The German or French way? International interdependence vs European sovereignty

 

Source: UK In a Changing Europe
November 27 2022
By Professor Volker Roeben and Professor Jukka Snell

Volker Roeben and Jukka Snell suggest that the current rift in Franco-German relations reflects a deeper difference that stems from clashing strategic visions – one based on the idea of international interdependence and the other on European sovereignty.

It is no secret that France and Germany are going through a bad patch. Pointed differences have emerged both in EU and bilateral meetings. The absence of the UK from the EU renders the problems all the more salient. There is a greater pressure for the Franco-German partnership to deliver.

But this bad patch reflects something more fundamental. It signifies a clash of strategic visions. One such vision is the idea of international interdependence that has guided Germany but has now lost its potency.

At the same time, France has a fully articulated alternative on offer, namely European sovereignty. This involves greater European integration to better defend its values and interests on the world stage – internal cohesion leading to external power. While Germany sometimes speaks of European sovereignty as well, it has been reluctant to fully embrace the idea.

The idea of international interdependence, encapsulated in the mantra of ‘Wandel durch Handel’ (change through trade), has a long history – from Montesquieu, who wrote ‘[p]eace is the natural effect of trade’ through to the thinking that animated European integration. Robert Schuman, for example, called for economic cooperation between France and Germany as a first step in the federation of Europe ‘indispensable to the preservation of peace’.

The idea of international interdependence played a critical role in Germany’s policy towards Russia ever since the Ostpolitik of 1970s. In the field of European integration, Germany has been in favour of greater openness for international trade and has opposed proposals for the erection of a ‘fortress Europe’. A prime example is Germany’s insistence that the EU liberalise capital movements not just between the different EU states but also between the EU and third countries as a price for its acceptance of the single currency. This was duly written into the EU treaties, despite serious doubts harboured by France.

Germany was not alone in its belief in interdependence. In the case of China, many saw its admission into the WTO in 2001 as a way to make it into a responsible stakeholder in the global economic system. However, Germany and German companies have been particularly assiduous in pursuing trade opportunities in China, and they have continued to do so when others have become more cautious.

The idea of international interdependence seems to have been tested to destruction by recent developments. The Russian invasion of Ukraine shows that economic interdependence has not led to peace; instead, it brought energy dependency. China is becoming an Orwellian autocracy that is more aggressive than before. The idea that has guided Germany has lost its power.

France does not have the same problem. Its guiding idea is European sovereignty. President Macron articulated this with clarity in 2017, but the idea goes back to the 1956 Suez crisis. European sovereignty starts from the premise that the world is dominated by giants such as the US and China, and that European countries are individually too weak to protect their values, especially the European combination of markets and social justice. They can only do so together and a greater pooling of national sovereignty is needed. While the pooling of sovereignty has always been a part of the EU project, this would now more deeply affect some of the most sensitive areas, such as security, foreign policy, and taxation.

Germany has on occasion referred to European sovereignty as well; for example, Chancellor Scholz used this concept in a major speech in Prague in August 2022. He argued that it ‘means… that we grow more autonomous in all fields’, singling out areas such as key technologies and defence.

However, German actions in the context of integration do not truly reflect the idea of European sovereignty. A number of recent examples can be given.

One aspect of European sovereignty is the creation of EU fiscal capacity – something that the IMF also emphasizes for the proper functioning of the eurozone. In the context of the current energy crisis, France led the calls for joint borrowing, which would represent an important move in this direction. By contrast, Germany has preferred a domestic support program, despite concerns that it distorts the internal market.

A second key aspect of European sovereignty is defence cooperation, including joint development of new capabilities. Here Germany, while increasing its defence spending, has chosen not to focus on investing in European technology projects but has instead preferred to buy off-the-shelf equipment from the US. As a key example, it is expected that the European Sky Shield Initiative will include US and possibly Israeli air defence systems, to the exclusion of the Franco-Italian SAMP/T system. Fears have also been expressed that the German purchase of the US F-35 fighter jets might endanger the European Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project.

Third, the EU’s recent investment screening regulation creates a framework for the protection of security and public order in areas such as critical infrastructure and technologies. In this context, the German government very recently approved an important Chinese investment, relating to the port of Hamburg, reportedly against the advice of the security authorities and the European Commission. It was also set to approve the purchase of the microchip maker Elmos by a Chinese company, but has abruptly changed its mind.

Fourth, France underlined the importance of Europe speaking with one voice to China in 2019, when Macron invited the Commission President and the German Chancellor to Paris to meet with President Xi. By contrast, Germany declined Macron’s invitation to coordinate Scholz’s China visit with France; instead of a joint visit, the Chancellor travelled with a German business delegation.

Altogether, it seems that Germany continues to act on habits formed under the idea of international interdependence. It has not found an alternative idea, but seems to be operating in a way often driven purely by domestic concerns. This is putting a strain on European unity. There might even be opportunities for the UK to exploit the differences and seek closer engagement with France.

Unfortunately, the problem may not be easy to solve. Germany, by virtue of its political culture and constitutional structures, is a consensus-seeking bottom-up democracy, where finding a new way will not be as easy or quick as it might be in a more top-down system, like France or the UK.

By Jukka Snell, Professor of Laws, University of Turku, and Volker Roeben, Professor of International Law, Durham Law School.

Inside Germany’s special relationship with Turkey

Source: The New European
August 27 2020


Germany’s response to the crisis involving fellow EU member Greece and Turkey has put a spotlight on the complex relationship between Berlin and Ankara, says Cathrin Schaer.

The German chancellor has been called a lot of names over the years. Germans often refer to Angela Merkel as ‘Mutti’, or ‘mummy’. The French have been known to call her ‘Angie’. She has also been described as the ‘queen of Europe’, ‘Mrs Nein’, ‘the climate chancellor’ and, more often lately, ‘leader of the free world’.

Soon though, the longstanding German leader may find that another nickname becomes more widely known: ‘the Erdogan whisperer’.

“That is how she is seen here,” says Kristian Brakel, who heads the Istanbul office of the left-leaning Heinrich Böll Foundation. “She is somebody he [Turkish leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan] has to listen to.”

The fact that Erdogan listens to Merkel is about more than the German’s non-threatening diplomatic style. Turkey’s increasingly authoritarian leader pays attention to Germany’s Mutti because of the country’s special relationship with Turkey.

“There is no other country that Turkey has such a relationship with, and on so many different levels,” continues Brakel, who has been heading his foundation’s office in Istanbul for the past five years and observing Turkish affairs for almost 20.

“For Turkey, what is said in Berlin is more relevant than what is said in Brussels. Although,” he cautions, “that [special relationship] is not always taken quite as seriously in Germany as it is here.”

