2011-01-10

Americans have the Tea Party, Germans have the Mark Party?

Opposition to the Euro Grows in Germany
For the time being, no political party has focused on the currency concerns. In reaction to the crisis, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, who is also a member of the CDU, has urged closer cooperation in European politics -- which is precisely the opposite of what many people want. The center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), which stylizes itself as the party of the common man, is a strong proponent of euro bonds -- joint European government bonds that critics say would place the burden primarily on German taxpayers.

By contrast, the conservative Christian Social Union, the CDU's Bavarian sister party, can't make up its mind as to which of two party members it should take inspiration from: Theo Waigel, who paved the way for the euro when he was Germany's finance minister, or Peter Gauweiler, who has challenged its constitutionality in court.

Pollsters like Matthias Jung from Forschungsgruppe Wahlen say that they can imagine the formation of a protest movement coalescing around euro-related fears. "The government has to prove that the bailouts for Greece and Ireland serve our own needs in Germany," says Jung. "If the billions in aid are not convincingly justified, it will lead to a legitimation crisis."
This may surprise some folks as well: despite the weak euro benefiting German exports around the work, German industry says they did fine under the regime of the strong deutschemark.
Another opponent of the European currency in its current form is Hans-Olaf Henkel, who was for many years the head of Germany's leading employers' association, the Federation of German Industries (BDI). "The statement that German industry benefits enormously from the euro is like the Ten Commandments in Germany," he says. "But Germany was also the world's second biggest exporter in the days of the deutsche mark. The proportion of euro-zone countries purchasing our exports has even dwindled since the currency's introduction."

Henkel is in a hurry. Just in time for the euro crisis, the one-time enthusiastic supporter of the common currency has now written an anti-euro book titled "Rettet unser Geld!" ("Save Our Money!"). Controversial German author Thilo Sarrazin wrote the dust-jacket text. Just as the former Bundesbank board member Sarrazin has capitalized on the immigration debate in Germany, Henkel wants to take advantage of the underlying mood among the population. In fact, after giving a reading in a Hamburg bookstore, listeners asked him why he didn't run for office in the city government. Following a one-hour flight, he makes an appearance in Frankfurt, before participating in a talk show on German television.

Henkel has a mission: He wants to divide the euro. All of the "olive countries" -- as Henkel dubs the Greeks, the Italians and the French -- should pay in southern euros in the future, he says. The north -- in other words, primarily Germany -- would pay with the northern euro.
The DM is a political issue waiting to take shape and a decline in the social mood is just the type of force that could bring it to fruition.

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