German Diplomacy Without Diplomats

Last Friday, the German parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of opening negotiations with Greece over a third bailout package. Once concluded, it will bring German guarantees for Greece to more than 100 billion euros. Rather than getting minimum credit for this, Germany’s image across Europe and beyond is deteriorating fast. Germany is seen as the harsh, heartless hegemon of the Eurozone, ready to bully small countries into submission if they refuse to swallow the bitter German medicine of budgetary discipline and painful reforms.

After the July 11 – 12 weekend summit in Brussels, criticism of Germany went viral. Público, a major center-left newspaper in Portugal, spoke of the ​“weekend in which the European idea died” at the hands of Germany through ​“mental waterboarding.” It also declared German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble ​“the greatest threat to Europe.” German Green party MEP Reinhard Bütikofer added that the ​“heartless, dictatorial and ugly Germany again has a face, and that is Schäuble.”

Regardless of whether one agrees with such extreme statements, the damage to Germany’s reputation is real – as is the need to better understand the sources of this public diplomacy disaster.

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To read the full piece, please visit Deutsche Welle.

The article is also available in German.