Judging by reports in many European countries, Germany is on the verge of collapse, despite its prosperity. Some believe that Germany’s leap into the abyss is dragging all of Europe down. One consolation for Berliners is that they feel “poor but sexy,” as one former mayor of the city put it. But even these certainties are shaken. On Sunday, the outgoing Financial Times correspondent in the German capital declared that Berlin is on a downward spiral. And that it becomes “rich, but boring”.

However, things are not that simple. Germany did not become the “steam engine of Europe” overnight. And it won’t collapse overnight. But to understand the present, it is worth reflecting on the past. At least the recent past.

Flashback to the 90s

Until Reunification in 1990, West Germany at the time was a sympathetic protectorate. Its financial power gave it soft power, but not the ability to create an autonomous policy. And in no case the right to outdo the great “political laboratories” of Europe, Great Britain and France.

But the partition was a whim of history that could not go on forever. With the “2+4” Treaty, which was essentially a late Peace Treaty, the Allies renounced their sovereign rights on German soil and after a few years the American elites began to demand more “leadership” from Berlin. Even “Democratic” presidents such as Bill Clinton raised the issue.

German “leadership” for Europe? Social Democratic Chancellor Gerhard Schröder was lucky enough to make it clear that “Germany will serve its own interests, just like any other country”, which probably did not please French President Jacques Chirac at the time. The international press saw “arrhythmias” in the Franco-German axis of the EU. Somehow the situation improved after a visit by Chirac to the idyllic Potsdam, but objections to Franco-German “arrhythmias” continued, not to say that they have not ceased to this day.

As much as the British Economist worried in the late 1990s that Germany is “the sick man of Europe”, who wants but cannot be the star, he was even more worried in 2013 because Germany is “The reluctant hegemon” who can, but does not want to take responsibility.

Europe’s introversion

The Americans know it well, the Germans are now inculcating it: A great power is criticized when it leads, but also when it does not. When he intervenes, but also when he remains inactive. It is certain that the government that will emerge from the February elections does not imagine Germany as a “big Switzerland” resting on its export performance and not meddling in political matters.

But the problem is not so much Germany’s reluctance to assume a leading role in Europe, as that Europe as a whole is eschewing its leading role and sinking into an ungrateful and dead-end introversion. Evidence: Almost none of the six founding member countries of the erstwhile EEC currently have a stable and strong government. The only exception is humble, but wealthy Luxembourg, where the Christian Democrat Luc Frieden completes a year as prime minister and no one has any intention of removing him.

Arguably, Luxembourg’s international displacement is greater than its size. That is why the country’s government recently even signed a cooperation agreement with the USA in the field of space technology (!). But let’s be honest: Europe needs stronger leadership if it really wants to meet the challenges of today.