The destiny of Europe will depend on the elections to be held in Germany on 22 September. For the first time since its foundation the European Community is going through a time of uncertainty, exacerbated by the economic crisis.
Doubt, perplexity, and bewilderment are among the words used by German and sociological thinkers such as Jürgen Habermas, Ulrich Beck and Wolfgang Streeck, the director of the Max-Planck Institut in Cologne. If Beck is the most critical, to the point of calling his Chancellor “Merkiavelli” and accusing his country of excessive hegemony – German Europe (Polity Press, 2013) is the title of his latest book – also the other intellectuals point their finger at the dangers of a policy which is more and more post-democratic.
They are critical of Germany’s current policy from within their own country, starting from different points of view which then curiously converge and go on to discuss the economic/political choices made by Angela Merkel and the culpability of Germany in the crisis that Europe is experiencing. We are not just dealing with an economic crisis: it has deep roots that come from the original separation between the European political elite who make decisions and the citizens who are affected by those decisions.
Above all, they accuse Germany of growing hegemony at the expense of the weaker countries, in particular the Mediterranean areas, who find it difficult to control their public debt, while the population is forced to make very difficult sacrifices in order to keep up with the richer countries. In this way, a clear separation was created between north and south – a sort of “redistribution of wealth” from the bottom to the top, which widens the gap of social inequality, increases discontent and distrust in the European Union.
In this absurd killing game, Germany plays a leading role: its chancellor, whom Beck dubs as “Frau Merkiavelli” for her Machiavellian characteristics of delaying, denying, and never making up her mind and, above all, without doing anything concrete – shows her two-sided face of a hardened advocate of a policy of austerity on the outside, while inside she is well-liked for her policies, thus staying the favour with the people of her electorate.
In Gekaufte Zeit. Die vertagte Krise des demokratischen Kapitalismus (Suhrkamp, 2013) Wolfgang Streeck reflects on some negative factors of the economy, such as inflation, the deficit, financial deregulation; mere temporary expedients to hold off otherwise unsolvable problems. The greatest of which is undoubtedly the conservation of democratic guarantees and social integration to meet the demand of an economy of profit.
Streeck focuses on the “time” factor to explain the inertia of capitalism, which ends up wasting people’s future in exchange for an immediate advantage, which is a criticism of German policy that has a great deal in common with Beck and his diatribe against Merkel’s habit of using delaying tactics.
Read more: Europe: Time Gained Or Time Lost?
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