July 18, 2011
Chancellor Angela Merkel's European policy consists of grudgingly putting out fires. Her conservative Christian Democrats, traditionally staunchly pro-European, are concerned about her apparent lack of a vision for the EU. 'She's destroying my Europe,' ex-Chancellor Helmut Kohl told one visitor recently.
He is 81 now, and has trouble speaking at times, but Helmut Kohl doesn't need many words to say what he thinks. He still receives guests and he likes to hear first-hand about European policy. Kohl is the only living Honorary Citizen of Europe, and he carries that title with pride. Recently, Horst Seehofer, the leader of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party to Kohl's Christian Democratic Union, dropped by for a cup of coffee. Jürgen Stark, the chief economist of the European Central Bank, has also looked in at Kohl's home in Oggersheim in south-western Germany. Kohl was particularly pleased that the former president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, found time to come for a chat.
Kohl is well-informed about what is going in Europe and his judgment is sharp, especially regarding Angela Merkel. Kohl believes his political legacy -- the euro and European unity -- is in danger, and he is not just blaming the policies of the Greeks and Portuguese, but Merkel as well. What the chancellor is doing is "very dangerous," Kohl recently complained, according to one visitor. Then Kohl added: "She's destroying my Europe."
Kohl reacted to the original, German version of this article by stating in an interview with Bild newspaper published on Monday that the comments ascribed to him were "totally fabricated." In the interview, he went on to say Merkel's predecessor, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, was partly to blame for the crisis because he had agreed to a softening of the Stability Pact on fiscal discipline in the euro zone, and had allowed Greece join the euro in the first place.
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