Germany After the EU and the Russian Scenario - future of the European Union and Poland

No media outlet is truly objective, just like in every country they have a specific target audience. That being said Der Spiegel has very good investigative journalists, and they are particulary good in exposing scandals and they are very reliable when it comes to presenting facts. It is just important to keep their critical attitude in mind e.g. when reading articles about Merkel's foreign policy (in general they think Merkel is too hard on Greece, too soft on Erdogan and not vocal enough about the detoriation of democracy in Poland and Hungary).

One amusing story which highlights their bias against the CDU. Der Spiegel was vehently against every foreign political decision the first chancellor Konrad Adenauer made (although they did have respect for the man), particulary his decision to anchor West Germany to the West and thus (supposedly) perpetuated division of Germany. Their opposition to his government even laid the ground for the incident that cemented his reputation.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiegel_Affair

In a recent edition that celebrated an anniversary of their magazine, they covered every post-war German chancellor until now. In the passage about Adenauer, they put much emphasis on his (undeniable) more controversial domestic decisions, while they only talked about his foreign policy in passing. They sheepishly ended the passage with the statement: Today, most historians agree that Adenauer was right on the most important foreign political questions of his time. That is a bit odd, considering that Adenauer's lasting legacy was mostly in him laying the framework in which German foreign policy works until today.


@ mafketis


They were begging for other countries to relief the pressure on them by taking in some of the refugees. In fact Tsiprashas afterwards expressed his gratitude to Merkel for her decision.

global.handelsblatt.com/politics/how-greece-learned-to-love-merkel-484454

Merkel knows the fragile situation in the Balkans better than most Western leaders. With the decision to take in those refugees who are still on the Balkan route, she probably prevented an escalition of the situation that might have ended in violence, which could have happened if the countries in the Balkans had decided to shuffle to refugees around until they were stuck by fences.

theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/05/angela-merkel-europe-unfinished-business-balkans

Yet another informative, worthwhile post, Tacitus!

SPIEGEL aside for the moment, I happen to be a Merkel-fan (if such is pc to admitLOL) who also happens to feel she's been terribly maligned within her own party, as well as by her own countrymen. While scarcely a "perfect" leader, she probably has more ability in her little pinky finger than many a US-President of late has in their entire body. Even Obama, who surely differed on policy issues, praised her as a pragmatist.

A crying pity some of that "pragmatism" didn't extend to consulting her neighbors concerning the Greece-bailout or weighing far more deeply the impact of the migrant crisis:-))

@Lyzko

Well, it is quite obvious that Merkel is a very skilled diplomate if nothing else, and personally speaking, I'll likely vote for her again this year.


I have to disagree with you here. I think the way Merkel dealt with Greece is one of the best example for her multilateral approach to diplomacy. When everything was said and done, every country agreed to her suggestions.

Hate to be sarky, old man, but how much of that negotiation was in fact Schaeuble, and how much Merkel?:-) Tsipras needed both much more than they needed him.

I felt she acted too precipitously (voreilig) myself. That is only my opinion!

Schmidt and Kohl had their Genscher, Merkel has her Schaeuble, her grey eminence and elder statesman upon whom she can always rely for some well-thought out advice:-)

I miss nothing. Stop shipping people into Europe and deport all illegals back onto the African shore. Go after mafia and money and shady deals in smuggling people. simple enough but yet there is no political will.

If they are actually illegals, I would agree. Again though, it was political wheeling and dealing behind the scenes which took them to Europe in the first place, and not some romantic Emma Lazarus-style "yearning to breathe free"!

Those political dealing are clearly shady and harmful to Europe. What for all those politicians are getting paid for? To ship them in?

Now we [FINALLY] understand each other, Ironman:-) That's what' I've been saying all along.

Someone must be living in a different reality in some other universe.

I roundly concur, Ironside, and it's probably YOU!

In fact, those countries who were asked were undoubtedly coerced in some measure into going along with Merkel's plan. Being the head of Europe's economic super power does have certain advantages:-)

That being said, I emphasize, only those countries who were consulted. Poland might not have been among them.

Speculation or reality, what you think. An article deal with possibility that Russia and western Europe clash in war.

