Germany's conservatives present vision for Europe

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party began its preparations for a Europe without Angela Merkel on Monday with the launch of its new vision for May’s European Parliament elections. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer appeared as head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which for once looked happy to present a united front with its Bavarian partners, the Christian Social Union (CSU). […]

The key note of the afternoon was clear: the European People’s Party (EPP), the center-right European parliamentary group that the CDU/CSU belongs to, is the only guarantor of stability in the European Union. To underline this, [Manfred] Weber drew attention to the EPP’s decision last week to exclude Hungary’s governing Fidesz party from its ranks, and called on center-left groups to apply a similar rigor.

But the trio also betrayed an awareness of the fundamental problem at the heart of European politics: promoting national interests while integrating Europe more closely to give it more power in the geopolitical arena. The CDU/CSU “stands for strong nations, and for a Europe of bridge-building,” Kramp-Karrenbauer declared. “We are for a Europe that doesn’t lie back and leave things to the Chinese or the Americans.” […]

In other areas, though, the CDU/CSU want a significantly tighter European operation: The plan presented on Monday includes the concept of a “European FBI,” which would see a significant expansion of information exchange and partnership programs among security forces. Under the new model, Europol would become more powerful, even if operative policing would stay at the national level.

Equally, the plan calls for more common defense projects, and a reduction in the number of different weapons systems, while stopping short of establishing a “European Army.” …

“The most puzzling development in politics during the past decade is the apparent determination of Western European leaders to recreate the Soviet Union in Western Europe.”

— Gorbachev

“The procces of union is like the Rhine flowing into the sea—anyone who stands in its way is crushed.”

—Kohl, 1994

“The future will belong to the Germans … when we build the house of Europe. In the next two years, we will make the process of European integration irreversible. This is a really big battle, but it is worth the fight.”

— Kohl, 1996

I would like to know the difference between the political agenda of Kohl and that of today’s CDU, because apart from an apparent relative lack of assertiveness, it looks identical.

Back around 15 years ago, I had this German who drew out the West German political scene that existed prior to the wall coming down. There was a dividing line between Kohl’s CDU and the SPD, and most people (at least Germans) knew what each party was dishing out. Once the Soviet business dried up and the wall came down, in the mind of this German...the landscape was messed up. Kohl’s effort to bring in East Germans...establish the CDU in the old DDR, and bring someone to be a face for new CDU was Merkel? As many issues that he resolved, he created the same number of future problems. That was beginning of closure on Kohl (add in his scandal episode just a couple of years later).

Point by point (doesn’t matter if you talk industry, nuke energy, trade, infrastructure, or taxes), there’s no real difference between the two parties today. Merkel even adapted to a new slogan banner around two years ago with the term ‘center’ on it....meaning the party’s position is absolute dead-center.

SPD folks will regularly comment on it, they can’t get public attention because virtually everything they stood for in the 80s and 90s....has been adapted to Merkel’s vision of the CDU.

There’s no doubt that Kohl wanted the EU mechanism to exist, and this was going to fix various problems that came out of the 1950s/1960s. Yet here we are today, where the EU is resolved to create new problems, to resolve them later. The EU of today, is like some Frankenstein that has let loose onto the public.

The last time I checked, the SPD has dropped to dramatic low levels, with the Greens now number two, and likely crippling up the SPD for an entire generation.

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