A common criticism of progressives is that as soon as things look up, left-leaning governments are back to their old “profligate” ways – as if the 2007 financial meltdown had been caused by redistributive economic policies.
Today, the same criticism can be thrown back at the European right-wing establishment: only yesterday, they were panicking with Brexit or Le Pen’s imminent election – a direct result of the European Council trying to build Europe behind the people’s back, without meaningful democratic controls. Today, they are back to their old “profligate” ways, ramming more ‘eurocratic’ reforms down people’s throats without fair democratic representation.
Nowhere can such a careless attitude be felt stronger than in Germany’s CDU, which seems set to win tomorrow’s elections. The secret of the CDU’s success is a dysfunctional European framework: one that disproportionally favors Germany both economically and politically, punishes weak countries for trying to run countercyclical economic policies, but does nothing to address Germany’s trade surplus. Such a distortion has allowed Germany to cross, unscathed, what has meant a lost decade to the rest of Europe. The German electorate is set to reward the CDU for keeping the status quo, oblivious to the damage it generates to the European project.
No country stands to lose more from a failed EU than Germany. It is time for German voters to realize that a vote for the CDU is a vote for false short-term rewards and a long-term disastrous breakup of the EU.
 

José Luis Malaquias is a DiEM25 member and a Physics engineer based in Portugal.

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