Frau Angela Merkel's obdurate nein, nein, nein has its genesis in both personal and regional history.
The daughter of a Lutheran pastor with all the rigidity and determination that upbringing inculcated into her persona, she is also a product of a formation vastly different from those of her West European brethren, be they in Greece, Spain, France or Italy. Her youth was formed by a culture that may have lacked the freedom of expression and cultural expanse of her European brethren, but was strengthened by a sense of communal sharing and communal goals. People worked together for the common good, and the excesses of lifestyle and consumption barely ever played a role in that there was neither excess of material goods nor personal expression. Yet there was a sense of shared solidarity, of pulling together to get the job done and helping each other. It became the core of their being, and achievement rested with the group's success, at the factory, in the office, or in the field. Yes, there was the Stasi and their restraint of personal freedoms. In compensation, it was a society that shared its pain and pleasures with few material comforts but with a sense human accountability and humble pride.
The temptations, the freedom of expression brought forth by reunification, were heady yet augured in a painful transition. Where there had been a level of security and personal satisfaction, the new freedoms and material temptations imbued restlessness and self-questioning few were equipped to deal with. They were impoverished by West German standards and powerless in their inability to understand or function in a system that left them to their own devices and for which they were grievously unprepared.
Yet they worked unflinchingly, as hard as they could with their 'group' to restore a sense of accomplishment and self respect. And the difficulties were enormous. Their spartan lives contrasted sharply with the prosperity of West Germany, a prosperity that permitted the transfer and infusion of hundred of billions of Deutsch Marks toward rebuilding East Germany and integrating it into the newly unified nation. It was a selfless undertaking but, as with so many well meaning endeavors, it had a major flaw. It lacked an intrinsic understanding of East German culture and formation, that of hard work, commitment and community, yet totally unschooled in the roughhouse give and take of a then modern economy. East German institutions were too often swept aside or became adjuncts of West German enterprise.
And yet, as the years went on and East Germans were integrated into the "Gesamt" (combined) German culture, they began to adapt -- often becoming entrepreneurial and changing the landscape from an economic charter house to a mighty contributor to Germany's economic rise and importance.
In turn, many of the attributes of East German formation, communal responsibility, teamwork, measured consumption, and abhorrence to fiscal irresponsibility began to take root throughout the landscape of the unified Germany. What had once been a patronizing relationship, West over East, turned into one of mutual respect and the dynamic partnership that has turned Germany into the economic engine of Europe.
The merging of the two societies and their contemporary history has now been fully celebrated and validated with the emergence of Frau Angela Merkel, East German born and raised, as Chancellor and Joachim Gauck, erstwhile pastor, East German born and raised, as Bundesprasident of the Bundesrepublik Deutschland.
To this new East-Germanized Germany, the excesses of Europe's fiscal irresponsibility and staggering debt are anathema. It is to them the height of irresponsibility and counter to their very formation barely a generation ago. Add to this the "specter of the financialization of the economy which has enriched one small segment of society at the expense of everyone else" (please see Joe Nocera, "Turning Our Backs On Unions" New York Times, 06.05.12) to get a sense how in measure it applies to us, applicable far too broadly to a Europe unhinged to fiscal restraint, and thereby unacceptable to current German formation, thinking and action.
And for good reason!
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Greeks could help THEIR fellow countrymen by paying their taxes...
Yeah uhm no. East germany is vastly irrelevant when it comes to our industry.
Good try.
1. YES to ACCOUNTABILITY and SELF-RESPONSIBILITY: Sovereign nations have to face and solve the problems they created own their own.
2. YES to FISCAL SANITY: When the Euro was implemented, Greece and other southern countries suddenly were able to borrow money at low interests rates. They borrowed and borrowed and borrowed, therby astronomically increasing their debts. Installing Eurobonds and decreasing the interests rates all over the Eurozone wouldn't solve the problem, it would worsen it: Once again, the Southerners were able to get cheap money and spend what they don't have.
3. YES to DEMOCRACY and the RULE OF LAW: European treaty law states plain and simple that every country has to pay it's debts on their own. Law has to be respected. I'm citing article 125 of Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union: "The Union shall not be liable for or assume the commitments of central governments, regional, local or other public authorities, other bodies governed by public law, or public undertakings of any Member State, without prejudice to mutual financial guarantees for the joint execution of a specific project. A Member State shall not be liable for or assume the commitments of central governments, regional, local or other public authorities, other bodies governed by public law, or public undertakings of another Member State, without prejudice to mutual financial guarantees for the joint execution of a specific project."
a) this vastly overestimates the role and power of the Chancellor in German polity and politics. She does not wield even nearly the power of presidents like in the US or France, on the contrary. First, she heads a coalition of three parties with different agendas. Secondly, a Chancellor can determine the general direction of the government but each minister in her cabinet has the (constitutionally granted) power and responsibility over the details in his ministry/ area of responsibility. So, she cannot in detail rule where and what the FinMin has to spend or in detail order how the army is run. Some ministers, namely FinMin, Defense and Interior actually have additional constitutional tasks. For example, other than in the US, it's the Minister of Defense who is Commander in Chief.
b) Then there is the "Upper House" (Bundesrat) which is the representation of the states' governments (which are usually coalition governments, too). And she has no majority there. Not only the parliament (Bundestag) but also the Bundesrat can take federal lawmaking initiatives. And the Bundesrat has a say in all federal legislation that effects the states (unless it's one of the few fields where the Bundestag has exclusive power).
c) Germany has a strong parliamentarism. So it's not clear that she can get the votes necessary to pass measures in parliament.