When Wolfgang Schäuble proposed that Greece should postpone its elections as a condition for further help, I knew that the game would soon be up. We are at the point where success is no longer compatible with democracy. The German finance minister wants to prevent a “wrong” democratic choice. Similar to this is the suggestion to let the elections go ahead, but to have a grand coalition irrespective of the outcome. The eurozone wants to impose its choice of government on Greece – the eurozone’s first colony.
...These demands fail Immanuel Kant’s “categorical imperative” – Germany does not will them to be universally adopted. Nor could they be adopted in Germany – they would be unconstitutional. Only recently the German constitutional court ruled that parliament’s sovereignty was absolute, that parliament must not permanently transfer sovereignty to outside institutions and that one parliament must never constrain the freedoms of its successor. The proposals violate the principles of Germany’s own constitution. In short, they are unethical.
Schäuble likes to play fast and loose whenever he thinks that he's found some higher good than the Grundgesetz. The Grundgesetz? Yes, the one he swore an oath on when he took office.
Posted by: doppelfish | February 22, 2012 at 07:39 PM
Reading FT articles on Europe is about as useful as reading the Tehran Times on Israel. Don't you have better things to do, Andrew?
The easiest way to keep ECB and IMF out is not to demand even more money from them and default. I wish I was as sovereign as the Greek people alas if I simply refused to pay my debts they'd send the cops and take what's valuable.
I leave it to the reader to construct some witty closing remark involving the categorical imperative as well as the Financial Times and/or Greek economic policy.
Posted by: Max | February 22, 2012 at 01:15 PM
I never took Schäuble as a textbook democrat
Posted by: Dubuc | February 22, 2012 at 07:32 AM