Pascal Décailletjournalist, entrepreneur and regular on TV Léman Bleu. This article was published in TAKE NOTE November 13, 2024
Leading economic power in Europe, fourth in the world. Germany, reduced to ashes by the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), having vegetated until the great king of Prussia Frederick II (1740-1786), then patiently built an exceptional industrial power, thanks to coal, steelmaking, metallurgy, is the country which has continued to progress in Europe since the second part of the eighteenth century. Totally destroyed again in 1945? Yes, but immediately ready to rebuild! It did so, in the East and in the West, in record time. The energies were already there. They were the same, you understand? The same! The Allies destroyed German cities, not German morale.
Germany today is showing signs of fatigue. They are fleeting, but very real. Decline in industrial productivity, collapse of the automobile industry, starting with its flagship, Volkswagen, symbol of German vitality since the 1930s. But also, political crisis, with the failure of the coalition “Traffic light» (red, green, orange), this odds and ends including parties that are too different, just allied to try to stop the rise of the AfD. Inability of Olaf Scholz, Social Democratic Chancellor, this great party which had been that of Willy Brandt, to assert itself. An incompetent, ideologue Minister of Foreign Affairs, in reality a vassal of the Americans in the Ukrainian affair. In short, a difficult time. But don’t worry: Germany will recover. Getting up, she has done nothing but this, her entire existence, since at least 1648: “Risen from ruins and facing the future“, first words of the DDR anthem, “Risen from the ruins, and looking to the future“, these seven words summarize the entire continuity of German destiny. To die, to be reborn.
We Swiss would do well to take a very close interest in Germany. It is our first economic and commercial partner, continuing this since the 19th century, all regimes combined, and I mean all. It has a decentralized political structure, very close to ours, while our French friends are in another galaxy, Jacobin and authoritarian. It will play an absolutely crucial role in the Europe in the making. Economically, strategically, culturally, it will become more important as the country that counts in Europe. No one in Switzerland has any interest in Germany’s economic decline. Germany is our neighbor. Germany is us.
