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March 11th, 2013 
David Schulberg the 3rd
During last month’s Italian elections, Silvio Berlusconi blamed
“German-centric” policies for Italy’s economic problems.
Mr Juncker, who chaired the euro Group from 2005 until he stepped down in
January this year, said that he saw parallels with 1913.
“In 1913 many believed that there would never again be a war in Europe. The
great powers of the continent were so closely intertwined economically that
the view was widespread that they could no longer afford to have military
confrontations.
“There was a complete sense of complacency based on the assumption that peace
had been secured forever.”
Mr Juncker also claimed that the only way for Europe to continue to wield
global influence in future was through being united. The governments of
Germany, France and Britain all knew that the only way their voice could be
heard internationally was “through the megaphone of the EU,” he said.
Almut Moeller, a European Union analyst at the German Council on Foreign
Relations, a think tank, suggested that the veteran European politician was
using the imagery of war to draw attention to the scale of the economic
crisis.
Mr Moeller said: “He’s somebody who wants to address this [the euro-crisis] in
a political way, not just in a technocratic way. There is a huge
transformation in society, which we’ve seen in the most vulnerable
countries. In that sense he wants to sound a warning, that this is a big job
for politicians. What he means is, let’s try to understand that the military
power of the past is now economic power.” However, his dramatic evocation of
the past has also prompted some derision.
Tim Rahmann, a commentator for the weekly business magazine WirtschaftsWoche,
said: “Nonsensical comparisons, exaggerations and slogans do not help to
reform the European Union. On the contrary they only lead to the EU and its
leaders losing credibility.”
Meanwhile, a poll published on Monday indicates growing German unease over the
cost of the euro crisis. One in four Germans would vote in September’s
federal election for a party that wants to quit the euro, according to an
opinion poll conducted by TNS-Emnid for Focus magazine.
The poll showed one in four Germans would consider backing a party that wanted
to take Germany out of the euro and as many as four in 10 in the 40-49 age
bracket would do so.
The survey, which canvassed the views of 1,007 people on March 6-7, coincides
with the launch of a new party, Alternative for Germany, which is opposed to
the single currency.
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