Germany, he writes, “today is the best country in the world”. Because?
To begin with, because of the resistance of the Germans to consider themselves better…
This is very healthy!
…Then, for his ability to think long-term rationally, seriously and constructively; and that’s why where there are two Germans there are three agreements: coalitions, seriousness… and the ability to integrate radicals like the greens.
What else does he envy about the Germans?
That they are more communitarian than individualistic and more capable of thinking about generations than about elections. I also admire their electoral system and federalism: no one is better than anyone else to live in one place or another.
Here the Große Koalition is unthinkable.
This German ability to make a pact for the future still emanates from its learning from the past: Brexit, on the other hand, shows that the British still think of repeating the empire.
You cite the German Vergangenheitsbewältigung (learning from the past).
Almost eighty years later, Hitler still weighs heavily on his conduct and my first criticism is that, instead of obsessing over not repeating a war, they should obsess over avoiding dictatorships.
You shoot against the approach of Schr̦der Рand, in due course, Merkel Рto Putin?
Shröder admired Putin and was wrong; but Merkel deserves credit for having integrated East Germany and having given asylum to 1.5 million refugees… History will honor her.
I remember asylum homes set on fire.
They were minor cases. He will see how the other countries, including Spain, will end up copying the German multi-cultural model – 5% of Germans are already of Turkish origin – and will end up integrating due to demographic imperative.
Was Merkel so generous with Greece, Spain, Italy in the 2008 debt crisis?
Again, it’s not that Germany doesn’t make mistakes, but because it thinks in the long term, it achieves consensus that allows it to rectify and, even if it misses trains, get to its destination first. Now it is much less obtuse when it comes to the public debt of other countries.
Do they still think we stole from them?
Germany, first of all, saves; so much so that sometimes it does not invest, for example in its necessary infrastructures, to the point that this saving is a waste and that is why it is so stingy with what it perceives as extraneous electoralist budget joys.
Isn’t it too slow sometimes?
It is true that Germans suffer from chronic aversion to risk and that failure is, unlike in the USA, very frowned upon; but, instead, they are capable of admirable collective turns to rectify and get right.
Didn’t they cheat with fake diesel? Aren’t they behind on electric cars?
They have already reacted to it, so they will eventually overtake the American and Asian electric vehicle pioneers… In the long run, again! Another big secret of German industry is how they integrate workers into business management…
If the company is more yours, do you work more?
Germany was the first to combine economic growth and social inclusion. Thus it surpassed the USA as the world’s first exporter in 2003. And its fabric of medium-sized companies coordinates world champions from German villages where they work with an admirable team spirit.
Germany is not a land of innovation.
It was lousy, certainly, for startups. Because business people and Germans in general value security more than innovation.
And don’t they also have their corrupts?
Of course. At the bank, for example. And the country did not invest in broadband. But it was slow but sure again. And today it has reacted and already competes and invests in brains from all over the world, although the total value of the companies in the DAX is less than that of Apple.
Doesn’t Germany take advantage of being in the center of the most prosperous Europe?
Germanophobes quip that it has outsourced its energy to Russia; its trade, in China, and its military, in the US…
And doesn’t it still depend on Russian energy?
What we were saying about Germany’s ability to rectify: in just six months they have gone from 80% dependence on Putin’s gas and energy to just 10%. Again, the collective reaction repaired previous mistakes.
Why does Germany usually unite in the face of challenges that divide other countries?
Because he understood earlier that development is not the same if it does not integrate everyone: he thus avoided regional imbalances and encouraged co-management in companies, giving professional training the power to empower.
Won’t Germany, and the EU now, be overtaken and humiliated by China and the US?
Germany is the great hope of Europe and the only one that can oppose authoritarianism from shared prosperity, because it knows what happens when countries do not learn from their history.
