Story of Angela Merkel's Last Move

German Chancellor Angela Merkel seems to be seeing signs that something bad will happen in the future. Its agreement on a 500 billion-euro recovery fund suggests that the pandemic COVID-19 has done what the latest debts, the refugee and foreign policy crisis -- inaugurate a new phase of the European project.

All the time that she was German Chancellor Angela Merkel has repeatedly shown that she is always ready for surprises. Now she's outdone herself.

In 2010, Merkel exceeded expectations, insisting that the International Monetary Fund be included in efforts to save Greece. After 2011, it shut down Germany's thermal power plants following the Fukushima disaster in Japan. Then, in 2015, it opened Germany's borders for over a million Syrian refugees. And now, it has agreed to a proposal for a $500 billion recovery fund (556 billion dollars) to help European Union national economies hit by the COVID-19 crisis.

Each of these decisions has caused anger in Germany, as well as stress in other Europeans who are unwilling to allow Germany to have a major leading role. But every time, Merkel has insisted there was no alternative. However, this last surprise is so far among the bravest. “The country itself has no future,” it declared during a press conference with French President Emmanuel Macro.

The prospect of a recovery fund has led many observers to ask whether the EU is finally approaching its <x0->moment Hamiltonian”. In the early years of the American republic, US Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton argued that the federal government should take over “debts caused by states during the Independence War. He won the debate because adopting the debt seemed necessary to resolve the urgency in question.

But it would be a mistake to think that any crisis could remove obstacles to deeper integration. When the euro crisis erupted a decade ago, federals hoped it would spur the European project. Instead, the northern and south member states became even more divided over the debt. In the coming years, Russia and China have lured EU member states into their orbits, the United Kingdom has officially withdrawn from the bloc, and US President Donald Trump has abandoned the transatlantic alliance.

Like the debt crisis and the refugee crisis, these geopolitical developments have deepened all the north-south and east-west divisions of Europe. The main historical conditions that would allow a bold push beyond the nation-state have always been absent. Then the question now is why COVID-19 should be expected to do what Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Trump, Brex and disagreements over the previous debt could not do.

There are two reasons to think that the current crisis is really different. To begin with, pandemic is essentially a global crisis that requires a global collaborative response. Second, comparisons of mortality and levels of infection between countries and regions, and the tremendous depth and scale of economic impact of pandemic have set a price on competent governance for most of the public. It is no secret why the United States, the United Kingdom, and Brazil have so many cases of infection and large numbers of dead people. Each of these countries has an inadequate, ideological and uncoordinated government.

President Trump or Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro are very different from Merkel and Macron. The last two take pride in being skilled managers who make trial - based decisions. And evidence from the pandemic COVID-19 suggests that the nation state is not well equipped for the crisis in question; the immediate needs are either local or international.

The question of the necessary “ ” is particularly severe in Germany, which, like Italy, was a creation of XIX century nationalism. Before Otto von Bismark (and his Italian equivalent, Camillo Cavour), what we now call Germany consisted of numerous small states. Each state had its own rich sense of local identity, but no one was capable of meeting the technical and economic challenges presented by a world of emerging markets and trade and new forms of communication and transport. When these smaller units joined, liberal journalist Ludwig August von Rochau noted that this was not from “Kindness”, but it was just like a “business issue”.

In other words, the nation State was brought forward as practical issues. Before Westphalia's Peace in 1648, there were 3,0004,000 independent territorial units to which they had to account, most were subject only to an imperial jurisdiction. Until the 20th century XVII, that number had been reduced to 300-400 and after 1815, all were members of the German Confederacy. By the end of the 20th century, there were only three countries with large German-speaking populations: The German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Swiss Confederate.

In other words, the number of countries in Central Europe fell by one factor every century. This does not mean that soon there will be only 0.3 countries in Central Europe. History follows mathematical laws. However, it is clear that old - style nations are being forced to reconsider their place in the world.

In fact, the recent decision against the European Central Bank by Germany's Federal Constitutional Court represents the final push towards a deeper level of EU integration. Although it nominally places a limit on the participation of Bundesbank in ECB bond purchase programmes, its effect will not be to ban the European project, but rather to force the creation of a legal and political base on which that project can be supported.

Furthermore, no European country's constitution costs a greater emphasis on Europe's idea than on Germany's. 1949 Foundation Law says the German people are “inspired” by “the determination to promote world peace as an equal partner in a united Europe”. More in this regard, Article 24 of this document clearly envisions abolishing sovereign rights for the sake of “a peaceful and permanent order” in Europe.

In the 20th century, nations were created by blood and iron. Today, something new is being created by medicine and economic policy.

/Project Syndicate