Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • Strategic autonomy
    • War in Ukraine
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

Wolfgang Schäuble Should Put Himself In Greece’s Shoes

Gesine Schwan 10th February 2015

Gesine Schwan

Gesine Schwan

In his Critique of Judgment, Immanuel Kant names three maxims for republican thinking to follow collectively: a) thinking for oneself; b) thinking in the manner of the other; c) always be at one with ones own thoughts.

The second maxim concerns “an extended way of thinking” or justice and fairness. Right now, the German finance minister is violating this principle big time. Several times in recent days he has tartly asserted that the Greeks alone are to blame for their current misery, indeed for Europe’s crisis. But what if he followed Kant’s precept on fairness and thought his way into Greek minds?

He might here alight upon a completely different “blame” narrative. It might run as follows: When, in spring 2010, Greek premier Papandreou informed the IMF about the pending bankruptcy of Greece and asked for credits, the IMF’s experts rejected that as it made no sense pumping credits into an insolvent country. Instead, it was said, one should take the usual option and order a debt haircut. That would have hit French and German banks above all.

Neither IMF boss Strauss-Kahn (still angling to be French President at the time), nor Chancellor Merkel, nor finance minister Schäuble, would countenance that then, arguing instead they had to rescue the German, French and European banking system. What they wanted to avoid, of course, so the narrative might say, was any losses for their respective banks.

And so Greece’s return to a sound economic footing was blocked.

Wolfgang Schäuble should put himself in the shoes of the Greek negotiators on the other side of the table according to Gesine Schwan (photo CC BY-SA 2.0 Mehr Demokratie)

Wolfgang Schäuble should put himself in the shoes of the Greek negotiators on the other side of the table according to Gesine Schwan (photo: CC BY-SA 2.0 Mehr Demokratie)

Why had German banks given Greece such large credits before although the country was already then hardly a haven of financial stability but had rustled up huge debts? These credits had among other things helped the financing of Greek imports from Germany – good for German exports but, we now know, used to fund contracts with the likes of Siemens, Rheinmetall and Kraus-Maffei Wegmann allegedly won through corruption. German firms allegedly earmarked Greek politicians in the defence ministry for bribes and earned, at the same time, as much as German banks from the credits handed to the Greeks.

Back in 2010 the German federal government warned the Greeks they had to make good their purchase of the contracted (but superfluous) submarines. Even then, the phrase “agreements must be kept” (pacta sunt servanda) rang out – rightly used if one has signed equitable contracts.

If debts cannot be paid two sides are always responsible: debtors and creditors. Were only the Greeks responsible?

Clearly, the newly elected government had nothing to do with the deal. When finance minister Varoufakis tells all and sundry that Greece should not take up any more credits because it can never repay the debts incurred – and he’s by no means alone in this analysis outside Germany – then, from a Greek viewpoint, he’s talking responsibly and makes eminent sense. Above all, when his government sets about rooting out corruption (as it said it would) and bringing in a just, effective taxation system as well as a solidly based land registry office to make it easier for investments. But that simply can’t happen overnight.

Assuming this Greek narrative is true: Should the Greek government kowtow to the German point of view against its own convictions? Should it break all its election pledges? Should it submit itself to conditions it considers unobtainable, devastate Greek society and usher in a split in Europe between north and south? Do we Germans really want to take on this responsibility and destroy the European post-war order which we urgently need – not least to deal with Russia? Just to press home our own narrative and be right as always?

“Justice raises up a people” (in the words of Solomon) – and the German one too.

Gesine Schwan

Gesine Schwan is a German political science professor and chair of the Basic Values Commission of the SPD. The party nominated her twice as a candidate for the federal presidential elections.

You are here: Home / Politics / Wolfgang Schäuble Should Put Himself In Greece’s Shoes

Most Popular Posts

Visentini,ITUC,Qatar,Fight Impunity,50,000 Visentini, ‘Fight Impunity’, the ITUC and QatarFrank Hoffer
Russian soldiers' mothers,war,Ukraine The Ukraine war and Russian soldiers’ mothersJennifer Mathers and Natasha Danilova
IGU,documents,International Gas Union,lobby,lobbying,sustainable finance taxonomy,green gas,EU,COP ‘Gaslighting’ Europe on fossil fuelsFaye Holder
Schengen,Fortress Europe,Romania,Bulgaria Romania and Bulgaria stuck in EU’s second tierMagdalena Ulceluse
income inequality,inequality,Gini,1 per cent,elephant chart,elephant Global income inequality: time to revise the elephantBranko Milanovic

