The German foreign Minister on an EU propaganda Tour:

Intolerable Interference in Ireland's Internal Affairs

by Dr Joachim Hoefele and Dr. Peter Kupfer, Zurich

Joseph Fischer, the German foreign minister (Green Party), gave a talk on April 30, 2001 at the Institute for European Affairs in Dublin. By giving this speech, Fischer interfered in an especially arrogant and impermissible way in the internal affairs of Ireland, in particular in the upcoming Irish vote on the European Union on June 9, 2001. No one, least of all Fisher and his political colleague Schroeder, with their strange vision of a European super-state, needs to lecture the Irish on the best way to Brussels. This is a Europe in which Germany wields the scepter like an iron rod on the backs of smaller nations. One British MP compared, and not without some justification, Schroeder's European plans with those of his Nazi predecessors.

In his speech, Fischer praised the growth in the Irish economy. Fischer, the man they used to call the 'the MP in sneakers' and someone who was a fellow traveler of the left-wing extremists of the '70s attempted to persuade the Irishmen who came to hear him speak that Ireland had only transformed itself from a backward agricultural county into a fully industrialized 'modern, knowledge based society' because of its membership in the EU. 'Welcome to the Club,' this German tried to tell the Irish.

This sort of backslapping condescension is suspicious. If one takes the time to read Fischer's speech carefully, one is struck by its empty rhetoric and heavy-handed demagoguery. Both function according to the same recipe: The 'big brother' compliments his little sibling, so that he will continue to behave himself. He flatters him ('Ireland's voice is especially important in Brussels') and promises him the stars from the sky: After the Irish vote Yes on the upcoming Nice referendum and, as a result, on the extension of the EU eastward, the 100 million strong market in the lands to the east will immediately translate itself into big bucks for the Irish. Any misgivings on the part of Euro-critics, defenders of democracy or defenders of national sovereignty are swept aside with a wave of the hand.

'Shared Sovereignty' is how Fischer describes the lot of EU members. In reality their sovereignty falls by the wayside on the way to Nice. Hegemonists like Fisher and Schroeder want power, and the proponents of democracy in other countries are just going to have to live with it. But we say, 'Not so fast, Herr Fischer.'

A partner proves himself not by words but by deeds. And the actions of the Euro-hegemonists betray their real intentions - those of Greater Europe, which stretches from Ireland to the Urals, an empire which takes its marching orders from them, and one that doesn't correspond to our understanding of a genuine partnership between sovereign states with the same rights.

Fischer's hollow and manipulative rhetoric is far removed from reality. Among other things, Fischer stated in his speech, 'The impressive rise of Ireland from an agrarian society to a modern, knowledge-based society is a success story for EU development policies.'

'When Microsoft in the US coughs, Ireland gets the flu'

Thirty years ago, the relationship between agricultural and industrial production was 80% to 20%. Today, it is the exact opposite: 20 % percent agricultural production as opposed to 80 % industrial production. After joining the EU, Ireland was imply robbed of any healthy basis for agricultural self-sufficiency, and now it is dependent on the resources of other countries. The economic boom which Ireland has experienced over the past few years was based above all else on the investment of foreign capital and not on a healthy growth in the local economy. In this regard, Ireland is more dependent than ever on foreign powers. The Irish are no longer masters in their own house, neither economically nor politically. Recently one courageous Irish patriot formulated the situation there in the following way: 'When Microsoft in the United States coughs, Ireland gets the flu.' As soon as transnational, global capital gets caught in a crisis, Ireland goes down the drain.

Nice treaty brings loss

What kind of cynicism is it then, when Fischer talks about this as 'an agrarian nation's escape from backwardness,' or when he says that 'the success of Ireland has become a role model for the new candidates' from the East. Is this the model whereby the nations which are now applying for EU membership are to be brought under the political yoke of the EU? Are these the blessings which Ireland is supposed to share with them by saying 'yes' to Nice?

'Ireland,' Fischer continued, 'moved from its geographical and economically marginal position into the political mainstream of European activity by joining the EU. Ireland's voice has special force, therefore, when it comes to the extension of the EU to the East.'

It would be more accurate to say that Ireland, like many other small countries in the EU, has lost whatever influence it had to the larger countries in the European council because of the Nice treaty. Ireland's representation dropped in the European parliament. Fischer, in other words, is lying when he maintains that Ireland's vote is especially influential. This treaty insures the opposite outcome; it makes sure that the big countries in the EU have as many votes as is necessary to overrule the small countries.