"Europe and Russia could go to war - inadvertently"
b92/eng/news/world.php?yyyy=2018&mm=02&dd=08&nav_id=103451&utm_source=B92&utm_medium=Document&utm_campaign=Related-Chrono&utm_content=%22Europe%20and%20Russia%20could%20go%20to%20war%20-%20inadvertently%22

"Germany's top court blocks approval of EU £640bn Covid fund - 'Violates the constitution'"

There's still some sanity in Germany. German constitutional court blocks a common EU debt and further federalization of Europe.

msn.com/en-gb/money/other/germanys-top-court-blocks-approval-of-eu-c2-a3640bn-covid-fund-e2-80-98violates-the-constitution/ar-BB1f4JVs?ocid=uxbndlbing

Wow that is big news. The European Court of Justice will not dare contradict this as will lead to open legal warfare. Intersting what happens next. Basically Germany is usurping its superiority over the EU legal institutions. Poland has ammo in it's pocket now fighting future 'rule of law' attacks from the EU.

They're a court. "Open legal warfare" is what courts do.


No it hasn't. And why would any country not want to have the rule of law?

Anyway, the problem lies with one particular political tendency, soon to be out of office.

I don`t worry for Poland. Poland is extremely lucky. Will join with Serbia in the post-Covid world.

Germany is the main sponsor of this socialist dystopia (well, a lot of their sponsorship is at the expense of euro-drained south European economies but nevertheless) so it's a dangerous move for the whole leftists EU project.

That's the second time a German constitutional court has positively surprised me. And let's not forget the anti-lockdown pressure* the Germans put on Merkel's lockdown policy lately.

In face of those facts, I'll have to readjust my mostly negative views about modern Germany.

theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/24/angela-merkel-reverses-plans-for-easter-covid-lockdown-in-germany

Interesting: If you put "20 Years of the Euro: Winners and Losers" into google you'll find a pdf with that same title.

The Euro has been bery bery good to Germany...

"Germany has gained by far the most from the introduction of the euro; almost € 1.9 trillion between 1999 and 2017. This amounts to around € 23,000 per inhabitant. Otherwise, only the Netherlands has gained substantial benefits from the introducing the euro" p. 1

"In the first few years after its introduction, Greece gained hugely from the euro but since 2011 has suffered enormous losses. Over the whole period, the balance of € 2 billion or € 190 per inhabitant, is only just positive" p. 1

"the euro has resulted in a drop in prosperity: € 3.6 trillion in France and as much as € 4.3 trillion in Italy. In France, this amounts to € 56,000 per capita and in Italy € 74,000."

The document is from Feb 2019 and I doubt if the last year helped much....

Why is maintaining this pseudo-currency good for any country but Germany (and to a lesser extent - the Netherlands)?

An good comparison would be between Czech who have the korunua and Slovakia who adopted the euro. I know in the latter there was really bad price increases when it was introduced. Don't think it has helped their economy in tems of growth and investment relative to Czech either. The Euro ( a montery union ) is useless without a corresponding fiscal union.

It seems that Poland's apparently intense dislike of the EU is motivated more by sheer self-protectionism along with her historic rivalry with Germany (more than even with Russia) compared with for example BREXIT which was motivated by Britain's desire for economic independence.

More the failed PiS regime's dislike, rather tha Poland's. The EU gets particularly high approval ratings amongst Poles.

yea but whose gonna replace them?

Whoever it is won't be any worse.

how do we know that for sure?

We don't.

Extremist was on the rise in Europe; hopefully the trend will move away from that.

Yeah be carefull what you wish for . You might end up in a camp for gays under a Falanga flag, with Ironside supreme leader of the konfederacja polish reich. then you will be pining for the good old days of PiS

Careful.

Fascism creeps in easily; however nationalism which was on the rise in Europe is now strting to steadily fall.

I was under a different impression. Intererting.

@Lyzko
Poles are happy to be part of the EU, because they see benefits to it, not to any sentimental attachment to a supranational state like maybe germans. But they still resent EU trying to tell Poland what to do in regards to migrants and some other matters. Once Poland becomes a net payer rather than a beneficieree of funds peoples viewpoints of EU might change. They do appreciate the Shengen zone and being able to work easily for more money in Germany and U.K etc.

people genuinely like it. An end to isolation, and most people look west rather than the PiS-like ciemnogrod east.