PAX
GERMANICA
The flag of the IV Reich?
Flag adaptation by Afonso Duarte
This blog has long considered that Germany has increasingly been
asserting her authority over much of Europe, especially over the countries that
fatefully adopted the euro.
The saga of the Greek crisis has demonstrated that the Pax
Germanica has descended upon the continent and it is firmly established from
Lisbon to Riga and from Brussels to Athens.
Germany has been the greatest
beneficiary of the euro and is determined to defend her interests with an iron
hand if need be. There is nothing inherently wrong with that: every government
is supposed to defend and pursue its country's interests.
What is out of sync is Germany's
imperial posture, in a remarkable contradiction with both the refrained
attitude that is supposed to be that of post-War Germany and the egalitarian
and cooperative characteristics that Brussels' propaganda strives to make us
believe to be the EU's hallmark.
The submissions of Portugal,
Spain and Ireland, followed by the total capitulation of Cyprus and Greece,
show that Berlin is hell-bent on ruling the eurozone, if not the EU altogether,
on its own terms.
Even more depressing than the
renaissance of German imperialism, is the submission and surrender of most of
the other 18 members, not only those who are virtually governed from Berlin,
but also those who sheepishly follow the commands of Mrs. Merkel and Mr.
Schauble, such as Italy and France.
Not wanting to establish a
direct connection, but it may be useful to remember that the German III Reich
scored her first victories and conquests having to wage little or no fight:
Austria, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and even France and
Norway.
There is yet another similarity:
in the 1930's and 1940's there was no
shortage of "Quislings", traitors who collaborated with the Nazis for
their personal benefit, the misery of their home countries and the death of
many of their countrymen. Likewise, early 21 Century Europe displays its own
army of Quislings, the likes of Monti, Samaras, Coelho, Rajoy, Papademos
and Tsipras, the latest turncoat.
Supported
by their stooges, the Germans go around bullying, imposing, threatening,
showing their hubris and the contempt they feel for other countries'
sovereignty and democratic process. I would just recall the declarations of Mr. Martin Schulz, the German
Social-Democrat (???) who is the President of the European Parliament (???) who
urged the Greeks to vote "Yes"
in their referendum and the replacement
of the democratically elected government by a technocratic one with whom they
(the Germans) could do business with, i.e., a subservient and non-accountable
government like Monti's in Italy and Papademos' in Greece.
Not wanting to overuse II World War
analogies, it looks like only in the English Channel and/or in the Russian
Winter, can Germany now be stopped.
For the foreseeable future, we seem to
be condemned to live under a Pax Germanica which, like its Roman predecessor,
is very much German(ic) and not so pacific.
