The Germans must be wondering what has hit them. After 70 years of gradually working their way back into their neighbors’ trust, they suddenly find themselves excoriated from one end of Europe to the other. And for what offense? What heinous crime have they committed? Only this: They have offered soft loans to other countries.
It started in Greece, whose cartoonists now regularly portray German Chancellor Angela Merkel with Nazi insignia, whose activists howl down their opponents as “German collaborators” and whose politicians, in all seriousness, blame their financial crisis on a forced loan exacted during the occupation in the 1940s. But it soon spread across the Mediterranean: Swastika-bearing Merkels have become a common sight at anti-austerity rallies in Spain, Italy and Portugal.
It’s human nature for debtors to resent their creditors, I suppose; but, over the past month or so, the rest of Europe has got in on the act. From Cork to Cracow, Leftists are indulging in the anti-German bigotry that is one of the few forms of racism they allow themselves (along with dislike of the United States, Britain and Israel). Bien pensant newspapers rarely use the crude Third Reich imagery of the anti-austerity mobs, tending rather to talk of the “discipline” and “control” demanded by Berlin. But the subtext is clear enough. Zese disciplined Germans! Zey haf veys off meikink you pay!
Look at it from the point of view of German taxpayers, though. They have been, for 60 years, the largest financial contributors to the EU, handing over more to France in agricultural subsidies than they did in reparations after World War One. They have borne that burden uncomplainingly, accepting it as a kind of unofficial war debt.
They were even prepared to give away the symbol of their postwar success, the Deutschmark, merging it with weaker and more inflationary currencies. All they asked in return was a promise that the governments of the other members wouldn’t run excessive deficits.
That promise was promptly broken and, before long, some of the Eurozone states faced bankruptcy. Again, the Germans stepped forward — not exactly uncomplainingly this time, but still gamely enough — writing off a chunk of what they were owed and advancing more bridging loans. Other recipients reformed their finances and, in time, paid those loans back. But Greece made few reforms, and needed a second bailout.
When, last month, Greece faced collapse a third time, the Germans offered yet more money — but this time they insisted that, before it was handed over, Athens should do what it had promised to do when receiving the first and second bailouts. “Sadists! Fascists!” came the response. OK, then, so you don’t want our money? Fine: We won’t force it on you. “Terrorists! Nazis!”
A nation which, since 1945, has done everything it can to avoid exerting its full strength, a nation which has sought to sublimate its nationality into a wider European identity, now finds itself, absurdly, accused of wanting to take over the entire continent.
Back in 1997, on the eve of the euro’s launch, Arnulf Baring, a German academic and journalist, wrote a book that contained a passage so uncannily prescient that it deserves some sort of Nostradamus Award:
“They’ll say we’re subsidizing scroungers who lounge about in cafes on Mediterranean beaches. Monetary union will result, in the end, in a kind of gigantic blackmailing operation. When we Germans demand monetary discipline, the other countries will blame their economic woes on that discipline and, by extension, on us. More than that, they’ll see us as a sort of economic policeman. We risk making ourselves, once again, the most hated people in Europe.”
Baring’s was a lonely voice. The official view was that the single currency would not only make Europe richer, but would make its peoples get on better with each other. How far-off those days seem.
Europe’s woes are not the fault of the industrious German people. Nor are they the fault of the Greeks who, let down by their leaders, were not allowed to default and devalue when the crisis struck, but were instead made to carry the cost of supporting the euro and the European banking system.
No, the people to blame are the authors of the single currency — those cleverdick Eurocrats who have spent 15 years dismissing any opposition as xenophobic.
I’m not expecting them to apologize, or even to admit to their mistake. I just want them to stop applying the same failed policies that led Europe to its present unhappy situation. Jamming different economies together is what caused this mess. Squishing them even harder won’t help. Europe will start to recover only when the euro is dismantled.
Dan Hannan is a British Conservative MEP.