“Our special relationship with Turkey – unequalled in intensity and duration by any other European country – goes back to the beginning of the modern age,” German foreign policy expert, Constanze Stelzenmüller, wrote in an essay. Germany is Turkey’s most important trading partner, the top destination for Turkish exports and, if not for energy deals with Russia, Germany would be Turkey’s biggest importer too.

Trade between the two countries totalled around 35.4 billion euros in 2019, with the trade balance in Germany’s favour to the tune of almost four billion. Germany is also one of the top investors inside Turkey with companies like BASF, Siemens, Volkswagen and Daimler all setting up shop there.

Germany is also home to an estimated four million locals of Turkish descent, thanks to migration that began in the 1960s; that’s the largest Turkish population outside of Turkey.

More recently Germany has played a major role in Turkey’s international affairs, firstly as a prime mover in stalling its attempt to become an official member of the European Union and then, more recently in the forging of the still-controversial immigration deal which sees Turkey – often described as the bridge between Europe and the Middle East – keeping migrants and asylum seekers at bay, at Europe’s outermost borders.

It’s never been an easy relationship and thanks to Turkey’s increasingly assertive – some call it aggressive, others argue that it is defensive – foreign policy, as well as Erdogan’s progressively more authoritarian behaviour after the 2016 coup attempt, it’s getting trickier all the time.

Part of the former includes the tense situation in the eastern Mediterranean, which saw Greek and Turkish ships collide, in the latest in a long, historical line of Greek-Turkish skirmishes. As international relations expert Michaël Tanchum wrote for Foreign Policy magazine recently about the EU’s reaction to this: “The six Mediterranean EU countries are evenly split. Greece, Cyprus, and France advocate strong action against Turkey while Italy, Malta, and Spain – which all share significant commercial interests with Turkey – have refrained. Germany, holding the EU presidency since July, could break the deadlock,” he suggested.

Yet somehow, that isn’t happening – at least, not yet. And it’s really annoying some of the neighbours. “Frau Merkel is an ally of the sultan!,” was the outraged headline in one nationalist Greek publication, Dimokratia.

It was no coincidence that the Turkish provocations were happening just as Germany took over the European council presidency, the article continued.

“If we really had a special relationship with Germany, then the chancellor should have given us her full support against Turkey’s aggressiveness and Islamist expansionism,” op-ed writer, Jean-Loup Bonnamy, complained in French daily, Le Figaro.

“What has counted the most in the [eastern Mediterranean] crisis is Germany’s exceedingly low profile,” François Heisbourg, senior adviser for Europe at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, tweeted. Writing in the Guardian, foreign affairs commentator Simon Tisdall contrasted the EU’s reactions to elections in Belarus and the Mediterranean maritime fracas: “Unlike Belarus, [Turkey] has real strategic importance,” he wrote. “Perhaps that explains the awkward silence of many governments, including the UK’s. It does not excuse it.”

Then again, Germany probably has better excuses than most. “Germany is in a bind here,” the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s Brakel says. “It has this influence on Turkey but, because of the multi-faceted relationship it has, it is also much more vulnerable than other EU members and has more to lose.”

The vulnerabilities are the same things that have brought the two countries so close: money, migration and strategic military ties.

Over the past two decades, the Turkish economy has boomed. Even so, Turkey still needs Germany, more than Germany needs Turkey.

In 2019, Turkey ranked 17th in Germany’s list of trading partners. However, as Brakel points out, often there is also significant political pressure coming from those major German companies who have based themselves in Turkey, and who German politicians listen to.

Germany also holds an economic ace, in the form of planned negotiations over the customs union, first established in 1995, that Turkey and the EU have agreed to.

This union was to be modernised and could have added billions in EU trade to Turkey’s economy. Talks have stalled due to increased political tensions since the attempted coup in Ankara in 2016.

“For years, Turkey has lusted after an extension of the customs union – and the key to that lies in Berlin,” wrote Die Zeit author, Özlem Topçu. “Nobody wants to simply gift that to the autocratic Erdogan [because it would make him look good].” But maybe it’s a price worth paying, she argued, if he could be persuaded to stick to international maritime law.

Then there’s the Turkish diaspora inside Germany. Like any other residents, Turkish-Germans vote for different parties, which dilutes any obvious electoral impact they might have on the federal government. Many second- or third-generation Turkish-Germans don’t approve of Erdogan’s growing authoritarianism, so wouldn’t necessarily be pushing to defend him. But there’s no doubt that they drive the debate inside the country and, as a result, “there’s not a single politician in Germany who doesn’t have an opinion on Turkey,” Brakel argues.

After concluding the European immigration deal, Turkey has also managed to haunt Germany with the spectre of asylum seekers desperate to reach northern Europe. “Since that deal, Ankara has been in more of a position of strength,” Kadri Tastan, a senior fellow with the German Marshall Fund, or GMF, based in Brussels, explains. “It’s given them huge leverage over the EU and they’ve been using that tool quite effectively.”

“The problems [with migration] are overstated but German politicians still attribute a lot of relevance to the topic,” Brakel concurs. Ongoing media attention on migration and the political upheavals that followed the 2015 acceptance of close to a million asylum seekers – including the rise of the far right in Germany – mean that German politicians are unusually sensitive to those Turkish threats.

Attitudes in the German-Turkish relationship have also been altered by geopolitics in general.

During the Cold War, Turkey felt threatened and saw itself as part of the Western alliance, Brakel explains. But now, the country is acting on the assumption of a multi-polar world order, playing the US off against Russia, and reacting to events depending on what’s best for Turkey, he says: They want to be part of NATO, but NATO shouldn’t rely on them is the message.

“The weakening of US hegemony, the dissolution of clear power relationships within NATO, the economic rise of China and Russia’s military insubordination, as well as the refugee and migration movements from the Middle East, mean that Turkey has more room to
manoeuvre in its foreign policy toward both Germany and the EU,” says Yasar Aydin, a Hamburg-based expert on foreign relations with Turkey. “It allows Ankara to act more offensively toward Berlin.”

Still, if the shooting actually started in the eastern Mediterranean – say, the Turks fire on a Greek or French warship, as reportedly almost happened in June – one would imagine that not even their special relationship would prevent the Germans from taking a harder line.

But nobody in Germany thinks it will come to that. The dissonance between the two countries over issues like human rights, democratic norms and aggressive foreign policy, is peaking. Still, most Germans analysts seem to believe patience, dialogue and diplomacy are required.

Before visiting both Ankara and Athens earlier this week, German foreign minister Heiko Maas stressed the fact that Turkey was of “strategic importance” and wouldn’t be drawn on the possibility of sanctions.

