Merkel's Germany and the European Union: Between Emergency and the Rule of Rules

Abstract

The European Union is caught between technocracy and the politics of the exception, eroding in the process the very political sphere that makes democracy work. Partly a cause of this erosion and partly an effect, the EU retreats into the ‘rule of rules’ when faced with what are, in fact, profoundly political problems. Whether it be in response to the eurozone crisis, EU–Russia–Ukraine relations or the influx of refugees, the EU's policies led to conflicts over geopolitics, sovereignty and redistribution. Its apolitical responses were as ubiquitous as they were inadequate. They reflect Germany's preference for consensual politics, which is paradoxically enforced by Angela Merkel's dictum about there being ‘no alternative’. In order to think of alternatives to the Europe that exists, we need to revive ‘the political’, theorized by the likes of Carl Schmitt, Max Weber and Hannah Arendt at times when democracy was under duress.

Europe and the transnational politics of emergency

“…2 Applied to the EU, the concept's value lies in shifting focus from managerial competence to the political aspects of decision-making under pressure (cf. Rhinard 2019;Suntrup 2018;van 't Klooster 2018;Auer 2021). Such a shift is the precondition for a more critical perspective: a focus on functional imperatives tends to minimise the range of thinkable outcomes, and with it the possibility to do more than applaud success or deplore failure.…”

The economic basis of democracy in Europe: structural economic change, inequality and the depoliticization of economic policymaking

“…72 In response to the crisis, the EU's rulesbased approach gave way to a kind of state of emergency -as would happen again in subsequent crises. 73 In that sense, this represented a shift from technocracy towards more improvised policymaking, though the latter was hardly any more democratic. Although decisions were taken by democratically elected politicians led by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, they were often clearly influenced by the preferences of the group of creditor states dominated by Germany and were presented as alternativlos -a German word that translates as 'without alternative'.…”

The Impossibility of Constitutionalizing Emergency Europe1

“…'Subversion' describes non-compliance with EU law. 6 German Chancellor Angela Merkel arguably perfected this approach as her governing style; alternating between the rhetoric of necessity and the politics of the exception (Auer, 2021).…”