Germany appears, in Europe, to be taking power, and no one can blame her for it: she does what must be done, in her own interest. This week, this is confirmed by four pieces of information:
- China is now Germany’s main trading partner, ahead of France, 5000 German companies are already present there, compared to less than 900 French companies.
- The top twelve German companies, including the chemical, automotive, steel and electronics industry giants, have joined together into a company called « Alliance » to equip themselves in order to control access to the most precious raw materials, and in particularly rare earth, that are crucial for the industry of tomorrow. They are found especially in China, Mongolia, Japan and in some countries of Africa and Latin America.
- The German finance minister called on, for the second time in three weeks, in Berlin the ministers of a few European countries, without France, to discuss the crisis of the euro and invited a few days later the French Minister of Finance to give him the result.
- Finally, the president of Germany’s largest bank has just declared that his bank will likely not require the reiterated help from the Central Bank to all European banks in late February.
Thus, Germany, for the first time in the short democratic period in her history, is in a position to dominate Europe. We cannot blame her for it. France, weakened by its economy in ruins, the loss of its credit rating and the electoral uncertainty, can only blame itself to be thus excluded from the conduct of European Affairs. Community institutions, too weak and bureaucratic, have failed to take over.
We can already see the consequences: in all areas, Europeans are absent. They were even prescribed , in the most complete silence of the country’s political leaders, the building up of missile defence shields entirely under American control, and whose headquarters is precisely in Germany; by its very nature, it aims at destroying the credibility of the fighting force of the enemy and, by symmetry, that of the French fighting force, a side victim long-sought after. At the same time, the strategic Conference of Munich showed no willingness to move towards a European defense structure.
A German Europe, it is therefore inevitably an American Europe, because dependent on the United States for its foreign policy and its security. Eventually, of course, Germany would be also a victim of this, because of its own problems, demographic and financial.
One of the primary issues of the presidential campaign is whether to and how to restore the Franco-German relationship. But then without politicizing it: it must exist no matter who is power in France and Germany. And Nicolas Sarkozy is wrong to suggest that the Chancellor of Germany could not cooperate with anyone but him. First, because it was under his term of office that the relationship has deteriorated to the extent that Germany is bypassing us. Then because history teaches us that French and German leaders, no matter who they are, have their fates linked. Finally because the French will not like it when they pick their president for them.