“Having taken 41.5% of
the popular vote in yesterday’s federal elections many in Germany and across
the rest of the European Union who will be relieved today that Angela Merkel’s
Christian Democrats (CDU) party and its Bavarian based Christian Social Union
(CSU) party alliance colleagues are to remain the dominant force in German
politics for at least the next four years.

(…)

“Germans
may have loathed the ‘whatever it takes” phrase used last year by European
Central Bank president Mario Draghi as he laid out his bold intentions to save
the single currency from complete collapse but deep down most Germans want
nothing less than for the Euro to prosper and grow in strength. Unlike their
British cousins German want more EU as opposed to less meaning that they
actually wish to see more political power being given away to Brussels.

That
doesn’t mean that the majority of Germans have an out and out desire to cede
more control over their own destiny to Brussels but it is to say that they
believe others should. And not without good reason either as to the average
German it is ‘others’ that have failed the Euro system and that must be brought
to heel. It is unarguably right to say that it is the failings of others that
have seriously damaged the whole Euro concept and dream albeit one that was
surely flawed right from the start. It is others rather than Germany that by
their notions of joining the single currency would allow them to borrow and
spend and create artificial growth who brought the single currency concept to
its very knees. It is others rather than Germany who by their profligate ways,
by their failure to manage their respective economies properly, by their
deficits and their debt that led the pack of cards to all but collapse.

It
is of course Germany that will in the end always help to pay for it because as
the powerhouse of the Eurozone economy if it wants the Euro to survive Germany
has little choice. Not that Angela Merkel will give any of the failing states
an easy ride and if she can see a way to rid the Eurozone of Greek membership
then her start will rise even further. Germany will for the next four years at
least not allow the Euro to fail because to do so would not be in Germany’s
interests! Close your eyes and imagine for one moment that the Euro had failed
in 2012 and that Germany returned to the deutschmark.


Given
that the collapse of the Euro would probably have had less of an effect on
Germany than anywhere else one can imagine that the value of the German
currency would be so high that remaining international trade competitiveness
could well have been lost. In other words it is the very weakness of the Euro
that has and continues to provide Germany with its manufacturing and export
trade success. Germany is hardly self sufficient of course but the ability to
buy so much from its Euro partner nations and yet sell close to three quarters
of what it exports outside of the Eurozone area gives the nation a huge trade
advantage. (…)”