Germans call for ‘Brexit cabinet’ to protect interests
Resurgent Free Democrats urge Mrs Merkel and the EU not to punish the UK and to find a “fair deal”
Germany’s Free Democrats have demanded a special “Brexit cabinet” in Berlin to safeguard the vital interests of the country, citing growing alarm among industrial and manufacturing companies over the disastrous implications of a failed deal with the UK.
GERMANY’S Free Democrats have demanded a special “Brexit cabinet” in Berlin to safeguard the vital interests of the country, citing growing alarm among industrial and manufacturing companies over the disastrous implications of a failed deal with the UK.
The fast-rising party says it will push for an amicable compromise in Brexit talks if it joins the ruling coalition this autumn – as now looks fairly likely – warning that it would be a fatal error for Europe to humiliate Britain.
“We are hearing an uttering of concerns from German companies and trade unions about what could happen if there is a crash-brexit and no deal in place. Criticism is growing,” Michael Theurer MEP, the party’s economics chief told The Daily Telegraph.
“Small enterprises are very concerned. There are also a lot of German companies that rely on financing from the City of London, and they are very happy with the service they get now.”
The sentiment is echoed by the leader of the Free Democrats (FDP), Christian Lindner, who has stressed ever since the referendum that the EU should handle Brexit with extreme care.
“I warned against a humiliation of Great Britain. The country must continue to be a strong partner for the EU and within NATO,” he said.
The party would like what it calls a “fair deal” along the lines of the Norwegian formula that preserves mutual market access.
Mr Theurer said the German government gave the impression of coherence on Brexit but in reality its response had been ad hoc and shambolic.
“Nobody is in charge. There is a lack of priorities. We absolutely need close coordination with the economy minister taking the lead,” he said.
The FDP has recovered from electoral massacre four years ago.
It has regrouped under younger leaders, rising 9pc in the opinion polls with a push for tax cuts and tougher migration policies.
The party has a good chance of regaining its post-war role as the kingmakers of German politics in elections this September, forging a coalition with chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats.
“We are a very British-minded party in favour of free trade and market economics. Our view is that we should get along with the British as well as possible. A successful Brexit is of fundamental importance to Germany,” Mr Theurer said.
The Free Democrats are closely aligned with the Mittelstand nexus of medium-sized machine-tool, engineering, and manufacturing firms – many of them family-owned – that feel neglected as Brexit talks go on far above their heads in Brussels.
Mario Ohoven, head of the Mittelstand federation (BVMV), said his members accounted for half of Germany’s €86bn (£77m) of exports to Britain, claiming that 750,000 German jobs are closely linked to UK trade.
“We plead for a soft Brexit. That doesn’t mean Britain should be able to cherry pick but it is in everybody’s interest to avoid tariffs and trade barriers,” he said.
Chancellor Merkel is currently in a “grand coalition” with the Social Democrats (SPD), now led by Martin Schulz, the former president of the European Parliament.
He is an apostle of the EU project and
backs the hardest possible Brexit to show others that leaving the EU comes at a very high price.
But Mr Schulz’s brief surge in the polls has already faded. In May his party suffered what he admitted was a “crushing defeat” in its historic bastion of North Rhine-westphalia.
There would be major consequences if Mrs Merkel switched to a FDP coalition. The Free Democrats are viscerally opposed to any kind of fiscal union or debt-polling for the eurozone, and would demand a policy of zero-tolerance towards any fiscal slippage by Greece. The Free Democrats have a eurosceptic tinge and would not be friendly to a “grand bargain” between Germany and France aimed at rebuilding monetary union on fresh foundations, with joint eurobonds backed by an economic government.
However, Sophia Besch and Christian Odendahl, from the Centre for European Reform, said Brexiters were deluding themselves if they thought Berlin will yield much ground on points of principle in order to safeguard unfettered trade with Britain.
“Germany’s major political parties are various shades of pro-european. Even German businesses value the integrity of the single market and the EU more than tariff-free access to the UK market,” they said.
“Geopolitically, Germany considers Brexit an act of vandalism – and of selfharm. In Berlin’s view, Britain has undermined its own value as a security partner, and must be prevented from further dividing the EU.
“To get Germany on side, Britain needs to make clear that London is willing to contribute to European stability.”
Yet tensions between economic selfinterest and German pieties over European solidarity are ever present in EU affairs. Nothing quite so exposes the hypocrisy as the Nord Stream gas pipeline, a sweetheart deal with the Kremlin at the strategic and economic expense of Poland and Eastern Europe.
It would be highly corrosive if the smaller and weaker EU states felt that they were being pushed around by a resurgent Franco-german axis.
In this respect, British withdrawal sets off an awkward dynamic for Europe that is more complex than it looks.
Germany is discovering that shibboleths will not be enough as the Article 50 deadline nears.
They have to play four-dimensional chess.