegel reports that Schroeder may be preparing to resign to avoid defeat:
To add to the pain, various media outlets are now conducting mock referendums about the EU Constitution ( the Germans weren't permitted to vote). Needless to say, more "responsible" news outlets find this unhelpful and uncalled for:
Thanks to the French and Dutch rejection of the EU constitution, Germany's media have caught the Gallic revolutionary spirit. The populist newspaper Bild, together with the equally colorful TV station RTL, launched its own referendum on the EU constitution on Friday. Undeterred by the fact that the German government and parliament has already given the document its blessing, the newspaper has decided to take matters into its own hands and organize a popular vote.and:
Meanwhile, German public broadcaster ARD has also been busy doing its own plebiscite, albeit without help from Martina. It seems that the 54 percent are in favor of amending the constitution with only 20 percent supporting agreeing on the document in its present form.After the next election Chirac will lose his buddy Schroeder. Joschka Fisher attempts to deal with reality:
If you look to the reasons for the setback (it is clear that) there is a gap between the traditional nation states and the project of European development. Europe wasn't founded by a democratic revolution. Rather Europe was based on the experience of terrible wars and on the collapse of the old European system. And it was based on the ideas and the policies of the political elites.Fisher goes on to discuss what must be done to form a real Europe:
This would mean that the next time the European Parliament is up for election, we have to raise issues not on a national level, but we have to form Europe-wide platforms created by European-wide parties. And we have to run with candidates representing not national programs, but European programs. I am not talking about a pie-in-the-sky European program with nice ideas that nobody is really interested in. But they have to have a substance. What about social justice in the European Union? What about the free market? What does it mean in France, in Germany, in Poland, in Lithuania, in Slovenia, in Portugal? And then (we have to) present candidates for the job for the president of the Commission and they must run for that position. Without that, I don't believe we can really bridge the gap between the project of the elites and the reality of the people.Substance and popular participation - two things that are totally lacking in the current setup. This man is a very good politician and could make it big-time in a unified Europe. Chirac and Schroeder never discuss realities, whereas Fisher is extremely blunt about them.
Spiegel reports that Schroeder may be preparing to resign to avoid defeat:
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, it is said, always has some trick or other up his sleeve. And indeed, his recent call to move up new federal elections by one year to this autumn instead of holding them -- as originally scheduled -- in September 2006, seemed at first to be a masterful political stroke. It caught the opposition off guard and forced it to scramble in naming Angela Merkel as the official chancellor candidate for the conservatives.If Schroeder resigns it will probably be in favor of Muentefering. This was the dude that was screaming about American capitalists.
Now, though, it looks like Schroeder's strategy may be backfiring. Once far more well-liked than Merkel, Schroeder has recently belly flopped in the popularity department with 46 percent preferring Merkel against a score of just 38 percent for Schroeder according to a recent poll. Merkel's party, the Christian Democrats (CDU), meanwhile, is supported by 48 percent of Germans against a paltry 28 percent for Schroeder's Social Democrats (SPD).
Comments:
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"...we have to form Europe-wide platforms created by European-wide parties"
That idea will last until Jean Le Pen says, "Sure, that's a great idea."
The EU was never more than a dream- the intention of which was not to compete with America, but rather, to limit competition. Tell the eastern Europeans that they need to stifle their competitive drive.
That dog just won't hunt, as they say.
That idea will last until Jean Le Pen says, "Sure, that's a great idea."
The EU was never more than a dream- the intention of which was not to compete with America, but rather, to limit competition. Tell the eastern Europeans that they need to stifle their competitive drive.
That dog just won't hunt, as they say.
If they are ever to have any coherent EU policy they will have to bring the people into it. I have no idea how all of this will work out in practice.
I think Fisher is correct in saying that the only way people will accept economic reforms is by gaining a political voice. It's much less scary to institute change when there has been a dialogue first and the people know they can back away if necessary. The real problem is that reforms are needed within countries more than across the EU.
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I think Fisher is correct in saying that the only way people will accept economic reforms is by gaining a political voice. It's much less scary to institute change when there has been a dialogue first and the people know they can back away if necessary. The real problem is that reforms are needed within countries more than across the EU.
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