When democratic institutions erode
How Germany is losing its democracy
by Robert Seidel
(30 January 2021) Can the Federal Republic of Germany still be called a democracy? Are citizens taken seriously in their democratic rights?
It is fatal to think that one can turn back the wheel of history. Attempts to push people back into immaturity take revenge and lead to unnecessary suffering. For who likes to be deprived of their natural rights?
That we human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and that everyone is entitled to lead a self-determined life is part of common sense today.
Therefore, the attempts to disregard others — who are then called "plebs", "simple people", "uneducated", "masses" or simply "uninformed" — seem like a lack of compassion on the part of some "better people".
Many people perceive with astonishment that parallel to the Covid 19 pandemic, far-reaching political changes are being made under slogans such as "Great Reset"1 or "Green Deal".2 The world is obviously being reshaped without democratic say. Have the democratic "brakes" failed? Do the people still determine their own fate, or are they being determined? Does the elected government act on its own authority or is it externally determined? Let's take a look back.
Is parliament doing its job?
Let's put one of the world’s most powerful economies, our neighbour, the Federal Republic of Germany, to the test and ask: Are the democratic institutions fulfilling their role as representatives of the people?
Two outstanding examples illustrate the failure of Germany’s democratic institutions. The Constitutional Law is considered the yardstick for the state of German democracy. It was created in 1949 as a consequence of the catastrophes of two world wars and a totalitarian dictatorship. It forms the framework for democratic and free coexistence and is at the same time a bulwark against undemocratic and bellicose tendencies.
– The new government elected in autumn 1998 (SPD and Greens — both understood themselves as "peace parties") completely unexpectedly overrode the current ban on wars of aggression. The government gave the green light for participation in the war against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A few years later, then chancellor Gerhard Schröder (SPD) bluntly admitted that this war was illegal under international law.3 This war was not legitimised by the UN and was therefore unconstitutional. Where was the outcry in the German parliament? Where was the German judiciary? At the time, the retired Swiss major general Hans Bachofner recorded: "The war is back — but we have lost respect."
– In 2015, Angela Merkel decided to allow the unrestricted influx of migrants to Germany, overriding parliament and against the law. Where was the outcry of the parliament? Where was the German judiciary?
Flouting the rights of the population
The German government had bypassed its parliament, disregarded Constitutional Law and shunned the rights of its own people. It is frightening to see how constants of German politics after 1945 have been gradually eroding. Further breaches of the law are looming today:
– New migration plans on a larger scale are implemented via EU laws to bypass its own population.
– The gigantic restructuring of the economy via the EU in favour of global corporations is sold glossily as a "Green Deal".
– In the shadow of the fight against the pandemic, a gigantic indebtedness of the Germans is being pushed forward via the EU and national budgets, which goes beyond any imaginable measure. The consequences remain unspoken.
– Since 2014, the German armed forces have been marching again against Russia in Eastern Europe — so far in manoeuvres. Is it déjà vu?
Trust completely squandered
What will be the consequences of this arbitrary deal? Will trust be completely squandered? Are authoritarian, if not totalitarian, structures form again in Germany? Will surveillance methods and social pressure to conform be created, similar to Erich Mielke's shadow empire? Or can 75 years of (West) German Constitutional Law and 45 years of resistance in the GDR revitalise democratic forces in Germany?
Are the governments foreign controlled?
This raises a second question. Who still has influence on this government, if not the German people? Is the government now acting on its own authority, or is it foreign controlled?
Perhaps ex-Chancellor Schröder will explain in later memoirs who instructed him and Joseph Fischer (Greens) to break the peace commandment of the Constitutional Law and to wage war against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia together with the USA and other "willing parties". In any case, it was not the German people.
In autumn 1998 – still in election campaign mode – Schröder and Fischer flew to Washington. After that, it was clear that Germany would again participate in wars that violated international law. "Never again war" became history. In addition to the use of banned radioactive weapons (including DU shells), systematic PR has been conducted since then to soften the resistance of the German people to wars.
War at the behest of the USA
We know today that the US administration under Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright pushed through this war in Europe, which was contrary to international law. During this time, the forces behind them also pushed through a worldwide neoliberal economic policy, keyword "globalisation". In favour of trade and financial interests of the then still largest trading power, the will of individual nations was ignored. In addition to "hard power" (wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.) and "soft power" (colour revolutions, etc.), the US administration dictated its terms to the individual nations of the world through international organisations (UN, WTO, WHO, IMF, etc.). Elected governments were no longer beholden to their people, but had to fulfil “international obligations.”