Contrary to what some critics are saying, that’s not German “cowardice”, Alexander Clarkson, a lecturer for German and European Studies at King’s College London, argued on social media. It’s just Germany’s style.

“Emphasis on dialogue slows down German responses,” Clarkson continued, “but is crucial to sustaining consensus for confrontation, if a state that is pushing against the EU system burns down all off-ramps that Berlin offers it.” In an editorial earlier this month, Mark Leonard, director of the think tank, the European Council on Foreign Relations, also advocated for more mediation: “Turkey is not yet a new Russia,” he warned, “but it could become one if the situation is mishandled.”

“We should keep the dialogue going,” Tastan, of the GMF, concludes. “Turkey does have a point but the way in which it is bringing its business into the international arena is a problem. Greece and Cyprus are trying to make this a European problem. EU solidarity is important – but they need to be careful. That’s why it’s up to other EU countries to start a dialogue. That’s why what Germany is doing is a good thing. I hope it works.”

“Getting Turkey to the table won’t be hard,” Brakel theorises. “They know what they want and they know they can only get that through negotiation. They actually want somebody to step in and mediate, to pressure the Greeks into concessions.” And, he says, as uncomfortable as it will be, Germany, with its ‘Erdogan whisperer’, is still the most likely interlocutor.

A lot of the German-Turkish relationship comes down to psychology, the Istanbul-based analyst concludes: “It’s a bit like an old couple, who have been married for a long time,” he says. “They don’t love each other anymore. But getting a divorce would just be way too costly.”

German intelligence report points to Turkey’s covert espionage efforts

Source: Ahval

July 10 2020

Turkey’s National Intelligence Organisation (MİT) has selected Germany as one of the countries to focus its activities in, according an annual report from the German intelligence service BfV.

MİT focuses its efforts particularly on the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), designated a terrorist organisation by both Turkey and the European Union, and the Gülen movement, which only Turkey recognises as such, Deutsche Welle said on Thursday, citing the 2019 report.

The findings show that the Turkish intelligence agency also concentrates on individuals and NGOs in Germany who oppose Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government.

MİT has undergone a transformation, and was granted extensive authority as the “central element of the Turkish security architecture,” the report said.

BfV said that MİT sought to gather intelligence via publicly available sources and covert methods, both domestically and abroad, to influence Turkish and German politics, economy, and technology-related companies.

Dual German-Turkish citizens working as German diplomats have occasionally been turned away at the Turkish border or faced detention due to MİT scrutiny, BfV also found.

Absent from the report was Religious Affairs Turkish-Islamic Union (DİTİB), an organisation associated with Turkey’s top state religious institution, Diyanet, which is active in Europe, despite having a microscope on it in past years over its contribution to covert espionage operations.

The pro-AKP Union of International Democrats (UID) was also listed. The UID has chapters in 13 regions in Berlin and West Germany as an AKP lobbying organisation. The UID makes efforts to appear “moderate”, and not directly tied to Turkey, according to the report, however Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has met the group during his visits to Germany.

Germany’s 1.4-million-strong Turkish community is significant for both countries, it said, citing some 600,000 Turks who voted remotely on Turkey’s general and presidential elections in 2018.

The German intelligence service also cited the Grey Wolves – a paramilitary youth organisation under AKP’s silent coalition partner the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) as right-wing extremists that “aim for radical change in Turkey to the political order via frequent use of violence and terrorism.”

The report pointed to several Kurdish and umbrella organisations as affiliated with the PKK, which is outlawed in Germany. It said the PKK used different names to divert the bans against the organisation, adding that the European Kurdish Democratic Societies Congress (NAV-DEM) had taken a backseat while Confederation of Kurdistan Communities in Germany (KON-MED) stepped onto the stage.

PKK activities in Germany had drawn fewer participants in 2019, while donations to the organisation increased, BfV said. PKK gathered 16 million euros in Germany in 2019, and over 25 million euros across Europe.

An upward trend was seen in recruitment efforts for various armed Kurdish forces, especially after Turkey’s military incursions into Syria – where Kurdish groups have fought the Islamic State militant group for several years – took over part of the territory they controlled.

German official records show that at least 280 people left Germany to join the PKK, in Turkey, northern Iraq and northeast Syria. At least 23 of these people were killed abroad, while authorities have information on 135 people returning.

Four German citizens lost their lives in battle, “proving that persons from Germany really do receive military training and are utilised in combat,” the report said.

The German television channel ZDF released a documentary last month that presented new evidence about espionage in Germany carried out against opponents and critics of the AKP government and Erdoğan.

The documentary, entitled “How Erdoğan’s critics are exposed to espionage in Germany", revealed evidence that the espionage is still being done by DİTİB in Germany on behalf of Turkey’s MİT.

According to the documentary, the Turkish intelligence agency relies heavily on Turkish mosques operating under DİTİB’s umbrella. DİTİB is Germany’s largest Islamic organisation, and it operates more than 900 mosques located in Germany’s 16 states.

In its documentary, the German channel interviewed Turkish citizens who fled to Germany after the failed coup attempt against Erdoğan in 2016. Exiled Turks living in Germany said that they have been subjected to direct threats from imams of DİTİB mosques due to their criticism of Erdoğan and his government.

Germany: Merkel's press service staffer suspected of spying for Egypt

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer speaks during a press conference on July 9, 2020 in Berlin.

Source: i24

July 10 2020

Suspected informant said to have held a mid-level position with the visitor service until late 2019

A man suspected of espionage on Egypt's behalf worked in German Chancellor Angela Merkel's press office until December 2019, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer announced Thursday.

According to the Bild newspaper, the suspect held a mid-level position within the visitor service.

In late 2019, "executive action" was taken against the employee, and the German police searched the premises where he was working.

"There are indications that Egyptian services are trying to recruit Egyptians living in Germany for intelligence purposes," Seehofer said.

The recruitment happens during visits to Egyptian diplomatic missions on the German soil or during trips to Egypt, he clarified.

According to Seehofer, German authorities suspect that Cairo seeks information on possible Muslim Brotherhood members within the Egyptian community in Germany. Coptic Christians are also within its sphere of interest.

Muslim Brotherhood, an international Sunni movement, is banned in Egypt as a terrorist group since 2013, when the incumbent President Abdel Fattah Khalil al-Sisi toppled a Muslim Brotherhood-aligned President Mohammed Morsi, who died in mid-June 2019 during his trial.

The group is also banned in Russia, the UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. In 2019, US media reported that US President Donald Trump was mulling designating the group as a terrorist entity as well.

