By Martin Banks - 27th September 2010
Germany needs to get over its World War guilt complex
Nigel Farage
British eurosceptic MEP Nigel Farage has called for the development of an "EU critical movement" in Germany.
Speaking in Berlin, Farage said such a movement could be mobilised in order to field candidates throughout the country in the European elections in 2014.
He hopes his keynote speech at a conference on Saturday will build on what some see as the strong growth of euro-critical opinion in Germany over the last six months.
Farage, leader of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group in parliament, was a keynote speaker at a conference organised by five German professors who have lodged a lawsuit with Germany’s constitutional court in an attempt to stop Berlin’s aid package for Greece.
After criticising the democratic legitimacy of the EU, as well as the wisdom of the Euro project, Farage, a UKIP MEP, called for a German movement similar to the one mounted in Britain by UKIP.
Farage said, "The propagandists of the EU project have for decades played on and encouraged German guilt about the war to build up sympathy and support for their political and bureaucratic project. However, this attempt shall fail for a number of reasons.
"Firstly, the number of young people who have never experienced the war is increasing all the time. And secondly - because over the last 60 years the world has grown to love the German people again."
He added, "Germany needs to get over its World War guilt complex. The rest of the world has clearly moved on, and forgiven any past wrongs. Look around and see how a young German, Lena was voted Eurovision song contest winner, while the Catholic Church chose an erudite German, cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope. A humorous Catholic might say that Germany now has even the Holy Spirit on side.
"It is this World War guilt complex which has emotionally squeezed many German politicians to support and fund the political integration of the EU.
But the good thing is, the world has forgiven Germany, and the time for war reparations, (paid as subvention of the EU) is over.
"The current situation is that the EU plays, Germany pays.
"The German people should rightfully oppose forking out a huge amount of money to prop up a failed currency.
"Up to this point, the German people have been the mugs of Europe. They have paid for too much. Time to say to the weak economies of Europe, enough is enough; you have to look after yourselves. Time to grow up and be responsible adults. You are 50 years of age, no more pocket-money from daddy.'
The move by the German academics comes after the German parliament approved Germany’s contribution to the €110bn three-year rescue plan set up by eurozone countries.
“Financial aid is not provided for in the EU treaties and gives rise to inflationary policy,” said the four academics that backed an ultimately unsuccessful constitutional challenge to the Maastricht treaty and the adoption of the euro in 1998.
The resulting court judgment 12 years ago insisted that the German government had to guarantee the stability of the euro.
The professors, including the economists Joachim Starbatty and Wilhelm Hankel, the former Bundesbank governor, Wilhelm Nölling and the legal scholar Karl Albrecht Schachtschneider, argue that the bailout violates the treaty and the strictures imposed on it by the constitutional court.