Merkel: "Spying among friends that is not acceptable".
And what about German Chancellor Angela Merkel? Who doesn't remember her statement from 2013, "Spying among friends that's not possible at all".4 Not only she herself, the entire German government, the parliament, but also German industry are and were all spied on by the "friends" (USA, GB). Every move, every plan is known. There is no provision for independent action.5 Governing in the name of the people (politically correct newspeak: the "population")?
"His Masters Voice”
The question of "His Masters Voice" remains. Neither Gerhard Schröder nor Angela Merkel have represented the interests of the German people as required by the German Basic Law. There was no outcry from parliament, no indictments from the competent courts. Massive and justified protests by the population in 1999 and 2015 were ignored by government and parliament.
Obviously, the influence of US interests on German institutions is stronger than the will of the people. But who are "the" US interests? Publications on the close interlocking between the US administration and global billionaires are numerous - but they are hardly noticed by the public. (These are solid sociological studies – for the most part from the USA itself).6 The fact that the US citizen and billionaire's wife Belinda Gates bluntly said in an interview with Die Zeit in May 2020 that she could call the German Chancellor at any time7 tells more about Merkel than herself. How many Germans ask themselves: "when will I find a sympathetic ear for my concerns with my chancellor?"
Also, the forced increase in defence spending by NATO states to two per cent of GDP (!) will benefit less domestic arms suppliers than the much-described US "industrial-military complex", which also involves a handful of US billionaires. The interests of the US financial and IT industries are not explained here (Goldman-Sachs, Blackrock, Google, Apple, Facebook, etc.). The tug-of-war over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and the associated sale of expensive and environmentally damaging fracking oil from the US alone speaks volumes.8 You don't have to be an economist to realise that this has little to do with a social market economy (not to mention democracy). Here, only the law of the strongest rules.
Germany as the "Puerto Rico" of the USA?
Seen from the outside, the following picture emerges: Germany increasingly resembles a "Puerto Rico" of the USA.9 The government, parliament and judiciary no longer follow the interests of their people. They have left the ground of their constitution, the Constitutional Law. Orders come from a plutocratic US billionaire mafia and think tanks with a global claim to power. Projects like the "Great Reset" are not only elitist, but strikingly reminiscent of the fictions in a "Brave New World"10 or in the world of "Globalia".11
Reclaiming democratic rights
Where is a democratic and thus again predictable Germany, in which citizens once again determine their own fate? When will the German parliament be restored to its rights and be able to fulfil its duties? When will the parties once again represent the interests of their voters and no longer regard the state as their prey? When will the judiciary be independent of politics again?12 – It is high time for a democratic "reset".
1 cf. https://www.wallstreet-online.de/nachricht/13185528-great-reset-bedeutet (accessed 30 November 2020)
2 https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_de (accessed 29 December 2020)
3 cf. Gerhard Schröder 2014 anlässlich des Krimkrieges. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydLINQBOF1U (accessed 30 November 2020)
4 bid.
5 cf. Polli, Gert R. Deutschland zwischen den Fronten. Wie Europa zum Spielball von Politik und Geheimdiensten wird. FBV. Munich 2017.
6 Lundberg, Ferdinand: The Rich and the Super-Rich. A Study in the Power of Money Today. New York 1968.
7 cf. https://www.zeit.de/zustimmung?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zeit.de%2F2016%2F32%2Fmelinda-gates-bill-gates-spenden (accessed 30 November 2020)
8 cf. https://www.handelsblatt.com/themen/nord-stream-2 (accessed 30 November 2020)
9 Description of Germany's situation by Willy Wimmer, former Parliamentary State Secretary of the Bundestag, at the end of 2020. [Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the USA. This means that Puerto Rico is neither a US state in its own right nor part of another state. As part of the US, Puerto Rico has no foreign policy of its own; all foreign policy matters are handled by the US (editors’ note)].
10 Huxley, Aldous: Brave new World, Random House (), Harper Collins (US)1932
11 Rufin, Jean-Christophe. Globalia. Editions Gallimard. Paris 2004 [French and German editions]
12 Von Armin, Hans Herbert. Die Hebel der Macht und wer sie bedient. Parteienherrschaft statt Volkssouveränität. Heyne Munich 2017