Germany ‘conquers’ Europe: Thrifty ways win out after century of wars failed – VICTOR DAVIS HANSON – 4.4.2012
The rise of a German Europe began in 1914, failed twice, and has now ended in the victory of German power almost a century later. The Europe that Kaiser Wilhelm lost in 1918, and that Adolf Hitler destroyed in 1945, has at last been won by German Chancellor Angela Merkel without firing a shot.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Pero:
Sarkozy, por congelar aportes de Francia a la UE
DW/DE 5.4.2012 (ver final del texto)
Or so it seems from European newspapers, which now refer bitterly to a “Fourth Reich” and arrogant new Nazi “Gauleiters” who dictate terms to their European subordinates. Popular cartoons depict Germans with stiff-arm salutes and swastikas, establishing new rules of behavior for supposedly inferior peoples.
Millions of terrified Italians, Spaniards, Greeks, Portuguese and other Europeans are pouring their savings into German banks at the rate of $15 billion a month. A thumbs-up or thumbs-down from the euro-rich Merkel now determines whether European countries will limp ahead with new German-backed loans or default and see their standard of living regress to that of a half-century ago.
A worried neighbor, France, in schizophrenic fashion, as so often in the past, alternately lashes out at Britain for abandoning it and fawns on Germany to appease it. The worries in 1989 of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and French President François Mitterrand over German unification — that neither a new European Union nor an old NATO could quite rein in German power — proved true.
How did the grand dream of a “new Europe” end just 20 years later in a German protectorate — especially given the not-so-subtle aim of the European Union to diffuse German ambitions through a continent-wide super-state?
Not by arms. Britain fights in wars all over the globe, from Libya to Iraq. France has the bomb. But Germany mostly stays within its borders — without a nuke, a single aircraft carrier or a military base abroad.
Not by handouts. Germany poured almost $2 trillion of its own money into rebuilding an East Germany ruined by communism — without help from others. To drive through southern Europe is to see new freeways, bridges, rail lines, stadiums and airports financed by German banks or subsidized by the German government.
Not by population size. Somehow, 120 million Greeks, Italians, Spaniards and Portuguese are begging some 80 million Germans to bail them out.
And not because of good fortune. Just 65 years ago, Berlin was flattened, Hamburg incinerated and Munich a shell — in ways even Athens, Madrid, Lisbon and Rome were not.
In truth, German character — so admired and feared in some 500 years of European literature and history — led to the present Germanization of Europe. These days we recoil at terms like “national character” that seem tainted by the nightmares of the past. But no other politically correct exegesis offers better reasons why a booming Detroit of 1945 today looks like it was bombed, and a bombed-out Berlin of 1945 now is booming. Continued…
Germans on average worked harder and smarter than their European neighbors — investing rather than consuming, saving rather than spending, and going to bed when others to the south were going to dinner. Recipients of their largesse bitterly complain that German banks lent them money to buy German products in a sort of 21st-century commercial serfdom. True enough, but that still begs the question why Berlin, and not Rome or Madrid, was able to pull off such lucrative mercantilism.
Where does all this lead? Right now to some great unknowns that terrify most of Europe. Will German industriousness and talent eventually translate into military dominance and cultural chauvinism — as it has in the past? How, exactly, can an unraveling EU, or NATO, now “led from behind” by a disengaged United States, persuade Germany not to translate its overwhelming economic clout into political and military advantage?
Can poor European adolescents really obey their rich German parents? Berlin in essence has now scolded southern Europeans that if they still expect sophisticated medical care, high-tech appurtenances and plentiful consumer goods — the adornments of a rich American and northern Europe lifestyle — then they have to start behaving in the manner of Germans, who produce such things and subsidize them for others.
In other words, an Athenian may still have his ultra-modern airport and subway, a Spaniard may still get a hip replacement, or a Roman may still enjoy his new Mercedes. But not if they still insist on daily siestas, dinner at 9 p.m., retirement in their early 50s, cheating on taxes, and a de facto 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. workday.
Behind all the EU’s 11th-hour gobbledygook, Germany’s new European order is clear: If you wish to live like a German, then you must work and save like a German. Take it or leave it.
Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and the author of the just-released “The End of Sparta.” You can reach him by e-mailing author@victorhanson.com.
La publicación de este artículo fue sugerido por Jorge Ordenes. Gracias, gracias, Don Jorge.[jvordenes@yahoo.com]
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Sarkozy, por congelar aportes de Francia a la UE
Al presentar el programa para su reelección, el actual presidente francés prometió solicitar que se congele el aporte de su país a las arcas europeas y criticó el “festival de gastos” previsto por su rival socialista.
“Les anuncio que Francia solicitará la congelación de su aportación al presupuesto europeo, lo que supondrá un ahorro anual de 600 millones de euros”, dijo Sarkozy durante la presentación de su programa de campaña en París, de cara a la primera vuelta de las elecciones presidenciales del 22 de abril. Francia es el segundo contribuyente a la Unión Europea (UE), por detrás de Alemania.
Arremete contra la UE, y contra España
El presidente francés reclamó a la vez la congelación del presupuesto de Bruselas, que, según opina, debe adapatarse a los esfuerzos de austeridad de muchos socios del bloque. “Mientras algunos Estados (miembro) hacen difíciles recortes (…) los funcionarios de Bruselas recibieron aumentos de sueldo del 7 por ciento en 2008 y 2009 y su número se vio incrementado en 3.000 en los últimos tres años”, dijo Sarkozy.
El mandatario conservador consideró que es necesario volver a un presupuesto equilibrado hasta 2016 si se quiere evitar seguir el ejemplo negativo de España. Según Sarkozy, España sufre una crisis de confianza que impide a “ese gran país” cumplir con las obligaciones adquiridas. Por eso, apuntó el presidente galo, es necesario que también los departamentos franceses reduzcan sus costes y personal.
Contra su principal oponente
Francois Hollande
Sarkozy aprovechó además para criticar el programa presentado el día anterior por su rival socialista, François Hollande. El mandatario tildó a Hollande de “rehén” de la extrema izquierda que planea “un festival de gasto (…) como si el mundo no existiera, como si Europa no existiera”.
Según Sarkozy, tras dos años de crisis, los franceses tienen una “oportunidad histórica” de elegir entre un líder con “vasta experiencia en la gestión de crisis” y un candidato cuyo programa representa “la negación de la existencia de la crisis”.
“Al pueblo francés”
El programa presentado por el mandatario incluye una carta de 34 páginas “al pueblo francés” que será distribuida a millones de hogares y sintetiza las propuestas hechas hasta ahora por el candidato de la derecha durante su campaña.
Según una encuesta publicada por el instituto OpinionWay-Fiducial, Hollande conseguiría el 26 por ciento de los votos en la primera vuelta y Sarkozy el 28,5 por ciento. De cara a una segunda vuelta, Hollande tendría un 53 por ciento de intención de voto -un punto menos que hace una semana- y Sarkozy un 47 por ciento (dpa).
Sin categoría | Willi Noack 5 Abril 2012