* See also: The Muslim Brotherhood and Germany Security

Qatar invests €25bn in Germany

Source: Middle East Monitor

July 9 2020

Qatari investments in Germany were estimated at around €25 billion with more than 300 German companies operating in the Qatari market in various sectors, Qatari Ambassador to Germany Mohammed Jaham Al-Kuwari disclosed.

In an interview with the German Near and Middle East Association, Al-Kuwari notes that the Qatari economy is continuing to grow sustainably, creating a wide variety of opportunities for local and foreign investors.

Excerpts of the interview were reported by the Qatari Foreign Ministry, where Al-Kuwari affirms that Qatar is an investor in major German companies and aims to further enhance its ties with Germany.

Al-Kuwari explains that: “Qatar continues to prosper, with the country looking to diversify its economic streams by investing in major companies like Siemens, Duetsche Bank and Volkswagen,” adding that recent years have seen the country become more independent, investing in new markets through economic partnerships.

Al-Kuwari expressed Qatar’s desire to enhance its economic ties with Germany, with a focus on small and medium enterprises, which represent 80 per cent of German companies in 2018.

* See also: QATARGAS DELIVERS FIRST Q-FLEX LNG CARGO TO ADRIATIC TERMINAL IN ITALY

For a detailed analysis on Qatar-Turkey cooperation see: Turkey-Qatar relations, bilateral ties, strategic partnership

Would-be Merkel successor warns against EU 'transfer union'

Friedrich Merz of Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) speaks during the traditional Ash Wednesday party meeting in the Thuringian city of Apolda, Germany, February 26, 2020.

Source: Reuters

May 21 2020

Friedrich Merz, a lawyer and former leader of the parliamentary faction of Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), said the EU was walking a “very fine line” with financial rescue packages now under discussion.

He was referring to a proposal made by France and Germany for a 500 billion euro ($548 billion) Recovery Fund that would offer grants to EU regions and sectors hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic.

Merz said that when, as a member of the European Parliament and Germany’s Bundestag, he had agreed to Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) he promised voters that it would not become a European transfer union.

“I feel bound by this promise - also in order not to give the opponents of Europe arguments that can be misused in the next federal election campaign,” he told Reuters in the interview published on Thursday.

Merz’s comments highlight the wariness in Merkel’s party about the Recovery Fund proposal she has put forward together with French President Emmanuel Macron. The opposition Free Democrats and the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a far-right party, oppose the plan.

Merz welcomed the initiative and said Germany had an interest in a functioning European internal market.

“But the devil is in the detail,” he added, calling for checks to the proposal for the European Commission to borrow money on behalf of the whole EU, in order to make sure it is compatible with EU law.

“If necessary, the treaty must be amended,” he said.

The new CDU leader, set to be chosen in December, will be in pole position to run as chancellor in the next federal election due by October 2021, as Merkel has said she will not seek a fifth term.

So far, the top contenders to lead the party are Merz, a former Merkel rival who is popular on the right of the party, and Armin Laschet, the premier of Germany’s most populous state. Foreign policy expert Norbert Roettgen is an outsider.

Merz also said he was concerned about a setback for Europe’s industrial companies during the coronavirus pandemic due to ill-designed rescue policies.

“If Europe is not careful, China and the United States in particular will emerge stronger from the corona crisis,” he said.

“My great concern is that what happened to Europe’s banks after the euro crisis will happen to Europe’s industrial companies - that after the crisis they will fall behind the competition from the United States and China,” he added.

Germany rejects Nord Stream 2 application for exemption from EU gas rules

Source: New Europe

May 15 2020

By Kostis Geropoulos

The Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) of Germany on May 15 rejected the application from Nord Stream 2, the company building a controversial pipeline from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, for exemption from the EU gas directive.

Germany’s Bundesnetzagentur regulator said in an online announcement that Nord Stream 2 did not qualify for an exemption because the pipeline had not technically been completed by May 23, 2019.

Nord Stream 2 said on May 15 the company disagrees with the decision of the Bundesnetzagentur to reject the application for a derogation and maintains that on the effective date of May 23, 2019, the pipeline had been completed from the perspective of economic functionality. “Based on the applicable legal framework at that time, the company had made irrevocable investments worth billions of euros long before the European Commission announced its plan to amend the Gas Directive,” Nord Stream 2 EU representative Sebastian Sass said in an emailed note to New Europe.

Sass argued that international legal experts have confirmed that narrowing the definition of “completed” to the conclusion of the physical construction of a gas pipeline would violate the protection of legitimate expectations and other fundamental rights in EU law. It would also be in breach of constitutional guarantees from the German Basic Law.

“The rejection of Nord Stream 2’s application for a derogation exposes the discriminating effect of the amended EU Gas Directive. Nord Stream 2 has challenged the amendment before the EU General Court and under the Energy Charter Treaty,” Sass argued. “We await receiving the official decision and will then evaluate it and consider further actions to preserve our rights, including appealing this decision in the German courts. The appeal is possible within one month following the decision,” he said.

The operation of Nord Stream 2 will comply with all applicable legal requirements, Sass said, noting that the construction permits are based on a different set of legal rules than the EU rules for the operation of the pipeline. He stressed that therefore, the procedures concerning the Gas Directive have no impact on the finalisation of construction works.

Trump envoy accuses Germany of undermining NATO's nuclear deterrent

Source: Reuters

May 14 2020

BERLIN (Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador in Berlin has accused Germany of undermining NATO’s nuclear deterrent, taking aim at Chancellor Angela Merkel’s junior coalition partners after some of their leaders called for nuclear disarmament.

Rolf Muetzenich, parliamentary leader of the Social Democrats (SPD), called earlier this month for the withdrawal of all U.S. nuclear weapons from Germany - a view that divides his left-leaning party and is not shared by Merkel’s conservatives.

In an opinion piece for German newspaper Die Welt, Ambassador Richard Grenell wrote: “Instead of undermining the solidarity that forms the basis of NATO’s nuclear deterrence, it is now time for Germany to meet its commitments to its allies and to continuously invest in NATO’s nuclear participation.”

“Germany’s political leadership, especially that of the SPD, must now make it clear the federal republic is honouring these commitments and standing by its allies,” added Grenell, who is also U.S. President Donald Trump’s acting national intelligence chief.

The remarks are the latest twist in relations between Berlin and Washington that have often been strained during Trump’s presidency. The president has pressed Germany to raise its defence spending and accused Berlin of being a “captive” of Russia due to its energy reliance.

But Grenell’s comments also come a day after Merkel cited “hard evidence” that Russia was behind a 2015 hacker attack on her Bundestag office — an assault that she said “pains me”.

“The dangers threatening peace in Europe are not an ‘anachronism’, as some would have us believe,” Grenell said.

