Germany Says "We Won’t Let Anyone Take Europe From Us"
By Tyler Durden
Yesterday we said that in the historic fallout and unprecedented confusion over Brexit, so far only one sure winner has emerged – namely Russia, where Vladimir Putin is watching the slow-motion collapse of this latest artifical aggregation of Europen states (a quick search of failed attempts at European integration results in tens of pages of results) with great interest and willingness to pounce at any opportunity – even as all of Europe is a loser, and nobody more so than Germany, whose chancellor Merkel is now watching her legacy go down in flames as first the UK, then France (National Front), Italy (Five Star Movement), Denmark (Danish People’s Party), and Holland (Freedom Party) have all called for either a EU referendum of their own or a renegotiation of their country’s EU membership.
As would be expected, the more worried and desperate Germany gets, the more ridiculous things Germany is apt to say. Case in point is what German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said earlier today, when he tried to reassure onlookers that the EU would weather the shock of the British vote to leave the union as he convened crisis talks.
Well, one small nuance: Steinmeier wasn’t focusing on the EU, he was far more concerned about Germany and how the one nation that has benefited more than anyone one else from the customers union and the common currency is struggling to keep up appearance that asll is well.
As Steinmeier was heading into a Berlin meeting with his counterparts from the EU’s six founding members, he said the following: “I am confident that these countries can also send a message that we won’t let anyone take Europe from us.”
Or else? Because while “us” was meant to refer to the EU, he really meant Germany.
Steinmeier called the European Union “a successful project of peace and stability” and said that there was a “strong desire” within the bloc to defend and strengthen it. It would appear that tens if not hundreds of millions no longer agree.
The damage control continued when he said that “it is absolutely clear that we are in a situation in which neither hysteria nor paralysis are permissible.” Indeed: which is why central banks, the G7 and the IMF all scrambled to prop up… the world’s markets.
“We must not rush headlong into hectic action, pretending we had all the answers. But we must also not fall into depression or inaction after the British decision.”
But didn’t you have all the answers when you said that a vote for Brexit would assure financial armageddon? Odd how that changed so fast.
As AFP reported earlier, Steinmeier’s French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault urged quick negotiations on Britain’s exit from the union, saying that the pressure would be “very strong” on British Prime Minister David Cameron at an EU summit on Tuesday to speed up the process.
Cameron, who on Friday announced his resignation by October in the wake of the referendum, said it should be his successor who leads the complex negotiations …read more
Source: Germany Says "We Won’t Let Anyone Take Europe From Us"
