‘Europe is sleepwalking into a prolonged recession.’ This is how Larry Elliott in the Guardian opens his excellent article on the miserable little summit held by the Frau where she dictated her terms. Which were accepted by the 26, excluding Britain, possibly for the wrong reasons. In his excellent analysis he also goes on to say that whatever is being designed is to prevent the NEXT crisis and not the current one which is doomed to reach Depression proportions if the Frau continues getting her way and leading us up yet another ‘blind alley’ (Larry Elliott’s description again.)
Another very pertinent description of what is going in has been summed up succinctly and graphically by Josef Halevi, as passed on to us by Yanis Varoufakis. The Frau as the wily little village cafe owner manipulating everything to her advantage only without realising that here this is a classic case of ‘cutting off her nose to spite her face’
And a final thought. Could it be that Nikolas Sarkozy has not read his own country’s history at all? Did he never come across things like the Entente Cordiale ? Does it not even cross his mind that perhaps there should be a balance of power in Europe? What quaint and anachronistic notions for a United Europe you may think. But are they? Germany bullying power always had to be balanced, usually by Franco British cooperation of one kind or another.
Cameron may be blundering but Sarkozy’s rude gesture of brushing him aside and not even greeting him seems like another case of rabid bravado going terribly wrong. Besides, does he really think that his own country’s Economy should indeed be squeezed into the Frau’s strait jacket? Or is it that he just enjoys strutting around as an imitation of Le President de La Republique?
He who laughs last. Says the age old proverb. And we know it wont be Merkel. However, by the time she has got her come uppanace Europe may well be nearing the devastation her predecessor left it almost seventy years ago.
Unless France wakes up. Allons enfants de la patrie!