“The Russian invasion of Ukraine, the deployment of new nuclear-weapon-capable missiles by Russia on the periphery of Europe and new capabilities of China, North Korea and other countries make it clear that the threat is all too present.”

The coalition agreement between Merkel’s conservatives and the SPD cites successful disarmament talks as a prerequisite for the withdrawal of tactical nuclear weapons stationed in Germany and Europe.

However, the debate over nuclear weapons was sparked by news last month that the Defence Ministry wanted to purchase 45 F-18 fighter jets from Boeing to replace ageing Tornado aircraft and take over the German military’s task of so-called nuclear sharing - under which the planes would carry U.S. nuclear bombs to target in a crisis.

If Germany does not buy new jets, the nuclear sharing would end with the planned retirement of the Tornadoes from service in 2030.

Violent protesters who believe in coronavirus ‘mind-control’ conspiracy clash with cops in Germany

Source: The Sun
May 14
By April Roach



CORONAVIRUS lockdown protesters clashed with police authorities in Germany claiming whacky conspiracy theories were the true cause of the virus.

One theory suggests the spread of Covid-19 is linked to a Government trick to plant mind control chips into Germans.

People chant "Wir sind das Volk!" ("We are the people!") and "Freiheit!" ("Freedom!") during a protest rally in BerlinCredit: Getty Images - Getty

German politicians warned conspiracy theorists were beginning to frustrate the country's efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus following a spate of anti-lockdown protests over the weekend.

The protesters were seen carrying posters of those who have shown support for lockdown measures, including billionaire Bill Gates, Merkel and her medical adviser, Christian Drosten.

There is no evidence to support these conspiracy theories whatsoever.

Some of the protests in Berlin, Munich and Stuttgart remained relatively modest in size, while several overs resulted in violent clashes with the authorities.

On Saturday around 3,000 people gathered to rally against pandemic-related restrictions in Munich in defiance of an order which states that protests should not exceed 50 people.

'HATE-FILLED THEORIES'

Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said it was important to note the difference between free speech and unfounded "hate-filled" theories.

"Germany has a free media landscape that informs about all aspects of the pandemic," said Mr Seibert.

"Abtruse claims and hate-filled assertions, theories about evils machinating globally are something quite different."

In the western town of Troisdorf on Monday, two people attempted to enter a supermarket without wearing the required face masks.

They were eventually arrested after reportedly attacking the police officers who were called to check on the disturbance, Dutch Welle reports.

A protester is detained by police officers during a demonstration at Alexanderplatz on May 9Credit: Getty Images - Getty

An employee of the Federal Interior Ministry was relieved of his duties at the weekend after describing Covid-19 as no worse than the normal flu in a 80-page document.

Georg Maier, interior minister of the Thuringia region, told Der Spiegel magazine said: "The idea that the pandemic was deliberately introduced to control people, and that Bill Gates and other dark forces are behind it, reaches deep into the middle of society."

As of Wednesday evening 7,778 people have died of coronavirus in Germany, according to John Hopkins data.

The country plans to start loosening border controls this weekend after two months of lockdown restrictions.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said checks on the border with Luxembourg will be dropped after Friday.

On the borders with France, Switzerland and Austria, all crossings will be opened, rather than selected ones at present, and authorities will switch to spot rather than systematic checks.

A woman shouts as she demonstrates at Rosa Luxemburg PlatzCredit: Reuters

A woman hands out a white rose to a police officer as she demonstrates at Rosa Luxemburg Platz in BerlinCredit: Reuters

Riot police walk through a protest rally against coronavirus restrictions on Alexanderplatz Credit: Getty Images - Getty

Merkel urges Germans not to jeopardize coronavirus achievements

Source: Reuters

May 13 2020

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Germans on Wednesday not to endanger what they have achieved so far in slowing the spread of the coronavirus by rushing back to normality too fast.

Europe’s biggest economy, battered by a lockdown that started in mid-March, is being closely watched after managing to keep its death rate lower than other countries despite having a high number of cases.

Shops, schools and factories have started up again, and some borders will begin to re-open this week. But the rule of keeping a distance of 1.5 metres from others still stands and masks are required on public transport and in most shops.

Merkel, a trained physicist whose scientific approach to the crisis has been praised, has consistently urged caution in the face of intense pressure from some state premiers and business who have pushed for a faster relaxation.

“Corona remains a danger for everyone of us,” Merkel told the Bundestag lower house of parliament, adding Germans would be living with the pandemic for some time yet as there was still no effective treatment or vaccine.

“It would be depressing if we have to return to restrictions that we want to leave behind us because we want too much too soon,” Merkel said.

Germany’s coronavirus reproduction rate, which Merkel says must remain below a critical threshold of 1 to avoid an overburdening of the health system, fell to an estimated 0.94 on Tuesday from 1.07 on Monday.

Merkel told Germans to return to offices, schools, cafes and sports clubs while keeping a distance and washing their hands. Then it will be possible for the economy to recover, jobs saved and for people to be protected.

One big step along that path is to re-open the borders in Europe, which would help commuters, families and tourism. Earlier, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer outlined a gradual easing of border controls from Saturday.

“The goal is, if the occurrence of infections allows it — I want to say that again — that from June 15, border controls in the Schengen area can be completely eliminated,” Merkel said.

Germany has 171,306 confirmed coronavirus cases, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases, said, and 7,634 people have died.

Russian hackers accessed emails from Merkel's constituency office: Der Spiegel

Source: Reuters

May 8 2020

BERLIN (Reuters) - Russia’s GRU military intelligence service appears to have got hold of many emails from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s constituency office in a 2015 hack attack on Germany’s parliament, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Friday, without citing its sources.

A spokesman for the German government had no immediate comment. There was also no immediate comment from Moscow, which has denied previous allegations of hacking abroad.

Der Spiegel said federal criminal police and the federal cyber agency had been able to partially reconstruct the attack and found that two email inboxes from Merkel’s office had been targeted.

They contained email correspondence from 2012 to 2015 and Der Spiegel said the hackers appear to have managed to copy both mailboxes to another computer.

Germany’s Bundestag lower house of parliament discovered its systems had been broken into in May 2015 and concluded that the intrusions had been continuing since at least the beginning of that year. It was impossible to determine what information had been stolen.

The Russian embassy in Berlin was not immediately available for comment.

German federal prosecutors have issued an arrest warrant for an individual linked to the 2015 hacking incident, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported this week. Prosecutors have not commented on the report.

EU Court Faces ‘Declaration of War’ From German Top Judges

Source: MSN
May 5 2020
By Bloomberg

The European Union’s top court faced the most stinging attack in its 68-year history -- not from Brexiteers, but from its German counterpart.

