BERLIN: The announcement of a British referendum on the proposed European Union Constitution has prompted threats from German politicians. In the face of a possible rejection of the Constitution by the British people leading representatives of German political parties are threatening consequences for London. Great Britain must either accept the Constitution as constituted largely by Berlin or get out! “A No to the Constitution means getting out of the European Union” claimed Klaus Haensch of the Social Democrat Party (Tony Blair’s blood brothers in Germany!).
The democratic principle being (unusually) followed by Tony Blair in Britain is something which German politicians have often considered but always rejected because the political elite did not wish to take the risk of damaging political power politics with the democratic voice of the German people. There is in fact no specific provision in the German Constitution for referenda, no more than there was in Britain before 1975. The British political class has at least decided, albeit opportunistically, to consult the sovereigns (the voters) occasionally. But their referenda have always involved the manipulation of public opinion by the State, the choice of simple Yes/No questions (rather than 1 or 2 or a or b) in which the answer the Government wants is the (psychologically easier) Yes. Vast sums of Government money have been directed against the people by the State which arrogantly claims that, regardless of what the people want “politicians know best”.
In Germany referenda ironically are associated with the fascist period when they were rightly seen as a tool of manipulation by the authoritarian state. Today opinion polls show considerable anti European feeling among Germans who can see no advantages (with stagnation and 5 million unemployed) in membership of the EU.
But the German political and above all the corporatist classes see a great danger in the possible challenge to their continental hegemony by any move to allow people in a major democracy like Britain to have their say about what happens to their sovereignty. Helmut Kohl of course always assumed that sovereignty lay with him. The people voted for the leader and then they did as they were told. This was the Hitlerian “FuehrerPrinzip” (Leader principle) and Kohl saw political power in similar terms “Might is right in politics and war”.
There is growing anti EU sentiment across Europe, especially in the 10 new member states. Vaclav Klaus the Czech President has warned his countrymen of the abolition of their country and his party the ODS is leading in opinion polls. In Poland the eurosceptic party Samoobrona (Self Defence, mainly farmers, third largest Party in 2001 elections, came from nowhere!) has 30% in the polls and threatens to leave the European Union. In Denmark the eurosceptic parties total 25% of the vote and even the Netherlands is turning eurosceptic.
In the light of this the countries holding a referendum on the proposed European Constitution – the UK, Denmark, Luxembourg and Ireland and many others, including even the French considering such a vote the German political elites are very worried. Even in Britain the eurofascists called Tony Blair’s decision to have a vote “very dangerous”. Indeed – for such people democracy is dangerous. The German political class has been working for some time on plans to counter the consequences of a rejection of Berlin’s “Constitution” for Europe.
The German think tank SWP (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik) warns that “a uncoordinated holding of referenda could lead to some States” not ratifying the Constitution (yes – that’s democracy!). Note how for the euro-fascists democratic expressions like referenda have to be carefully “coordinated”. In the past this has been achieved in various ways (see above) including holding referenda in the more pro EU countries first and then pressuring the more eurosceptic nations that they “will be left behind”.
The SWP think tank proposed in November 2003 that “States whose citizens reject the constitution should be expelled from the EU and must negotiate a “special member status”. Hans Gert Poettering (Christian Democrat) the Chairman of the EPP faction in the European Parliament in which the Tory Party is a member, demanded a new paragraph in the Constitution that those countries which did not ratify the constitution should be expelled. Klaus Haensch (SPD) warned that if Britain rejected the constitution a “reduction in the size of the EU” was “not impossible”.
In this context the potential purchase by the German Axel Springer Group of the Telegraph titles in Britain would be a political scandal of the first order – although it would be entirely in line with the past takeover by German companies of major newspapers, radio and TV stations in Eastern Europe as a means of promoting the absorption of those countries into the European Union.
