There are conspiracy theorists and those who do not believe in conspiracies. I belong to the latter group. Nevertheless, over the last few years The Frau has pushed us to our limits and often made us wonder whether perhaps there is some dark sinister plot behind all this Nonsense Economics eroding Europe. How else to explain it?

Well, no. This is not a conspiracy. It is, in my humble opinion, merely attributable to abysmal statesmanship. (Stateswomanship?)

I assume that Angela Merkel did not set out to destroy the Euro and weaken the whole EU project, let alone destroy it. Her bankers may well detest the Euro, as bankers have a very limited view of the economy (!) but on the whole, the Euro and the EU have served Germany exceedingly well and would have been set to continue to do so had not little Angela and her side kick Schauble happened to be in charge when the first rumbles of difficulty in the Eurozone began.

In my opinion The Frau did three things that have undermined the Euro and may well lead to a disastrous break up of the common currency if not the EU itself.

Her first faux pas, was to scream out to the markets that, Hey you guys! You know something? The Euro is not here to stay! It is not a currency like the dollar! It is not permanent! Now how did she do that? Well, it was back when the second “bail out” loan agreement was reached with Greece’s then PM George Papandreou after the first had failed miserably.

Neither of these two heads of government appeared to have a clue what they were doing. They agreed on a set of appalling terms and were both delighted with their achievement. Until Papandreou came back to Greece beaming that he had “saved” the country once again, and duly got egg in his face (almost literally) for his efforts. Others got yoghourt thrown at them.

In his panic (because that is what it was, not some sudden democratic epiphany) he decided to call for a referendum on these terms. Whereupon little Angela blew a gasket. How dare he? How dare this piddley nonentity question my terms in any way? (Mind you, she did have one point. Though Papandreou most certainly should have held that referendum he should have told her BEFORE agreeing to all her terms, not afterwards, and made agreement conditional on the referendum out come. Which he didn’t.)

In true Germanic, and possibly even more school marmish mode, she summoned him to the Cannes G20 meeting to give him a dressing down. To his eternal shame Papandreou, with his side kick Venizelos, duly trotted off obediently to do the Mistress’ bidding,

After publicly denouncing this outrageous intention of calling for a referendum (of all things! Who gives a damn about what the people want?) she instructed the PM of Greece in no uncertain terms: That he was not allowed to ask his people whether they approved of the terms she had set, but if he insisted on holding a referendum he would hold it on the date she would set (and not the Greek Parliament) and the question would be what she said it would be.

And what was the question little Angela decided would be asked of the Greeks? Mind you, as she put it, one question and one question only.

DO YOU WANT TO STAY IN THE EURO?

Whoops! There goes that can of worms! The one she and…  what’s ‘is name? The one starring in a best seller Roman a Clef in France at the moment? Rocky something? Anyway, the can they had been kicking down the road. Well this one burst open and released all the worms all over the place. The strong woman of the EZ had just officially and roundly declared that the Euro is NOT irreversible, and it is NOT here to stay! (Mario Draghi, please note).

We can kick anyone out whenever we like, Greece today, Portugal tomorrow, perhaps even Spain further down the line! So there goes that myth. She shot the Euro straight out of the sky all by herself (no we don’t count Sarkozy. All he ever did was grin obsequiously and nod.)

Now her second act of sedition against the Euro was taken at the same time. The infamous PSI, Public Sector Involvement, a bad euphemism for Greece’s partial default. Little Angela was the one who had insisted that the private sector must also pay. Because she had no idea what this meant. Only in her strict disciplinarian Germanic way she decided “they must pay too!”

Now, apart from failing abysmally in its primary intent, in that all it did was worsen Greece’s overall position because all social security funds, universities, hospitals etc. who had been holding Greek bonds got well and truly screwed. And that was only for starters. And overall debt remained high. In fact, to use a Greek expression, all it achieved was a hole in the water.

But hang Greece! As far as anyone else is concerned Greece can just go to hell. The other message little Angela shouted to the markets with this little brainwave of hers was:

EURO SOVEREIGN DEBT IS DANGEROUS! DON’T BUY SOVEREIGN BONDS OF PERIPHERAL EURO STATES BECAUSE THEY RUN A HIGH RISK OF DEFAULT!

There now, how’s that for containing the crisis? Arguably it has contributed quite a lot to the rising spreads on interest for Spain and Italy (so far.)

But her worse disservice not only to the Euro but to the very idea of Europe is the pernicious can of worms she opened up through her vicious propaganda.

Since, she felt, she could not persuade the German voter to bail out their own banks, this disastrous scheme of laundering the money through insolvent states was cooked up in that innovative little brain. Only this then led to more propaganda. That of the profligate, lazy, good for nothing parasites of the south versus, the virtuous, hard working, long suffering Northerners who had to keep bailing them out.

This fired the flames of rancour and hate. The age old European prejudices and animosity that had receded over the years, sprang back into life with a vengeance. The northerners (who forgot they owed a large part of their economic success to the European market and the Euro) started feeling superior to and disdainful of those swarthy lazy parasites.

In their turn the southerners (this is particularly true of Greece but not exclusively) were jolted into remembering the atrocities of the German occupiers during the war. Angela was portrayed as the new Adolf (mustache and all) and the hate and animosity grew and grew. Not helped by numerous instances of German tourists in Greece who refuse to pay the bill at the taverna, saying, oh we’ve already paid you far too much! And such like.

Now, the Euro may be broken up or maybe saved. Greece may remain in the Euro and continue its downward death spiral, or it may not. But what The Frau has managed single handedly (ok, with little Wolfie’s help) to ensure, is that she has turned Europe into a steaming cauldron of mutual hate and recrimination which it will be virtually impossible to integrate further as needs to be done.

Federal elections are to be held in Germany next year. Campaigning on the populist plank has already begun. 70% of German opinion is all for throwing Greece out of the Euro. Rossler has already climbed on this “bash Greece to get votes” band wagon. And he is not the only one. Herr Fuchs of Angela’s own party has done so too, and no doubt many more will follow. Inevitably so.

No one cares about the Euro project! All they care about is getting elected to parliament. Besides, they are all cock sure by now that a Grexit will solve all their problems. And it may well. It may well solve Greece’s problems too. Or it may not. But in the long run, all this propaganda and mishandling of the so called European sovereign debt crisis has cancelled  European integration prospects.

How are we going to surrender our sovereignty, a) to those arrogant, overbearing, nazi style dynasts who want to destroy us? and b) to include those lazy, good for nothing, swarthy parasites who bring us down? I am afraid if there ever was a chance of cultivating a European identity, which would be the fundamental prerequisite for any kind of solid European Union, it has been completely ruined now.

And that, the destruction of Europe’s prospects as an integrated political entity is probably The Frau’s crowning achievement.