Europe – and Germany – are stable and strong
The European Parliament elections this month show growing support for far-right political parties, including in Germany, and the mass media have seized on that – predictably. However, the larger and far more important result is confirmation of the overall stability of European politics today.
The middle-of-the road parties remain strongest overall. The major point of European Union (EU) institutions is to restrain extremist movements, and potentially extremist nations, in a web of economic, political and legal agreements that provide increasingly powerful incentives to compromise and cooperate.
The European Parliament is the legislative, popular representative body of the European Union, comprising 720 seats. Parties on the political right elected an estimated total of 157 members (Associated Press).
Understandably, given history, Germany is a special focus of attention.
In the results, Germany’s extreme right AfD (Alternative for Germany) in fact gained significant ground, with 16 percent of the vote. This placed the party second in Germany’s results, behind only the conservative CDU/CSU (Christian Democratic and Christian Social Union).
This is a major achievement. AfD won the majority in all five of the states that formerly comprised East Germany (the German Democratic Republic).
At the same time, the AfD was thrown out of the Identity Group (ID Group), established in 2019 as a European coalition of parties on the far right of the political spectrum. This followed remarks by Maximilian Krah, leader of AfD candidates for the European Parliament, that not all members of the notorious Nazi SS were criminals. In consequence, Krah was replaced as head of the party delegation to the parliament.
President Ursula van der Leyen of the European Commission, the executive of the EU, described the election results as a victory for moderate politics. The centrist European People’s Party (EPP), which won 190 seats, the most for any one group, can serve in her words as “an anchor of stability.”
She also called for vigilance against extremism.
Lost in all the alarm about the political right is the fundamentally important role Germany today plays in the overall economic stability of Europe.
European summits and discourse have been defined in part by German insistence on economic discipline. Germany is by far the largest and strongest economy on the European continent. Long-term Chancellor Angela Merkel proved to be adept at deflecting Germans angry about underwriting the debts of other Europeans, while simultaneously pressing shaky EU partners to strengthen their national balance sheets.
Financial services remain a realm where the United States, and the United Kingdom, are strong. Predictions that Frankfurt would supplant London, and perhaps eventually New York, have not been realized though Brexit (leaving the EU) is hurting Britain.
Given the interconnectedness and integration of the global financial system, financial failures of Greece or other debt-burdened EU member nations could result in another slump, perhaps even a major world crisis. Events in Europe could duplicate those in the United States of 2007-8, when initially apparently contained negative commercial developments led to more general meltdown, through quick contagion.
These challenges reinforce the role of Germany, where Chancellors Angela Merkel and now Olaf Scholz have proven effective in juggling contentious interests at home, including the strong nationalist currents, while building coalitions among the broad diverse membership of the EU.
The European Union including the predecessor organizations began soon after the Second World War. Tangible economic integration perceptively was regarded as an instrument for encouraging political stability and peace.
In consequence, no single nation dominates Europe today.
Arthur I. Cyr the author of “After the Cold War – American Foreign Policy, Europe and Asia” (Macmillan and NYU Press). Contact acyr@carthage.edu.