The ruling interest

We must question whose interests are governing the Eurozone when political decisions are further than ever to alleviate the problems of citizens. While there are 8 million more unemployed in Europe since the beginning of the crisis, in total more than 24 million, the political priority is to impose austerity policies in the public accounts accompanied by reforms of labor regulation and privatization of essential services.

Four things are fundamentally wrong about the way the crisis is being handled: imposed austerity, the lack of financial regulation, the resulting European political architecture and the actions of the ECB. However, a European response to the present crisis cannot be complete if it doesn’t include social investment and democratic checks and balances.

Learning from the German rebuilding

“Berlin remains German”

We hear regularly comparisons between the present crisis and the crisis of the late 20s but nobody talks about the democratic collapse that followed in the 30s. Particularly Germans know well how a economic crisis triggered by external debts resulted in democracy collapse during the Weimar Republik. Ecomomic parallels between Germany in the 30s and Greece today are frightening. They should also remember that some years later, the fate of their country was in the hands of other governments.

I spent 3 fantastic years of my life in Germany and I have a lot of affection for the country and its people. I asked some of my German friends to review this article (from a CDU employee to a German occupier / indignant). They all felt that the comparison with Germany after WW II is somewhat unfair and some reminded me that other countries such as Finland are opposed to more European solidarity. They all feel unease about the subject but none could prove this article wrong. I don’t meant that Germany must pay the bill for the Greek crisis and this is not an emotional blackmail. In this article, I’m appealing the German people because beyond the feeling of deception of today, we need to look further ahead and envisage a rational solution that works for all. Germany has the keys of the monetary union and the European Central Bank (ECB) will be crucial to finance a recovery plan. This is the story that I nevertheless want to remind my German friends, the historical learning that shows that we can find a better collective solution: