Bernard Ingham: Will Germany ever learn to stop dividing Europe?

LET me first declare that I have nothing against the average modern German. They are an industrious people and deserve to succeed.
Germany's Angela Merkel joins Theresa May on a walkabout at last Friday's gathering of EU leaders in Malta.Germany's Angela Merkel joins Theresa May on a walkabout at last Friday's gathering of EU leaders in Malta.
Germany's Angela Merkel joins Theresa May on a walkabout at last Friday's gathering of EU leaders in Malta.

Unlike Margaret Thatcher, who was the last left standing against German reunification, I thought it natural and inevitable that West and East Germany should want to unite when the Berlin Wall came down.

Nor do I decry the pursuit by German leaders of a federal Europe in which their and other European nationalities would eventually be sunk without trace, though not for a long time yet. With their history, “ever closer union” looks to be a noble, though idealistic, aim.

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Nonetheless, Germany has divided Europe for a third time in 100 years. Of course, the current division between North and South is, at least so far, bloodless after the suffering and carnage of two world wars.

But the operation of the misbegotten single currency is inflicting pain and deprivation on millions of unemployed in Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal. That cannot continue for much longer. Will the end be signalled in the forthcoming general elections, notably in Germany, France and Holland? It may still be too early for that.

Unfortunately, the vote may be clouded by German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s utterly irresponsible welcome to economic migrants from the Middle East and Africa. The masses of Europe may vote primarily against being swamped 
by migrants who have no background in the liberal norms of life on the 
Continent.

Some may still think I am being unfair to Germans. After all, the creation of a United States of Europe has not been embraced just by the Germans. Brussels, with the tacit consent of too many European governments, has been developing a politically united Europe for decades.

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As far back as 1988, Mrs Thatcher told them in her Bruges speech that they were on the wrong track. They took not a blind bit of notice. Instead, our establishment inveigled us into the Exchange Rate Mechanism, which blew up expensively in our faces in 1992, and then our native Europhiles did their level best to get us to join the euro. The blighters, eg Lord Mandelson, still hope we shall.

Yet, time after time, sensible folk pointed out that a single European currency was unsustainable without the central political control that goes with a proper nation state. They said that it was little short of madness to impose it on nations with widely differing economies and approaches to debt and taxation.

The Europhiles knew they had no chance of securing political consent across Europe for a single government. Instead, they proceeded by stealth, claiming a seat at the top tables of the world, establishing a diplomatic service and, with further irresponsibility, seeking to create a European army in spite of Nato’s peacekeeping success.

So why did the Germans, with their reputation for financial prudence, allow candidates for the single currency in southern Europe who were in no economic condition to don this straitjacket? Surely, they knew what they were doing. In fact, the Bundesbank tried to block it, but politics won.

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The White House is not inclined to allow the financiers of Frankfurt much credit. The head of President Donald Trump’s new National Trade Council, Peter Navarro, describes the single currency as an “implicit Deutsche Mark” that is “grossly undervalued,” giving Germany a competitive advantage over its trading partners.

Germany’s current account trading surplus is put at 8.8 per cent of GDP compared with the EU’s limit of six per cent. The head of the pan-EU industry federation BusinessEurope wants to know why this illegality is allowed to continue.

The answer is the blind politics that has ruled the EU for too long. What still counts is the great federal project – and blow the consequences.

It is claimed that the armlock of the euro, preventing weaker economies from devaluing, has “pushed Italy’s debt at 20 per cent of GDP beyond the point of no return”. There has been no rise there in per capita income for 18 years and there is only the prospect of a third lost decade ahead.

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The only amazing thing about this 
tale of woe is that southern Europe remains remarkably quiescent, but Brexit could become contagious. That would suit Donald Trump who has at least grasped the importance of the nation state.

Germany may always be a problem because of its size and dominating nature, but is there no one in that great country who will face reality and call for European co-operation to be rebuilt brick by practical brick?