German foreign minister outlines European strategy
By
Johannes Stern
31 March 2017
Anyone seeking clarification about the reactionary program behind the so-called “election campaign” of Social Democratic Party chancellor candidate Martin Schulz and a possible “red-red-green” (SPD-Left Party-Green Party) federal government in Germany should read Sigmar Gabriel’s contribution on the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome in the Rheinische Post .
Under the title “Fighting for a Stronger Europe,” the Social Democratic foreign minister and former SPD chief pleads for the rearmament of the continent both at home and abroad, for a strengthening of “Fortress Europe” and a continuation of austerity policies.
In the area of foreign and security policy, it is time “to say goodbye to the idea that we are not responsible for our own security in Europe. The sentence is correct: Europe finally has to grow up,” Gabriel writes. The partnership with the US and NATO are “cornerstones of the transatlantic community,” he says, but the European Union must be “able to cope with crises and conflicts in its own neighbourhood. The first steps have been taken, others have to follow.”
Gabriel is well aware that a more independent and aggressive European military policy under German leadership also requires the internal militarization of the continent. Europe needs to “improve its internal security,” he says. In order to justify the setting up of a pan-European police force he cynically raises the alleged “struggle against terrorism”: “Here, we can and must be better, through better cooperation and more exchange. The people of Europe should not be afraid. Whether it is in Brussels, Paris, Berlin or elsewhere—freedom and security go hand in hand.”
The fact…