Most Recent Posts

Pakistan,flooding,floods Flooded Pakistan, symbol of climate injusticeZareen Zahid Qureshi
reality check,EU foreign policy,Russia Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: a reality check for the EUHeidi Mauer, Richard Whitman and Nicholas Wright
permanent EU investment fund,Recovery and Resilience Facility,public investment,RRF Towards a permanent EU investment fundPhilipp Heimberger and Andreas Lichtenberger
sustainability,SDGs,Finland Embedding sustainability in a government programmeJohanna Juselius
social dialogue,social partners Social dialogue must be at the heart of Europe’s futureClaes-Mikael Ståhl

Other Social Europe Publications

front cover scaled Towards a social-democratic century?
Cover e1655225066994 National recovery and resilience plans
Untitled design The transatlantic relationship
Women Corona e1631700896969 500 Women and the coronavirus crisis
sere12 1 RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?

ETUI advertisement

The EU recovery strategy: a blueprint for a more Social Europe or a house of cards?

This new ETUI paper explores the European Union recovery strategy, with a focus on its potentially transformative aspects vis-à-vis European integration and its implications for the social dimension of the EU’s socio-economic governance. In particular, it reflects on whether the agreed measures provide sufficient safeguards against the spectre of austerity and whether these constitute steps away from treating social and labour policies as mere ‘variables’ of economic growth.


DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Eurofound webinar: Making telework work for everyone

Since 2020 more European workers and managers have enjoyed greater flexibility and autonomy in work and are reporting their preference for hybrid working. Also driven by technological developments and structural changes in employment, organisations are now integrating telework more permanently into their workplace.

To reflect on these shifts, on 6 December Eurofound researchers Oscar Vargas and John Hurley explored the challenges and opportunities of the surge in telework, as well as the overall growth of telework and teleworkable jobs in the EU and what this means for workers, managers, companies and policymakers.


WATCH THE WEBINAR HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

The winter issue of the Progressive Post magazine from FEPS is out!

The sequence of recent catastrophes has thrust new words into our vocabulary—'polycrisis', for example, even 'permacrisis'. These challenges have multiple origins, reinforce each other and cannot be tackled individually. But could they also be opportunities for the EU?

This issue offers compelling analyses on the European health union, multilateralism and international co-operation, the state of the union, political alternatives to the narrative imposed by the right and much more!


DOWNLOAD HERE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

The macroeconomic effects of re-applying the EU fiscal rules

Against the background of the European Commission's reform plans for the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP), this policy brief uses the macroeconometric multi-country model NiGEM to simulate the macroeconomic implications of the most relevant reform options from 2024 onwards. Next to a return to the existing and unreformed rules, the most prominent options include an expenditure rule linked to a debt anchor.

Our results for the euro area and its four biggest economies—France, Italy, Germany and Spain—indicate that returning to the rules of the SGP would lead to severe cuts in public spending, particularly if the SGP rules were interpreted as in the past. A more flexible interpretation would only somewhat ease the fiscal-adjustment burden. An expenditure rule along the lines of the European Fiscal Board would, however, not necessarily alleviate that burden in and of itself.

Our simulations show great care must be taken to specify the expenditure rule, such that fiscal consolidation is achieved in a growth-friendly way. Raising the debt ceiling to 90 per cent of gross domestic product and applying less demanding fiscal adjustments, as proposed by the IMK, would go a long way.


DOWNLOAD HERE

ILO advertisement

Global Wage Report 2022-23: The impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power

The International Labour Organization's Global Wage Report is a key reference on wages and wage inequality for the academic community and policy-makers around the world.

This eighth edition of the report, The Impact of inflation and COVID-19 on wages and purchasing power, examines the evolution of real wages, giving a unique picture of wage trends globally and by region. The report includes evidence on how wages have evolved through the COVID-19 crisis as well as how the current inflationary context is biting into real wage growth in most regions of the world. The report shows that for the first time in the 21st century real wage growth has fallen to negative values while, at the same time, the gap between real productivity growth and real wage growth continues to widen.

The report analysis the evolution of the real total wage bill from 2019 to 2022 to show how its different components—employment, nominal wages and inflation—have changed during the COVID-19 crisis and, more recently, during the cost-of-living crisis. The decomposition of the total wage bill, and its evolution, is shown for all wage employees and distinguishes between women and men. The report also looks at changes in wage inequality and the gender pay gap to reveal how COVID-19 may have contributed to increasing income inequality in different regions of the world. Together, the empirical evidence in the report becomes the backbone of a policy discussion that could play a key role in a human-centred recovery from the different ongoing crises.


DOWNLOAD HERE

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us

RSS Feed

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube