It was the political icon, Willy Brandt, who would wonder somewhat out loud that in certain circumstances, “country comes before party”. The time has now, perhaps, come for a German political leader to further extend this reasoning by adding, “the European Union comes before country” and therefore inscribing their ideas in the fertile tracks left behind by Montesquieu, “If I knew that something would be useful to me and prejudicial to my family, I would reject it from my mind. If I knew that something useful to my family, and which was not for my country, I would seek to forget it. If I knew something useful for my country, and which was prejudicial to Europe, or better- which was useful to Europe but prejudicial to the human race, I would look upon it as a crime”.
Unfortunately, politics is rarely a matter of wisdom alone. Over the past few weeks, the German political scene is a poignant reminder of this. It reminds the whole of Europe that judging by the evidence, the European Union is aware that its own near future, not only that Germany, depends on what is ultimately put together in Berlin and to a very slightly lesser extent, in Munich. It finds itself on the balcony again observing, almost impotently, the behaviour and posturing of those who will significantly influence its destiny – and bitterly contemplating the absurdity of the delusion whereby the European institutions and member states are duty-bound not to interfere in the domestic affairs of a country that will, notwithstanding, have a significant impact on their respective futures.
On the day following the failure of the negotiations that sought to build a Jamaica coalition that would have tied Christian Democrats, liberals and the Greens together, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier honourably performed his role by urging the political parties to assume their “responsibilities” completely and transparently. Like a schoolmaster reminding his unruly pupils about their homework, he pointed out that, “all the political parties elected to the Bundestag have an obligation to the common interest of serving our country”. This admonishment is even more justified given that this discreet German head of state is concerned, above all else, by the possibility of new “reparative” elections being held, which would be like manna from heaven, for the right-wing nationalist AFD party, this Alternative for Germany which, in certain opinion polls would, in the event of elections obtain more than 13% of the vote. How would, therefore, President Steinmeier be able to do anything other than invite the Bundestag and political parties, obviously the democratic parties, “not to give back the mandate to the voters that they have given to them?”
This presidential appeal has been delivered. He deserves a change of line from the Social Democrat Party, which, on the initiative of Martin Schulz, chose a curative period in opposition on the evening after his electoral defeat. Had he remembered, together with the historian Hélène Miard-Delacroix that, “the end of the parliamentarianism of the Weimar Republic began on 27 March 1930 when the SPD left the last broad opposition that gathered the heteroclite political forces together, ranging from the labour movement to the Liberals representing the interests of heavy industry” (Le Monde, 29 November 2017), which significantly paved the way forward for the Nazis?
Perhaps: once bitten, twice shy, so the saying goes. Is it therefore a distorted or indeed a hidden voice that led to Christian Lindner, the young president of the Liberal Democrat Party, to plunge the country into crisis after having threatened, with his demands, to do the same with the European Union as a whole, beginning with the Eurozone?
President Franck-Walter Steinmeier also implicitly pointed out that, “all the political parties elected to the Bundestag” should also have “an obligation to the common interest of serving our European Union”. In so doing, after France had “made” Macron President on the basis of his European project, faced with the nationalist posturing of Marine Le Pen, Germany is undoubtedly on the point of providing itself with a coalition and, subsequently, with a government on the basis of European criteria. This would be a major advance in the history of European construction.
It is not yet, however, the final whistle. Germanic recantations on the question of glyphosate bear this out quite blatantly. Was the gesture made by a minister of the Bavarian CSU with the secret agreement of Chancellor Merkel that allowed for Bayer’s conquest of Monsanto really worth it? Is it, on the contrary, just a gesture by a party, the CSU, that is trying to put pressure on Angela Merkel at a time when the delicate negotiations with the Social Democrats could have created some unwelcome European demands?
What is clear at this stage is that the proposals formulated by President Macron will become the Justice of the Peace in this government formation. Armin Laschet, the Christian Democrat President of the Rhineland-North Westphalia region asserted that, “The courage with which Macron has formulated a vision for Europe could find a response in Germany through a grand coalition”. He added, “I share many of the ideas Martin Schulz expressed about Europe” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 24 November). This subsequently leads us to now think that the German government currently in gestation will be one of all the colours of Europe or it will be none at all. Let us hope that the spirit of responsibility will prevail.
Michel Theys