Feature photo: Flag of the Council of Europe and the EU | © Pixabay
"What do I care about yesterday's gossip? ... Nobody can stop me from getting smarter every day."
Konrad Adenauer, words commonly attributed
Those words have been around for decades Konrad Adenauer attributed, and probably every professional German politician, regardless of which party, has made this his own credo. This is intended to signal to voters that these politicians are always flexible and always willing to learn.
In the meantime, every citizen really knows that you can no longer believe the statements or even the promises of professional politicians. This kind of politics and voter deception is so successful that it has already become the norm in most democracies, although we are now only average in this regard. Because the best-known representatives of this genus should currently be from the USA (Donald Trump) and the United Kingdom (Boris Johnson) come.
And so no citizen is actually expected anymore that a professional politician makes verifiable statements at all. On the contrary, the bolder and more absurd his lies, the more popular the corresponding professional politician becomes; and it is becoming more and more common that the most dangerous career politicians are those who insist on being halfway honest - because that is precisely the proof of their insincerity.
I too had to learn that those professional politicians who, without even being asked, have to constantly explain to me that they do not commit any accounting fraud or reside in the smallest rooms themselves, are doing exactly what they so vehemently reject.
But none of that matters at all, because we all live in legal communities and the handshake has long since been replaced by contracts and written agreements. We are so successful and honest in this that we own as many lawyers and law firms as there are sand by the sea.
And so contracts are celebrated here like high festivals in churches; there are no other topics for days, as soon as professional politicians negotiate and finally decide on coalition agreements. This is only surpassed when it comes to state treaties where entire governments promise other governments the moon.
Some of us may have had our doubts as it became increasingly apparent that our governments, whatever they are, rarely, or at least very selectively, comply with treaties (the European Union treaties can serve as a good example), and certainly not those ones things like E.g. the 2% target within NATO, which they “only” pledged to everyone internationally, and even our Federal Chancellor recently promised to the entire world as a minimum target in the Bundestag!
But that was just yesterday's silly gossip! And like I said, no contract.
Things have been different since yesterday with our highly praised proportional representation minister, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock all of a sudden not only considers European conventions to be outdated recipes (!), but also officially withdraws them coalition Agreement in which more Europe was raised to the absolute declared goal of this federal government - how gladly and madly did the coalition partners let themselves be celebrated for this by everyone, in and outside of Germany! What a show they put on for months!
Even the Greens let themselves be celebrated as self-confessed Europeans, as well as for decades as environmentalists. And the SPD even used a party program from 1925 in order to fervently feign enthusiasm for Europe. Only the FDP showed a modicum of honesty, since Europe is known to do anything but harm the economy.
Now we know better: breaches of contract are the new credo of professional politics! You can no longer make a state with lies alone. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes:
"Baerbock moves away from the convention for EU treaty changes"
FAZ, 21.06.2022/17/26-XNUMX:XNUMX
What is alarming is Bearbock's rhetoric, in which she portrays a convention as an outdated methodology, which, like all the rest of the EU treaty body, is the livelihood of our European democracies. Whatever one may think of the individual instruments of the Treaties, they are the current business basis of Europe and Conventions are the proper procedures for amending the Treaties.
With that, the Green politician declares the coalition agreement en passant as null and void, which will shake very few people in Germany, and will also cause most Union politicians to storm of enthusiasm, because the feeding pots seem to be getting closer again, but is currently sending a disastrous signal to Europe!
The European Council meets tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Actually, a resolution of the European Parliament calling for the convening of a convention should also be discussed there. As things stand now, tomorrow will not be a decision on convening a convention!
"The conference [on the future of Europe] should lead to a constituent convention and lead to the further development of a federal European state, which is also organized in a decentralized manner according to the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality and is based on the Charter of Fundamental Rights."
coalition agreement, point VII
For better or for worse, we must now recognize that Europe does not exist for us! Environmental protection does not exist for us! There are no good wages for us! There is no secure future for us! And there is no protection against a new war for us either!
But we have many happy professional politicians - and what more could you ask for?
Before the meeting of the European Council on June 23 and 24, 2022, the Europa-Union Germany, together with other European associations, is appealing to the German government to stick to the European policy goals laid down in the coalition agreement. The declared goal of the federal government was to convene a European convention with the aim of bringing about treaty reforms that are suitable for increasing the European Union's ability to act and, in particular, for tackling the problems resulting from the unanimity principle.
Click here for the joint declaration of the European associations...
