That is all I can say about the recent upsurge of Germanophobia as part of the Greek crisis. The Greeks are spending all the time they can spare from rioting and burning fine buildings producing pictures of German leaders in Nazi uniform because, forsooth, they have dared to say that it is time the country started cutting back on its insane spending that use other people's money.
Furthermore, it would seem that Angela Merkel shows herself to be an heir to Hitler when she begins to suggest through policy if not words that, perhaps, Greece would be better off outside the eurozone. Well, wouldn't Greece be better off with her own currency? Of course, she would and almost everyone has now acknowledged it. Yet the same people who proclaim that this, indeed, is the only solution, painful though it might be in the short term also scream abuse at Germans because that is what they are, in all probability trying to achieve.
The Boss on EURef is fed up and so am I. Let me count the ways in which this dumb.
The Greeks are going to get nowhere by screaming that it is not their fault, guv, not even their venal and incompetent politicians' fault but that of the nasty Jerries.
The newspapers that are producing improbably and misleading stories implying that democratic Germany not wishing to pour more money into Greece is exactly the same as Nazi Germany invading it are merely turning everybody's attention away from the real problems that have to do with the eurozone and the European project in general. But then, that is exactly what the Daily Wail wants to do.
Last but not least, this is playing into the colleagues' hands. As this blog has argued, the best way for the EU to cease to exist is for Germany to accept that it is an ordinary democratic state (as it has been despite all problems ever since the late forties in part and the early nineties in whole). Screaming that they are all Nazis, whipping up hatred and fear of Germany is exactly what the europhiliacs want for it is the best, indeed the only argument they have to promote the EU as the answer to a non-existent problem. Just how stupid are those eurosceptics (not least UKIP) who are playing this game?
Germany is not as innocent as you imply. The euro was designed to German requirements some of which were subsequently ignored when it suited Germany. The ECB set interest rates to suit the German business cycle. The one-size-fits-all policies skewed to Germany at precisely the wrong time for the southern European economies.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that some Greeks are more idle than most Germans. But Germany was more responsible for the creation of the euro in the first place; and for letting Greece in with fiddled figures.
Germany is benefiting from a low value euro (which is at the same time too high for the Greek economy) and the Germans confuse this unwitting mercantilism with virtue.