Not to say the two countries (and the EU counterparts) don't have serious problems. They certainly do! PM Theresa May is hanging onto office by the skin of her teeth as Parliament debates her Brexit deal. Chancellor Angela Merkel in the midst of losses in several local elections announced she would resign as head of the CDU, which she has. Today a new party leader, Annegret Kamp-Karrenbauer, has been elected. She is said to be much like Merkel in her approach to Germany's political challenges. AKK's election as head of party makes it likely that Merkel will stay on as Chancellor at least for a time and keep the EU from flying apart.
What I find calming and impressive about all of this is the attitude that political issues can be dealt with by political processes and solutions. The ups and downs of decisions and policy making do not require hysteria, nervous breakdowns, and multiple justifications every time the leader opens his mouth. (You know who I mean! --a case in point: Rex Tillerson talks about what it was like to deal with the president).
So two cheers for the UK, Germany, May and Merkel, who carry on in the best democratic and liberal tradition for which we were once a shining example. Alas!
What Now?
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Illustration by Mitch Blun
If we ever get around to electing a competent bore to the presidency, perhaps we can then offer three cheers. Not that "competent bore" necessarily describes May. Maybe Merkel, though.
ReplyDeleteWe should be so lucky.
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ReplyDeleteChancellor Merkel has had a remarkable run, 18 years as leader of her party and 13, through four elections, as chancellor. After awhile, people everywhere get itchy eyes and want different leadership. ISTM that most Germans have been a little bit SPD and a slightly larger bit CDU, with a responsible third party, the FDP, for when they need to sulk a little bit. The Greens and the neo-Nazis both represent disruption. The Greens at least believe in democracy; if the AfD ever gets its way, it'll be Hungary, Turkey and Poland all over again because it has now been demonstrated that it's possible to have a democratic plutocracy.
ReplyDeleteWe in the U.S. really needed Merkel as the adult in the room a while longer while we work out our own global hissyfit.
Tom, I was curious to see what the German words for SPD were. So I googled SPD, and Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands came up. But "sensory processing disorder" also came up. I think that describes what some of the MAGA people have.
DeleteBoth May and Merkel are of course more adult and presidential than our own dear leader. But the Brexit situation seems more serious for the Brits' economic future, (even without hysteria and nervous breakdowns) than what we are dealing with. Hopefully we are getting our own national nervous breakdown out of the way before anything irreversible is accomplished.
ReplyDeleteWhat Britain voted for it can never have, and serious Brits said so from the start. When May accepted the prime ministership, she knew it too. What they want is a square circle, in which she has to produce all the benefits of EU membership without any of the responsibilities. No one ever explained why the mighty Dutch or the cautious Germans would go for that. And three years into it, there remains no explanation, which suggests that there never was one, and Nigel and Boris were spouting a load of rot.
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ReplyDeleteI've always thought that May got the job (when David Cameron bailed talk about someone who couldn't count his votes!), because no one else wanted it, or no one wanted Boris Johnson to have it. She has loyally carried on with the mandate for a Brexit. Now that everyone sees what it entails, the best that can be hoped for is: 1. accept the current deal (probably what May is hoping); or 2. call for a second referendum and hope, pray, and work to get the remain tally over 70 percent.
ReplyDeleteSo now the vote on the Brexit deal is off until after the first of the year?
ReplyDeleteCould a vote possibly be off forever? A long way to go for that. May is sticking to her plan...how long will Parliament go with that? The factions in the Parliament may be so many that they can't find a way forward. What then? Will Donald Tusk and the EU take pity on her?
ReplyDeleteThis problem could be easily solved by England returning Northern Ireland to Ireland. Fantasy thinking? But it would relieve the backstop problem that appears to be the Gordian Knot.
I hope you are kidding about the EU cutting Mrs. May a break. The EU has been as patient as an adult can be with a child throwing a fit -- "I want the train and the truck, but I'm going to throw the truck at my brother." Putting off the vote is just going to leave that dead fish lying in Parliament, stinking, while Boris Johnson ineptly helps to abort his baby. And where is Nigel Farage? Is he angling to be Trump's next chief-of-staff?
DeleteThe EU has endured almost three years of distraction, uproar and tsouris over the inside baseball of Tory politics. As Scotland's first minister tweeted, urging Labour to call for the no-confidence vote, "This shambles can't go on."
At National Review's The Corner blog, Michael Brendan Dougherty comes out in favor of May's deal:
Delete"I still think the Parliament should approve of the deal. And I keep finding reasons to respect the Prime Minister, even as her colleagues (and mine) denounce her.
Her deal achieves two of the main objectives of the Leavers: restoring control of Britain’s borders to the British government and clawing back the money that the U.K. sends to Brussels. It does so while assuaging the main fear of the Remainers, the fear that the U.K. would crash out and experience a sharp period of economic turmoil. At the end of the transition period, the U.K. will be able to make a long-term trading relationship with the EU and others with the U.S. and other growing markets ...
"On the other side are those who think the current Parliamentary chaos is evidence against Brexit, and for reversing course and withdrawing Article 50 for staying in the EU. I have two questions for them; 1) If Prime Minister Cameron could not get concessions from Merkel, why would another Prime Minister get any? 2) Has the E.U. made the political situation more stable for France, Italy, and Germany over the last two years?"
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/brexit-delays/
I can't follow Dougherty's thinking because Mrs.May's agreement doesn't guarantee anything. The Northern Ireland "backstop" -- that keeps Northern Ireland in the EU, but not really, except as a practical matter, but we will sort of ignore practicalities -- is a place holder for a future agreement on ... what they haven't been able to reach an agreement on in three years of trying.
DeleteEither her plan is a time bomb that blows up when they stop playing Let's Pretend, or it's an anomaly to annoy the easily annoyed Irish. I would expect an O'Brien to think England should just let all Ireland be Ireland and solve the whole thing that way. But as a Blackburn I have to admit that Margaret's idea makes more sense than Mrs. May or Mr. Dougherty.
May says she is going back to look for??? for what, that's not clear. Various opinionators (Timothy Garton Ash, Guardian columnist, has reported that Brussels might take another look, and an unemployed Italian politician has suggested as much. Even if true, how much can the EU give without others deciding to depart?
DeleteReading various accounts of the English vox populi, ordinary people seem to hit on the "let England be England" theme. But they should have decided that back before they became the UK and before they acquired an empire! Many of these interviewed seem to object to their local precincts being occupied by "others," from Eastern Europe (aside: riding a bus in Dublin, I was charmed to hear a Polish conductor speak to me with a brogue).
And yet, when you read about the woes of the NHS and the schools, it's clear England needs immigrants, just like Japan, the U.S., and Canada. Maybe not always for the same reasons.
A storm novena to St. George? Would that help?
I just heard on the radio that Merkel greeted May with the German equivalent of, "You again? Fuhgeddabout it."
DeleteMerkel may be a one-liner queen: Did you hear what you said when going through the Athens airport during the money troubles? Immigration inspector: Occupation?
DeleteMerkel: Not yet.
Of course, the European Court of Justice has said they could stay if they wanted. "Oh forget about the whole thing!"
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