"Germanophobia rules Europe once again"

Source: Večernje novosti

BELGRADE -- Germany's strength is causing fear in Europe - something that has been "thought about and discussed" in that country lately, say media reports.

(Tanjug, file)

The Spiegel magazine thus writes that a German suggestion to send an EU commissioner to Greece to act as controller of the Greek state budget was criticized as "impossible to do and humiliating".
The continent is once again worried about the German domination, while the Greek newspaper Ta Nea published a cartoon showing Chancellor Angela Merkel as a puppeteer in control of Greece, along with a caption reading, "Nein! Nein! Nein!"

German analysts and media commentators, meanwhile, assess that while their country has a right to insist on fiscal discipline in Europe, it must do so using "more careful rhetorics and refraining from making suggestions that are offensive for its EU partners".

The idea to introduce "commissioner for austerity" was impossible to implement and "callous", said they.

"Countries finding themselves in a crisis cannot be turned into protectorates. Such an EU commissioner cannot exist, unless they be given powers originating in laws of occupation," the Welt newspaper writes, and suggest that Greece should leave the eurozone and go its own way, utilizing the freedom that stem from the ability to change exchange rates of a national currency.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes that despite its power, "Germany is not the hegemon of Europe". Suddeutsche Zeitung also reached for "big words" in its vocabulary:

"Germany is now what it never wished to be after 1945: the dominant power at the center of Europe. Its attempts to achieve that with cannons and tanks in the 20th century ended in apocalypses of blood and fire, but that is precisely the reason why that Germany no longer exists."

No other country, the daily continued, succumbed to the challenge of nationalism in a manner more terrible than Germany, and asserted that the crimes Germany committed all over Europe still carried great weight "in its collective memory".

"True, it is shameful to exploit that fact today, even in Greece, whose political parties destroyed that country. But it must serve to teach the German government not to confuse firmness with arrogance of power when it comes to the euro crisis... Germany must persuade instead of issue orders. It is as dependent on Europe as Greece is," concluded the newspaper.

Meanwhile, economic indicators show that the German economy is in a much better shape than the rest of Europe, with unemployment at a record low of 6.7 percent - compared to eurozone's 14-year high of 10.4 percent.