“What a miracle if there is one who has flooded the many night constellations in our honor! And if everything settled itself by itself, then, my friend, is even more wonderful! ” - wrote the poet Alexander Kushner somewhere in the 70s. So far, only Elena Malysheva has guessed out loud to call the coronavirus “miracle miraculous,” but many, very many would secretly join her.
A pandemic, like any crisis, opens a window of opportunity. Allows you to quickly and efficiently cut Gordian knots, which were previously considered to be tied forever. Who would have thought it would be so easy to lower the barriers at the borders that seemed open forever? Who would have guessed that the “Europe of sovereign states,” which only the evil Eurosceptic opposition could dream of, would come true so quickly? Nevertheless, here it is: the countries fenced off each other and each fight for himself in the deathly silence of Brussels.
Now the process is clearly overflowing. And now Germany raises its voice against what once seemed unshakable - the deployment of American nuclear weapons in Germany. And "against the tide" did not go "Alternative for Germany", but the whole leader of the Social Democrats in the Bundestag. Mr. Rolf Mutzenich stated the need to withdraw American warheads in an interview with Der Tagesspiegel just when the German parliament was actively discussing the purchase from the United States of multi-purpose F-18 fighters carrying nuclear weapons. Mutzenich explained his statement by saying that in the hands of Donald Trump the atom ceases to be peaceful: it is no longer a means of deterrence, but a potential weapon of war, and no one wants war in Germany.
The leader of the SPD, Norbert Walter-Boryans, has already supported his colleague: "I represent a clear position against the deployment of American weapons in our country, against violence and, of course, against the use of nuclear weapons." Let me remind you that the SPD is the second largest party in parliament. More importantly, without her participation in the last election, Merkel simply could not have formed a government. The Social Democrats entered into a forced alliance with the Christian Democrats, and this alliance is cracking at the seams as soon as any significant issue appears on the agenda.
Christian Democrats have always been pro-American forces, albeit with reservations, albeit with the utterance of all the necessary words about the “terrible Russian agent Donald” and “the threat to American democracy,” but they accepted the pitch from across the ocean. The problem is that the party is drowning, ratings are falling, in the last election, Angel squeezed into the chancellor's chair with a bang, at the limit of possibilities. That is why the SPD did not want an alliance with the lame duck - they understood that they would have a much higher chance of winning the next election if they went into the opposition and oppose everything that Merkel’s party will do, because it certainly won’t do anything good . The Social Democrats were forced into a union, but now there is a historical chance to overcome the gravity of this union. Jump out of it, and possibly jump out the winner.
The German press is already vying to write that the decision to expel American missiles would mean a global review of Pax Americana and possibly the beginning of the end of NATO.
Should she be believed? It’s a great temptation to say “yes,” but my instincts personally say that this time there will be no global upheaval: America has too many levers to force Germany, who imagined it to be himself, to know that Germany.
Nevertheless, what is happening is very important, although now it all seems small in the scale of the movements that we are experiencing a global cataclysm. Ripples on the water. But this ripple hides other, powerful deep currents. And if it’s very coarse, the question that really worries German politicians is: where will Germany be if the redivision of the world under the guise of a coronavirus enters a new, hot phase? Will it be an American outpost or is it still the main force of an already independent Europe? Will the very multipolar world happen that the Russians have been calling for so long even when no coronaviruses were visible even through a telescope?
And if the time when these questions must be answered definitely has not yet arrived, then it will come very soon, and that same multipolarity will one day take shape, and from what motives, whether as a result of a pandemic or pure anti-war emotion or as a result of political games of opposing parties - never mind. “And if everything settled itself by itself, then, my friend, is even more wonderful!”
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.