He was the super stingy par excellence, the genuine inspiration of the troika, the feared men in black who, as a result of the economic-financial crisis of 2008, were sent by the European Union to rein in the finances of the rescued countries (Portugal, Greece, Ireland) at the cost of imposing terrible sacrifices on the population and lasting damage to their economies. Greece, in particular, will never forget his name: Wolfgang Schäuble. The then powerful German Finance Minister applied a violent austerity cure to Europe from which it took years to recover. To Greece, more than any other. And, if it had not been for France's rejection – and the unconditional surrender of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who swallowed everything – he would have expelled Athens from the euro.
An orthodox liberal with an intransigent Protestant morality, Schäuble was the father of the dogma of zero deficit (Schwarze null, or black zero) and of the constitutional limitation on public debt in Germany, which has slowed down investment so much – the infrastructure is falling apart – and the growth of the economy of this country. In German, not just because, debt and guilt have the same word: schuld.
Wolfgang Schäuble died on December 26 – the feast of Saint Stephen, patron saint of carpenters (his grandfather's trade) –, the same day that one of the great totems of Europe, the Frenchman Jacques Delors, architect of the EU, disappeared. that we know today, which he laid the foundations for as president of the European Commission between 1985 and 1995. One might think that they were two opposite personalities. And yet, they had a lot in common. Behind the man in black, Schäuble also hid a fervent Europeanist.
Born in 1942 in Freiburg im Breisgau, on the banks of the Rhine – and, consequently, of France –, Schäuble was bilingual and always expressed a solid attachment to Franco-German friendship, the hard core of the Europe he dreamed of. Regarding the future of the EU, he always went much further than his party, the Christian Democrats CDU, let alone his chancellor, Angela Merkel. In the mid-nineties, Schäuble was already advocating – as French President Emmanuel Macron would do years later – to strengthen a hard core, around Germany and France, to deepen European integration and achieve a true “political union.” . A demand that after the 2020 covid pandemic he considered non-extendable.
The German politician defended reforming the treaties so that the European Parliament would have the capacity to initiate legislation – which it now lacks – and that the Commission would become a true European Government, leaving the Council – made up of the prime ministers and heads of state of the member countries – as a second chamber, a kind of Senate. Schäuble even made very daring proposals, such as that Europeans could vote directly for the president of the EU... something that, just thinking about it, must have made the hairs on the back of European leaders stand on end (happily accommodated to an intergovernmental dynamic that guarantees them ultimate control). It does not require much imagination to intuit the revolution that changes of such caliber would entail. Schäuble's legacy was not limited to austerity.
Architect of the reunification of Germany – he was in charge of negotiations with the East – and fleeting president of the CDU – sacrificed by the scandal of the party's irregular financing – Wolfgang Schäuble could have been chancellor of Germany. He was the favorite, the one suspected, to succeed Helmut Kohl, who was finally replaced by a then unknown leader from the defunct GDR, Angela Merkel, whose Europeanism would be built pragmatically through crisis. Who knows how far Europe could have advanced under Schäuble. His vision and his ambition, in any case, are more compelling today than ever.
Europe is facing a crucial moment. Embarked on a long and complex enlargement process, which could end up bringing together 30 or even 36 countries, the current EU is an economic and demographic power, but it is a secondary actor from a geopolitical and strategic point of view. And, if nothing changes, it risks ending up in absolute insignificance. It is not only about reforming its governance, which is essential on the other hand – it is imperative to eliminate the principle of unanimity, which restricts decisions on foreign policy, and reinforce the role of Parliament – but also about making a qualitative leap in political union. and economical.
The response to the Covid crisis and the war in Ukraine went beyond the narrow channels initially set for Brussels – which went from regulating to acting as an executive arm – and showed the path along which progress can be made. The former Italian Prime Minister and former President of the European Central Bank (ECB) Mario Draghi, to whom the Italian press attributes European ambitions, has put it bluntly: “Europe must become a State.”
A priori, the clocks seem to show the same time today in Berlin and Paris. The coalition agreement that brought the social democrat Olaf Scholz to the Chancellery a little more than two years ago explicitly supported a “European federal state” and in the speech that the chancellor gave in August 2022 at the University of Prague he came closer – five years later – to many of the postulates defended by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in his historic speech in September 2017 at the Sorbonne, with which he established himself as the leader of the continent's pro-Europeans.
However, this tune does not come at the best time. Both Scholz and Macron, at the head of unstable governments, face serious internal political problems, which offers a weak basis for depending on what adventures. Beyond Germany and France, the whole of Europe faces a crucial appointment next June with the polls: the foreseeable rise of extreme right forces – sovereigntists and Eurosceptics – in the elections to the European Parliament could tilt the current majorities and cast a polar cold on this uncertain spring.
