Europe's crisis is an opportunity for democracy

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/28/europe-crisis-opportunity-democracy

Europe already accomplished a miracle once before: enemies became neighbours. In the light of the euro crisis, the cardinal question must be confronted once again: how can Europe guarantee its citizens peace, freedom and security in the risk-storms raging in the globalised world? This calls for nothing less than a second miracle: how can the Europe of bureaucracy become a Europe of citizens?

Once upon a time, after the Greek debt had been devalued, people began to breathe easily and to draw hope: Europe had survived and was perhaps even strong and agile enough to overcome its problems. Then the Greek prime minister, Giorgios Papandreou, announced that he wanted to put this fateful question to the Greek people in a referendum. Suddenly, the hidden, inverted reality came to light. In Europe, which is so proud of its democracy, someone who practices democracy becomes a threat to Europe! Papandreou was forced to call off the democratic referendum.

Whereas just a short time ago we had hoped, to quote the German poet Hölderlin, that "Where there is danger, salvation grows too", now a new counter-reality is appearing on the horizon: where there is salvation, danger grows too. At any rate, the anxious question has suddenly wormed its way into people's heads: Are the measures introduced to rescue the euro abolishing European democracy? Will the "rescued" EU cease to be a European Union as we know it and instead become an "EE", a European Empire with a German stamp? Is this never-ending crisis giving birth to a political monster?

Not long ago it was commonplace to speak in disparaging terms about the cacophony in the European Union. Now all of a sudden Europe has a single telephone. It rings in Berlin and for the moment it belongs to Angela Merkel.