Merkel losing her party’s old guard
Last time it was Altkanzler Helmut Kohl telling us that present German Chancellor Angela Merkel was “destroying my Europe”. Now the former Defense Minister under Kohl Volker Rühe is ripping into the Chancellor as well.
Handelsblatt writes:
Former Defense Minister Volker Rühe (CDU) has harshly criticised Chancellor Angela Merkel. "The long-term perspective is missing from government policy; it lacks strategic thinking," the former Deputy National Chairman and Secretary General of the CDU said to the "Flensburger Tageblatt". Merkel is pursuing a mere "moment-to-moment" policy. For Rühe, her management of the current European debt crisis is "wanting".
"Germany is not fulfilling its leadership role," Rühe said to the newspaper. "We must ensure that the German reputation of reliability and predictability is not damaged." He also accused the Chancellor and her cabinet of foreign policy shortcomings, serious mistakes and a lack of communication. Rühe was defense minister from 1992 to 1998.
If the sovereign debt crisis spirals out of control, it is not clear who will govern. At a minimum, Germany’s reputation as a foundational support for the European project will be in tatters. Likely, the governing coalition of CDU, CSU and FDP will be get the blame for this. The criticism from the older generation within the CDU is a well-orchestrated effort to push Merkel toward a more pro-European policy.
Source: Ex-Verteidigungsminister kritisiert Merkel – Handelsblatt
“The criticism from the older generation within the CDU is a well-orchestrated effort to push Merkel toward a more pro-European policy.”
I didn’t have that much time to read during the last weeks, but what’s your definition of a pro-european policy? If this is the same definition as anglo-saxon economics have, I can tell you that nearly nobody here in germany, especially not the conservative parties support a fiscal union (which means constant transfer union, we’re not stupid). I think that Joschka Fischer supports it, but that shouldn’t really be surprising when you know his background.
People tend to support a clear cut like this
Wirtschaftsweise fürchten Ende der Euro-Zone
https://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/0,1518,775378,00.html
It’s not up to me to decide what Ruehe and Kohl mean by pro-European.
This article shows Waigel making the same noises in 2010:
https://pro.creditwritedowns.com/2010/03/german-responsible-for-stability-and-growth-pact-wants-to-bail-greece-out.html
Obviously, he says nothing about a Transfer-union but he does suggest a EU-wide bank regulator.
Has he said anything to indicate whether or not he is aware of the role regulators (and the basel-2 accords) played in the current crisis?