 |  |  |
| Return to: Left History: a digital archive | Return to: Say no to imperialist wars! | Return to: NATO-Yugoslav War Internet Resources |
| | |
| Return to: Left History: a digital archive | Return to: Say no to imperialist wars! | Return to: NATO-Yugoslav War Internet Resources |
GERHARD SCHRÖDER, who is reeling from yet more election defeats at the weekend, has declared Germany to be a "great power in Europe" and pledged to pursue a more assertive foreign policy.
This paradox - weakness at home, muscle-flexing abroad - is unsettling neighbours and has prompted the Chancellor's predecessor, Helmut Kohl, to break his silence and denounce Herr Schröder's European policy as a fiasco.
The Social Democratic Party leadership met yesterday, more to lick its wounds than to analyse the weekend's defeats. In the cities of the Ruhr, bastions of Social Democrat support for five decades, the party lost control of scores of councils.
In the eastern region of Thuringia it ended up in third position after the Christian Democrat winners and the former Communists, the Party of Democratic Socialism. Something similar is expected next weekend in Saxony regional elections.
The Government, in short, is seeing its power ebb after barely a year in office. The debility is now beginning to have an effect on Germany's ability to project power abroad.
France has become critical of what it sees as a German drift away from the European project. In an interview with the German press at the weekend, Maurice Druon, permanent secretary of the Académie Française, accused the Chancellor of "talking loudly to his European partners" and "banging on the table".
Poland, Germany's eastern neighbour, is equally worried and in particular by the way that protectionist lobbies, such as the trade unions, are diluting Berlin's support for eastward enlargement.
Janusz Reiter, director of the Polish Centre for International Relations, said: "In a country such as Germany, which has traditionally been in favour of free markets, protectionism is not only economically wrong but also a sign of flagging self-confidence."
The general message from foreign and domestic critics of the Chancellor is that Germany is in danger of drifting at precisely the moment - with the Government shifting eastwards from Bonn to Berlin - that it needs to radiate confidence. Germany is the most powerful country in Europe, Helmut Kohl said in an interview at the weekend. "But we don't have to tell others all the time that we are strong and numero uno. They know that."
In the first half of the year, Germany, as President of the European Union, won agreement on Agenda 2000 financial reforms and played an active part in Balkan peace-brokering. Since then Germany has been almost off the map.
Infighting within the Social Democrats is becoming more acute. Today Herr Schröder has summoned key left-wingers to his office to patch up the quarrel - they are resisting what they regard as Blairite reform - but it seems plain that domestic politics will absorb the Chancellor's attention through most of the winter.
His insistence that Germany will campaign hard for its national interests abroad, particularly in Europe, is therefore geared to a domestic audience. As such it risks offending Germany's closest allies.
In the Monthly Journal of the Union Movement the Chancellor spelt out his credo. Germany, he wrote, is freeing itself from its historically conditioned complexes. "Germany had every interest in considering itself a great power in Europe - something our neighbours have done for a long time - and to orientate its foreign policy accordingly within the framework of Euro-Atlantic institutions." This policy, he said, must be one of "fully acknowledged self-interest".