In a long-awaited ruling on the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing program, Germany’s constitutional court in Karlsruhe accused the EU Court of Justice of overstepping its powers when it backed the ECB’s controversial policy.

The German court said the EU judges’ December 2018 ruling that QE was in line with EU rules was “objectively arbitrary” and is “methodologically no longer justifiable.” It gave the ECB a three-month ultimatum to fix flaws in the measure.

“This is a declaration of war on the ECJ, and it will have consequences,” said Joachim Wieland, a law professor at the University of Administrative Sciences, who sees the real challenge in the future relationship between the EU court and national constitutional tribunals. “It’s an invitation for other countries to simply ignore decisions that they don’t like.”

German Judges Give ECB Three Months to Fix Flaws in QE Program

The ruling is a direct challenge to the supremacy of the EU judges, whose rulings are binding across the 27-nation bloc. The German court said this no longer applies in extreme examples when the EU tribunal fails in its duties.

The bigger issue is that the ruling has opened a Pandora’s box on the EU legal order, said Guntram Wolff, director of the Brussels-based Bruegel think tank.

Calling an ECJ judgment “ultra vires,” or going beyond one’s legal powers, “is a huge issue for the integrity of EU law,” Wolff said in an email. “Every national court can now challenge the EU court by saying what the German court is doing, is also applicable to us.”

It’s not only the toughest criticism the Luxembourg-based EU judges have faced by one of the bloc’s most senior courts, it also creates a risk that other nations will start to doubt their authority.

The EU court has long been contentious among the ranks of Brexiteers, who won the U.K.’s 2016 referendum campaign. In recent months it’s also traded blows with Poland’s nationalist government over reforms to the country’s legal system.

Poland’s Deputy Justice Minister Sebastian Kaleta said the ruling showed “yet again” that the EU doesn’t have the authority to meddle in or question Polish judicial changes.

Laurent Pech, a professor of European law at Middlesex University in London, said the ruling could lead to clashes with “autocratic authorities in Hungary and Poland.”

These countries “are no doubt going to use this ruling as a pretext to further undermine the fundamental principles underlying the EU’s legal system,” Pech said. They will instruct “their courts to disobey inconvenient ECJ rulings whenever convenient for the ruling party.”

The ECB’s asset-purchase program has been a concern for the German court since its inception. In 2017, its judges asked the EU court for an interim decision aimed at limiting the ECB’s leeway, but the EU tribunal rejected the restrictive reading of the law suggested by their German counterparts.

Aside from the battle of the judges, the German ruling has implications for a wide swathe of other EU institutions.

For some, a prime risk of the ruling is to the independence of the ECB. If the German court determines where the blurry line between monetary and fiscal policy lies, then that means the nation is essentially imposing its own national orthodoxy on a European-level institution.

“We have always been critical of the way in which the ECB has tended to blur the lines between momentary policy, which is its original task, and fiscal and economic policies,” said Ralph Brinkhaus, the parliamentary leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat bloc. “We will now use the ruling of the Constitutional Court as an occasion to question its decisions once again, in a constructive and critical dialog.”

The EU tribunal doesn’t comment on rulings from national courts, Juan-Carlos Gonzalez, head of the court’s press service, said by phone.

While the European Commission said it would need to study the ruling in detail first, a spokesman pointed to how the EU’s top court rulings are meant to be the final word in legal conflicts.

“We reaffirm the primacy of EU law and the fact that rulings by the EU Court of Justice are binding on all national courts,” Eric Mamer, spokesman of the European Commission said at a regular press briefing on Tuesday.

German Regulator Plans to Deny Nord Stream 2 Waiver from New Gas Directive - Reports

Source: Sputnik
May 3 2020

Nord Stream 2 is a joint venture between the Russian energy giant Gazprom and five European companies. The gas pipeline will carry up to 55 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, passing through the territorial waters or exclusive economic zones of Denmark, Finland, Germany, Russia, and Sweden.

The Nord Stream 2 operator disagrees with the German regulator's intention to deny the gas directive waiver, the company said in a statement on Friday. The firm pledged to defend its rights and wait for the final decision by the regulator, the statement added.

Handelsblatt newspaper reported, citing the draft decision of the Federal Network Agency of Germany (BNA), that the BNA intends to reject an application filed by Nord Stream 2 for an exemption of the pipeline project from the requirements of the updated EU gas directive.

The agency announced in mid-January that it had accepted applications from the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 operators to exempt the gas pipelines from the requirements of the EU gas directive. According to Handelsblatt, the agency earlier on Friday sent a draft decision to the parties involved in the process. The newspaper added that the BNA will accept replies from them until 8 May, after which it will "promptly" make a final decision.

The reason for the rejection of the Nord Stream 2 application was the fact that in order to exempt the gas pipeline from the updated directive, the pipeline must have been completed before May 2019. Nord Stream 2 insisted that it was necessary to not proceed from the "construction" point of this requirement, but to take into account the fact that "billions of investments had already been made in accordance with the previous legal regime by the time the new directives of the domestic gas market came into force".

The spokesman for Nord Stream 2, Jens Mueller, said in January that the project meets all the requirements for its exemption from the rules of the updated EU gas directive in Germany and that this also applies to the completion date of the project.

EU unity disintegrates: Huge state aid row erupts between member states as Germany benefit

Source: EXPRESS
May 1 2020
By Joe Barnes

GERMANY has benefited from more than half the emergency state aid approved by the European Commission during the coronavirus pandemic.

Berlin, the European Union’s largest economy, has accounted for 52 percent of the total value of emergency coronavirus state aid handouts cleared by the bloc’s Brussels-based executive. The Commission relaxed its normally-strict state aid restrictions in March to allow EU27 governments to pump money into their ailing economies and companies damaged by the introduction of coronavirus lockdowns. Eurocrats have sanctioned more than £1.6 trillion worth of national schemes so far.

France and Italy share joint second place, each with 17 percent of the total allowed by the Commission.

Brussels has signaled it will allow governments to continue to make similar investments until at least the end of the year.

But some European capitals have complained about the amounts the cash-rich German government has been able to pump into its economy.

They fear the vast sums have handed Berlin an unfair advantage in the bloc’s single market, and the Commission’s relaxed attitude could even cause permanent distortions.

“There is clearly a risk of a breakdown of the internal market in Europe,” a senior Spanish government official told Reuters.

“Not all the countries of the internal market have access to this liquidity.

“Germany has deep pockets and can afford it.”

Berlin has issued government-backed loans to sports giant Adidas, holiday operator TUI and is in talks with national airline Lufthansa over a £7.8 billion rescue package.

Carlo Amati, of the Italian flight attendants union ANPAV, warned: “The state aid that some European countries are discussing with airlines risks distorting competition and creating benefits for some when the sector restarts.”

Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary has said he is preparing to challenge more than £26 billion handed to rival airlines in the European courts.

Commission executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager, the bloc’s competition boss, has insisted the suspension of state aid rules was “fully legitimate” to save jobs and businesses.

“There are differences in how much member states can spend depending on this fiscal space,” she said.

“But we preserve the single market because we really need the single market for our recovery.”

But EU officials have cast doubt on the Commission’s ability to protect the single market for significant distortions.

One source said: “If you look at the scale of what Germany in particular, but also some others, are doing – any notion of level playing field or single market integrity has gone out of the window.”

Spain has called for EU leaders to consider the inequality generated by allowing cash-rich governments to pour cash into their economies.

While “increased flexibility for national responses is needed and welcome, it is vital to avoid this leading to a more unequal EU”, Madrid said in a note.

To restore the level playing field, the capital wants the bloc’s poorer countries to be compensated through the next seven-year budget.

Ana Botin, the head of Spanish bank Santander, said: “Europe needs more fiscal firepower and we need it now.”

German employment survey plummets to historic low as coronavirus crisis hits

Source: CNBC

April 28 2020

• The latest reading represents a “historic low,” where all four sectors (manufacturing, construction, services and trade) faced sharply lower employment.

• In a separate release, German exporters revealed concerns about their prospects too.

• Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast a 7% contraction in Germany this year, on the back of the ongoing pandemic.

Germany is experiencing an “unprecedented” drop in employment levels, the German economic institute Ifo said on Tuesday, as the coronavirus pandemic hits Europe’s growth engine. 

The Ifo’s employment barometer dropped to 86.3 points in April, having reached 93.4 points in March. The latest reading represents a “historic low,” where all four sectors (manufacturing, construction, services and trade) faced sharply lower employment.

“There has never been such a marked decline in the barometer itself, which will correspond to a rise in unemployment in Germany,” the Ifo institute said in a statement on Tuesday.

In a separate release, German exporters revealed concerns about their prospects too.

The Ifo’s export expectations for manufacturing plummeted to -50.0 points in April, down from -19.0 points in March.

The picture is particularly gloomy for some of the country’s key industries, such as automotive manufacturing and mechanical and electrical engineering.

“This is the lowest value ever measured, and the severity of the decline is also unprecedented. The coronavirus pandemic is leaving deep scars on export markets,” the Ifo said in a statement.

Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecast a 7% contraction in Germany this year, on the back of the ongoing pandemic. The IMF also estimated a 3.9% unemployment rate in Germany for 2020, up from 3.2% last year.

Germany first introduced lockdown measures on March 22, but it has since started to slowly lift some of these restrictions. Smaller shops have reopened their doors as well as bike stores, bookstores and car dealerships.

Germany has had 158,758 confirmed infections from Covid-19 and 6,126 deaths, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University. Health experts have said the robustness of the German healthcare system has contributed to a relatively low number of deaths when compared to total cases.

Germany's Covid-19 expert: 'For many, I'm the evil guy crippling the economy'

Source: The Guardian

April 26 2020

By Laura Spinney

Germany’s leading coronavirus expert Christian Drosten on Merkel’s leadership, the UK response and the ‘prevention paradox’

Christian Drosten, who directs the Institute of Virology at the Charité Hospital in Berlin, was one of those who identified the Sars virus in 2003. As the head of the German public health institute’s reference lab on coronaviruses, he has become the government’s go-to expert on the related virus causing the current pandemic.

In an exclusive interview, Drosten admits he fears a second deadly wave of the virus. He explains why Angela Merkel has an advantage over other world leaders – and why the “prevention paradox” keeps him awake at night.

Q: Germany will start to lift its lockdown gradually from Monday. What happens next?

A: At the moment, we are seeing half-empty ICUs in Germany. This is because we started diagnostics early and on a broad scale, and we stopped the epidemic – that is, we brought the reproduction number [a key measure of the spread of the virus] below 1. Now, what I call the “prevention paradox” has set in. People are claiming we over-reacted, there is political and economic pressure to return to normal. The federal plan is to lift lockdown slightly, but because the German states, or Länder, set their own rules, I fear we’re going to see a lot of creativity in the interpretation of that plan. I worry that the reproduction number will start to climb again, and we will have a second wave.

Q: If the lockdown were kept in place longer, could the disease be eradicated?

A: There is a group of modellers in Germany who suggest that by prolonging lockdown here for another few weeks, we could really suppress virus circulation to a considerable degree – bringing the reproduction number below 0.2. I tend to support them but I haven’t completely made up my mind. The reproduction number is just an average, an indication. It doesn’t tell you about pockets of high prevalence such as senior citizens’ homes, where it will take longer to eradicate the disease, and from where we could see a rapid resurgence even if lockdown were extended.

Q: If there were such a resurgence, could it be contained?

A: Yes, but it can’t happen based on human contact-tracing alone. We now have evidence that almost half of infection events happen before the person passing on the infection develops symptoms – and people are infectious starting two days prior to that. That means that human contact-tracers working with patients to identify those they’ve been exposed to are in a race against time. They need help to catch all those potentially exposed as quickly as possible – and that will require electronic contact-tracing.

Q: How close we are to achieving herd immunity?

A: To achieve herd immunity we need 60-70% of the population to carry antibodies to the virus. The results of antibody tests suggest that in Europe and the US, in general, we are in the low single digits, but the tests are not reliable – all of them have problems with false positives – and herd immunity is also not the whole story. It assumes complete mixing of the population, but there are reasons – in part to do with the social networks people form – why the whole population may not be available for infection at any given time. Networks shift, and new people are exposed to the virus. Such effects can drive waves of infection. Another factor that could impact herd immunity is whether other coronaviruses – those that cause the common cold, for example – offer protection to this one. We don’t know, but it’s possible.

Q: Should all countries be testing everybody?

A: I’m not sure. Even in Germany, with our huge testing capacity, and most of it directed to people reporting symptoms, we have not had a positivity rate above 8%. So I think targeted testing might be best, for people who are really vulnerable – staff in hospitals and care homes, for example. This is not fully in place even in Germany, though we’re moving towards it. The other target should be patients in the first week of symptoms, especially elderly patients who tend to come to hospital too late at the moment – when their lips are already blue and they need intubation. And we need some kind of sentinel surveillance system, to sample the population regularly and follow the development of the reproduction number.

Q: What is known about the seasonality of the virus?

A: Not a lot. The Harvard modelling group led by Marc Lipsitch has suggested that transmission might slow over the summer, but that it will be a small effect. I don’t have better data.

Q: Can we say for sure that the pandemic started in China?

