Jean Claude Juncker: Europe`s demons are only sleeping
Baku, March 13 (AZERTAC). One of Europe`s most senior politicians has issued a warning that peace was being taken for granted on the continent and that its current troubles were chillingly similar to those in the run up to WW1.
Jean Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg, who chaired a group of Euro-zone finance ministers at the height of the financial crisis, claimed that elections in Italy and Greece brought "national resentments to the surface, which we`d believed had gone away".
He said that he had been appalled by protesters` banners in Greece which showed Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, in Nazi uniform.
Mr Juncker said in an interview with the magazine Der Spiegel: “Anyone who believes that the eternal question of war and peace in Europe is no longer there risks being deeply mistaken. The demons have not gone away — they`re only sleeping, as the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo showed. I am chilled by the realisation of how similar circumstances in Europe in 2013 are to those of 100 years ago.”
The way in which some political figures in Germany had “lashed out” at Greece during the financial crisis has left “deep wounds” there Mr Juncker said. He said the Italian election was “excessively hostile to Germany and therefore anti-European”.
Resentment over austerity measures advocated by Germany spilt over into public anger when Mrs Merkel visited Athens last October. Some Greek protesters burned a swastika flag while others dressed in Nazi uniforms.
During last month`s Italian elections, Silvio Berlusconi blamed “German-centric” policies for Italy`s economic problems.
Mr Juncker, who chaired the euro Group from 2005 until he stepped down in January this year, said that he saw parallels with 1913.
“In 1913 many believed that there would never again be a war in Europe. The great powers of the continent were so closely intertwined economically that the view was widespread that they could no longer afford to have military confrontations.
“There was a complete sense of complacency based on the assumption that peace had been secured forever.”
Mr Juncker also claimed that the only way for Europe to continue to wield global influence in future was through being united. The governments of Germany, France and Britain all knew that the only way their voice could be heard internationally was “through the megaphone of the EU,” he said.
Meanwhile, a poll published on Monday indicates growing German unease over the cost of the euro crisis. One in four Germans would vote in September`s federal election for a party that wants to quit the euro, according to an opinion poll conducted by TNS-Emnid for Focus magazine.
The poll showed one in four Germans would consider backing a party that wanted to take Germany out of the euro and as many as four in 10 in the 40-49 age bracket would do so.
The survey, which canvassed the views of 1,007 people on March 6-7, coincides with the launch of a new party, Alternative for Germany, which is opposed to the single currency.
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