German Establishment Hysterical About Anti-Euro Ferment

May 16, 2010 (LPAC)—The main story in Germany's leading mass-tabloid Bildzeitung on Saturday, deals with the question of whether the deutschmark has to return—which the tabloid spends quite some space to counter, with assurances that there is no alternative to the euro, that the d-mark would be the ruin of Germany and its economy, etc. This matches with an absolutely hysterical statement by Chancellor Angela Merkel Thursday night, May 13, saying that Europe was faced with its greatest existential crisis since the threat once posed by communism, that the euro was without any alternative—it simply has to survive no matter what the cost. Merkel also declared full support for ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet, who returned the favor when praising the German government for its "debt brake" policy and called on the rest of Europe to follow the German example and go for a "quantum leap" in fiscal consolidation and EU integration.

Related are also remarks by German President Horst Koehler, when he officially introduced the new president of the Constitutional Court Andreas Vosskuhle, at a ceremony in Karlsruhe May 14: Koehler went out of his way to denounce the fact that politicians and others who failed in blocking the integration of Europe (i.e., the euro), are taking their case to the Court, which Koehler said was a road to paralysis. Although he did not name names, it was generally read as an attack on the five anti-euro plaintiffs. Koehler then also defended the ECB's super-bailout as wise and necessary, and without any alternative. A rather blatant attempt to arm-twist the new court President Vosskuhle into ruling against the plaintiffs.