Under increasing fire ‘at home’, German chancellor Angela Merkel received more of the same when she addressed the European Parliament in Strasbourg earlier this week, and called for a “real true European Army”.
Yes, there was some applause, but the clapping of hands was peppered by boos and discernable shouts of “Rubbish!” in various languages.
State news agency Lusa writes that Portuguese MEPs reject the idea wholeheartedly.
Communist João Ferreira dubbed Merkel’s speech “worrying”, accusing her of wanting to control “absolutely everything” in Europe.
“Germany already controls almost everything”, he told Lusa. “What Mrs Merkel has done here is say “forget the ‘almost’ everything, we want to control absolutely everything, inclusively external political and military questions, with the constitution of a European army to defend the geostrategic interests of Germany…”
Marisa Matias for Bloco de Esquerda had slightly different reasons for her “total opposition”: “This is simply an excuse for boosting the armaments industry that feeds German and French exports”, she told Lusa.
Carlos Zorrinho, PS Socialist MEP said he was all for “deepening military cooperation” but the term “European Army” is not a happy one.
“The idea that a final idea could be a European army is excessive and not adequate”, he elaborated.
PSD ‘rivals’ seem to agree. Said Paulo Rangel, there is no need for a European army and Portugal “should not accept” one.
The CDS’ Nuno Melo was just as scathing, stressing the importance of NATO.
Thus Merkel will have no champions to her cause in Portugal, though her call was largely academic.
The long-time leader of Germany’s centre-right CDU party has announced what will effectively be her retirement from the political stage in 2021.
Meantime, her position as leader of the party is about to change. She has said she will not be seeking re-election next month.
Whether Merkel makes it to the end of her term as German chancellor is ‘the big question’. The country is riven, with both left-leaning and far right wing parties gaining traction.
The reason for Merkel’s fall from favour is strongly linked to anger in Germany over what many see as her catastrophic open doors policy which ‘welcomed’ over a million ‘illegal immigrants’ before she was forced to institute tighter border controls in order to save her fragile coalition government.
natasha.donn@algarveresident.com