I think so. On the other hand, I don’t assume that it started at the food market in Wuhan. It is more likely to have started where the animal – the intermediate host – was bred.

Q: What do we know about that intermediate host – is it the “poor pangolin”, as it’s come to be known?

A: I don’t see any reason to assume that the virus passed through pangolins on its way to humans. There is an interesting piece of information from the old Sars literature. That virus was found in civet cats, but also in raccoon dogs – something the media overlooked. Raccoon dogs are a massive industry in China, where they are bred on farms and caught in the wild for their fur. If somebody gave me a few hundred thousand bucks and free access to China to find the source of the virus, I would look in places where raccoon dogs are bred.

Q: Will it be useful to identify patient zero – the first human to have been infected with this virus?

A: No. Patient zero is almost certain to have acquired a virus that is very similar to some of the first sequenced viruses, so it wouldn’t help us solve our current problem. I don’t think you could even argue that it would help us prevent future coronavirus pandemics, because humanity will be immune to the next Sars-related coronavirus, having been exposed to this one. Other coronaviruses could pose a threat – a prime candidate is the Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers) virus – but to understand that threat we have to study how Mers viruses are evolving in camels in the Middle East.

Q: Are human activities responsible for the spillover of coronaviruses from animals into people?

Coronaviruses are prone to switch hosts when there is opportunity, and we create such opportunities through our non-natural use of animals – livestock. Livestock animals are exposed to wildlife, they are kept in large groups that can amplify the virus, and humans have intense contact with them – for example through the consumption of meat – so they certainly represent a possible trajectory of emergence for coronaviruses. Camels count as livestock in the Middle East, and they are the host of the Mers virus as well as human coronavirus 229E – which is one cause of the common cold – while cattle were the original hosts for coronavirus OC43, which is another.

Q: Flu has always been thought to pose the greatest pandemic risk. Is that still the case?
A: Certainly, but we can’t rule out another coronavirus pandemic. After the first Ebola outbreak, in 1976, people thought it would never come back again, but it took less than 20 years to do so.

Q: Is all the science being done around this coronavirus good science?
A: No! Early on, in February, there were many interesting preprints [scientific papers that have not yet been peer-reviewed] around. Now you can read through 50 before you find something that’s actually solid and interesting. A lot of research resources are being wasted.

Q: Angela Merkel has been praised for her leadership during this crisis. What makes her a good leader?

She’s extremely well-informed. It helps that she’s a scientist and can handle numbers. But I think it mainly comes down to her character – her thoughtfulness and ability to reassure. Maybe one of the distinguishing features of a good leader is that they are not using this present situation as a political opportunity. They know how counterproductive that would be.

Q: From where you stand, how is the UK handling the situation?

A: It’s clear that testing was implemented a little bit too late in the UK. Public Health England was in a position to diagnose the disease very early on – we worked with them to make the diagnostic test – but rollout in Germany was driven in part by market forces, which made it fast, and that wasn’t the case in the UK. Now, though, I have the impression that the UK is really gaining momentum in this regard, and that it is coordinating testing efforts better than Germany.

Q: What keeps you awake at night?

A: In Germany, people see that the hospitals are not overwhelmed, and they don’t understand why their shops have to shut. They only look at what’s happening here, not at the situation in, say, New York or Spain. This is the prevention paradox, and for many Germans I’m the evil guy who is crippling the economy. I get death threats, which I pass on to the police. More worrying to me are the other emails, the ones from people who say they have three kids and they’re worried about the future. It’s not my fault, but those ones keep me awake at night.

Merkel faces growing criticism over German virus strategy

Source: AFP

April 27 2020

Berlin (AFP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been praised at home and abroad for her reaction to the coronavirus crisis, but as voices of discontent grow louder, support for the government's strategy could be on the wane.

Though Germany began to lift lockdown measures last week, Merkel has urged caution and slammed growing impatience to shake off the curbs on public life introduced a month ago to slow contagion.

The measures have proved successful so far, with Germany maintaining a mortality rate of just 3.7 percent in the pandemic, far lower than major European neighbours.

The restrictions have also met with public approval. Almost three quarters of the population said they supported them in a Kantar poll published Friday.

In full-blown crisis just a few months ago, Merkel's CDU/CSU conservative alliance has meanwhile rebounded in the polls, jumping ten points in the last two weeks to 38 percent.

- 'Life and death' -

Yet the mood could be about to change.

Wolfgang Schaeuble, an elder statesman of German politics and current president of the Bundestag lower house, warned that extended restrictions would impinge on fundamental citizens' rights.

"When I hear that protecting lives should come above everything else, I don't think that is absolutely true," he told Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel on Sunday.

Merkel also provoked the ire of regional leaders when she suggested last week that they had been too eager to relax restrictions.

Armin Laschet, state premier for Germany's most populous region North-Rhine Westphalia and a candidate to succeed Merkel as CDU leader, protested that the discussion over how to lift lockdown measures was "appropriate".

"It is of course still a question of life and death," he told public broadcaster ARD on Sunday night.

Yet he insisted that the negative effects of lockdown must also be "weighed up", pointing in particular to children "who have had to stay at home for the last six weeks".

He also attacked what he saw as the pessimistic predictions of some medical experts, pointing out that "40 percent of intensive care beds are empty" in his state.

Germany's most popular newspaper Bild echoed Laschet's words in a scathing editorial on Monday, accusing Merkel of being "stubborn, pig-headed and bossy".

- 'End of national unity' -

Largely muted in the crisis until now, Germany's opposition parties are also beginning to grow more critical of the government's course.

The Greens, still the highest polling opposition party despite a recent slump, have urged more caution. On Sunday, co-leader Annalena Baerbock slammed plans to allow Bundesliga football to resume without spectators from next month.

The leader of the liberal FDP Christian Lindner warned that consensus over coronavirus measures was breaking down, declaring the "end of national unity".

His party's concern over both the fate of small and medium-sized businesses, as well as the erosion of civil liberties, is also shared by more extreme groups.

Far left and far right protesters have assembled in Berlin every Saturday in recent weeks, calling for "democratic resistance" against what they claim are authoritarian and unconstitutional coronavirus restrictions.

Police arrested around 100 of an estimated 1,000 protesters last Saturday and a further demonstration is planned for May 1.

The far-right AfD, Germany's largest opposition party by number of MPs, has also declared its opposition to lockdown.

"The absolute shutdown was avoidable and (the government) is now missing a chance to end it," claimed AfD lawmaker Sebastian Muenzenmaier, adding that "all shops must be opened: give the people back their liberty!".

Weekly newspaper Die Zeit warned the AfD could "profit from the long term consequences" of the virus such as mass unemployment.