'What must be decided on the European level,' Fischer then asks. 'What must be decided by the nation states? No one wants to abolish the nation state in Europe. No one wants to erect a superstate in its place. In decisions that need to be decided and executed on a European basis, Europe must be able to act with complete freedom, and the only way that I can see that as possible is through shared sovereignty and complete parliamentarization.'

Disempowerment of national parliaments

Shared sovereignty, however, is no sovereignty, Herr Fischer! If a country is sovereign, then it decides all of its important issues by itself. What Fischer has in mind and what Nice threatens to bring about is the complete disempowerment of national parliaments in favor of a supranational European executive committee, in which the big guys have the final say.

Fischer speaks in typically hypocritical fashion when he says that the 'democracy deficit in the EU' must be overcome. The fact remains though that Europe, even more so since Nice, is not only suffering from a 'democracy deficit'. The EU is at the present moment a political constellation with no democratic legitimacy because it lacks the basic principles of a really democratic constitutional state. The EU knows neither separation of powers nor a constitution which has been ratified by the majority of its citizens. The people of Europe have an attachment to their nations but not to the artificial creation known as the EU. In both Brussels and Strasbourg, rule is exercised by a caste of Eurocrats that has a distant to non-existent relationship to the member nations' citizens. In addition to that, there is the complete lack of accountability involved in other structures of power which the EU has arrogated to itself in the meantime, namely, an EU currency (something which renders national banks economically meaningless), a charter of basic rights (which ignores basic human rights), and a military arm (the European deployment force). In plain language that means that the European totalitarian system has rendered the European nation states both impotent and meaningless.

The high point of demagoguery

What does Fischer say to this? He mendaciously promises the Irish and other citizens of other European countries more negotiating possibilities in the EU, which is dishonest manipulation.

Fischer's demagoguery reaches its high point when he asserts: 'This time we're talking about the reunification of the continent which was torn apart by Hitler and Stalin. The extension of the EU eastward is a task which recommends itself both historically and morally.'

Marxists, even when they get all dressed up, still talk out of both sides of their mouths. They still think of themselves as the people who are going to fulfill some great historical necessity. This was the case with Stalin, and it was the case with Hitler too. Now this German Marxist is telling the Irish that it is their historical obligation to bind up the wounds of World War II by saying yes to Nice. In other words, anyone who doesn't say yes and amen to the Nice referendum is responsible for the terrible consequences which flowed from the crimes of Hitler and Stalin. No thanks, Herr Fischer. This kind of demagoguery is too hard to swallow. This small, peace-loving country does not bear the guilt flowing from the numerous catastrophes of recent history. It was political leaders of your sort that dragged mankind down into that catastrophe, leaders who had a weakness for megalomania and totalitarianism.

Nice means dictatorship

'The integration of Europe,' according to Fischer, 'has brought about a period of peace and prosperity unique in history. For Germany it was the high road out of the Second World War; for Ireland it was the way out of the backwardness of an agricultural nation. One cannot not get much more cynical than this. The European integration according to Brussels has brought about peace. During the war in Kosovo, troops were deployed unconstitutionally under the aegis of NATO the aggressor. The Nice accord will take this practice, which all peace-loving people should find abhorrent, and give it the force of law. Those who say yes to Nice are saying yes to the creation of a rapid deployment force which will resist any democratic attempts to stop it. Is it wise for the till now neutral Irish and other citizens of Europe to want to sacrifice their lives in some war zone somewhere in the world in interests not their own?

A land like Ireland, whose culture has bequeathed so many significant achievements to Europe, does not need to be called 'backward' by the German foreign minister. This just shows the boundless arrogance this salon Marxist feels toward an independent farming community. Irish farmers are neither backward nor of limited intelligence. It is arrogant people like Joschka Fischer who are trying to destroy the European farming class as the pillar of middle-class life and thereby turn Europe into a vassal of Euro-American a agribusiness. Isn't this the same move Stalin tried to make when he attempted to liquidate the Kulaks? It has been the strategy of Marxists from time immemorial to destroy the middle class in order to then erect in its place a gigantic international planned economy with all of the centralization of power that goes with that.

It's time to just say no to this vision of Europe.'