Cameron's stance on EU sparks unusual candour from German politicians

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/06/david-cameron-european-union-german-juncker

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In Germany, where politicians often mince their words for fear of ruining coalitions and newspapers can sound positively professorial compared with their British counterparts, it has been a week of unusually candid words about Britain's future in the European Union. "If the Brits want to go their own way and leave the EU, let them," said Hans-Peter Uhl, a politician from Angela Merkel's sister party, the Bavarian CSU. "It would certainly damage the EU, but it would cause even greater damage to the Brits."

Der Spiegel, still Germany's most influential news publication, compared Britain and Europe to "a relationship in which both people make each other unhappy but fail to draw the conclusions"‚ in a leader article bluntly headlined "Join up or leave".

In a separate article in its website, Spiegel columnist Jakob Augstein interpreted the events of the last week as nothing less than the continent's emancipation from Anglo-Saxon finance capitalism: "What we are seeing is not the end of Europe, but the end of capitalism as we know it."

Emotions had been brought to the boil by David Cameron's resistance to Jean-Claude Juncker's nomination for the presidency of the European Commission, and the British PM's apparent threat – reported by Der Spiegel but denied by Number 10 – to move forward an in/out referendum if he did not get his way.

Yasmin Fahimi, the general secretary of the Social Democrats, said it was farcical that EU leaders were allowing themselves to be blackmailed by a country "which doesn't understand Europe and rails against Europe's success in order to improve its national profile".

Has Cameron, by his resistance to Merkel's preferred choice of Juncker for EU commission president, managed to plunge Anglo-German relations to a new low just as he is more reliant on his German counterpart's support than ever?

Few doubt that Merkel, the "British chancellor" (as Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung had it), has a genuine interest in keeping Britain in the union. Cameron is tactically useful to her at European level, allowing her to hide behind his aggressive behaviour when it is in her interest and point the finger when he oversteps the mark.

The German leader's own reservations about Juncker's candidacy are well-known, and one politician close to Merkel's circle told the Guardian on Friday that she was still "very determined" to block Juncker's candidacy. He estimated that there was still a realistic chance she would get her way, possibly with IMF chief Christine Lagarde – a solution that would please Britain.

But the problem for Cameron and his party is that they may have overestimated Merkel's influence and underestimated the strong pro-European undercurrent among the German press and public.

In Britain, the presumption was that the system of the European parliament nominating top candidates for the commission presidency would soon be overruled by national leaders when push came to shove. After the European People's party gained the most seats at the elections and its lead candidate Juncker made a claim for the presidency, it was dismissed as a "power grab" on behalf of the European parliament.

In Germany, on the other hand, the media closely followed the campaign of the leading candidates. There has been much frustration at suggestions that this new process might be subverted by a backroom deal to install someone from outside the parliamentary circle. Many in Germany see the current row as a unique chance to make the decision-making process in Europe more democratic and accountable. "We've come to realise that Germany and Britain really have quite a different understanding of democracy at European level," said Nicolai von Ondarza, a senior associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

According to a poll published on Thursday, 60% of the German public believe that the European parliament should nominate the president of the commission. 55% believed Juncker should become president even if it would lead to Britain leaving the EU.

An open letter signed by a group of leading intellectuals including Jürgen Habermas and Anthony Giddens, published in the Guardian and a series of other European newspapers on Friday, called on Europe's national leaders to put their weight behind Juncker: "We acknowledge that the system is not perfect. Nevertheless, this was an encouraging start, and in time this process has the potential to enable European citizens to engage with EU level politics far more than they have been able to do up to now. We hence urge the heads of government not to kill this new democracy process at its birth."

Sociologist Ulrich Beck, one of the signatories, told the Guardian that "Great Britain plays a very ambivalent role, because it never took the European elections seriously in the first place, but now finds itself in the anti-democratic camp".

Beck suggests that the background to the current tension between Germany and Britain is that many feel that the UK's relationship with the EU has reached a breaking point: "Suddenly we are the model democrats and have to remind our former teachers that democracy means accepting the will of the majority of the people."

"The 'my way or the highway' strategy that Margaret Thatcher pioneered is certainly getting on a lot of Germans' nerves, because they feel Cameron is constantly setting ultimatums rather than trying seek a compromises," said Thomas Matussek, a former German ambassador to Britain who now heads Deutsche Bank's foreign policy thinktank.

"But the political class will still look rationally at British membership and conclude that it is in Germany's interest to keep the UK in: we agree on key areas such as the importance of the free market, the fight against red tape and the need for more subsidiarity."

While Berlin's political class may be increasingly open about its frustrations with the British government, few seem to genuinely believe that the British public would vote to leave the EU. "I am absolutely convinced that Britain will stay in the European Union," Matussek told the Guardian. "The Brits have long been unhappy in the EU, but I still think they would rather remain unhappy inside than even unhappier outside."