The New Social Question Is: Democracy Or

Taming The Financial Markets And Winning Back Democratic Control Over Them Is The Central Condition For Creating A New Social Balance In Germany And Europe.

The Task For Germany Today Is - Through Its Own Policies And Its Own Structural Reforms, Its Own Investments - To Support The Eu And The Commission... But Every Nation Has To Have The Courage To Broach Such Structural Reforms And Speak Clearly About Them Without Making People Be Afraid.

The Claim That Democracy And Efficiency Are Contradictory Is Nonsense. That's Evident In The History Of Democracy Itself, Because It Is Only Democrats Who Were And Continue To Be Capable Of Learning From Mistakes. A More Appropriate Question Is To Ask Whether A Country Like China, Which Has Been So Incredibly Successful Economically, Is Actually Inefficient In Light Of Its Environmental Destruction And Its Corruption. In China's Perception, However, The Democratic Model Is Doubtlessly Inferior.

In The Past, Germany Could Rely On The French, The British And, Especially, The Americans, To Assert Our Interests In The World. We Have Always Criticized The U.s. For Being The Global Police, And It Was Often Appropriate To Do So. But We Are Now Seeing What Happens When The U.s. Pulls Back. If The U.s. Leaves The Room, Other Powers Immediately Walk In. In Syria, It's Russia And Iran. In Trade Policy, It's China. These Examples Show That, Ultimately, We Are No Longer Achieving Either - Neither The Dissemination Of Our European Values Nor The Advancement Of Our Interests.

The Truth Is That We Have Long Had A Multi-track Europe With Very Different Objectives. The Traditional Differences Between The North And The South In Fiscal And Economic Policy Are Far Less Problematic Than Those That Exist Between Eastern And Western Europe. In The South And East, China Is Steadily Gaining More Influence, Such That A Few Eu Member States No Longer Dare To Make Decisions That Run Counter To Chinese Interests. You See It Everywhere: China Is The Only Country In The World That Has A Real Geopolitical Strategy.