The End Of Ghibelline EuropeFrance may be ready to come out from Germany’s shadow.
By Krzysztof Tyszka-Drozdowski
March 2, 2022
In his book covering the backstage of E.U. negotiations during the Greek crisis, Yannis Varoufakis has unveiled the E.U.’s ruling mechanism. In France, it is called “le couple franco-allemand,” or the Franco-German couple. The Greek minister was astonished to discover what it really meant: submissiveness of the French and obedience to German decisions. He raised the subject in a private conversation with his French counterpart, Michel Sapin. The latter replied to him: “Yannis, you must understand, France is no longer what it once was.”
It was certainly something different under de Gaulle. The general defined the relationship between Paris and Berlin succinctly: “France is to be the jockey and Germany the horse.” This attitude of putting the brakes on the excessive ambitions of its neighbor—understandable given the two wars—would soon fade and give way to a fascination with the “German model”.
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In medieval Europe, two factions had long clashed. On one side the Ghibellines, supporters of the German emperor. On the other, the Guelphs, defending freedom against imperial hegemony. This division has become relevant again. Europe’s future depends on whether it wishes to remain Ghibelline—subordinate to the imperial center—or to choose the liberty of Guelphs.
It was Charles de Gaulle who restored France’s self-confidence in the 20th century. First, during the war, when the French will to fight seemed to have waned, he rallied around him those who wanted to reclaim independence. Then in 1958, when bickering parties of the Fourth Republic proved that they had learned nothing from the years that had brought the Third Republic to its demise, the general endowed the country with new institutions to unleash its dynamism. His successor, Georges Pompidou, continued the ambitions of de Gaulle, developing industry and pursuing a policy of great aims, introducing nuclear, supporting groundbreaking innovations in aviation (Concorde) and rail transport (TGV). France was innovative in terms of institutions as it was in terms of technology, and in foreign policy it tried to maintain room for maneuver, keeping both the U.S. and the Soviet Union at bay.
For some reason, however, the conviction that France could be an independent power and pursue its own path would collapse. Since the late 1960s, as Édouard Husson notes in his book Paris-Berlin: la survie de l’Europe, French self-confidence has been shaken. Among the elite a belief in the superiority of their neighbors has taken hold again. Eventually, the leaders of the Fifth Republic will bind themselves politically to Germany to the point where they have stopped not only thinking independently, but also acting independently.
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A Ghibelline Europe is a stagnant Europe, whose only future lies in increasing the German trade surplus. There seems to be hope on the horizon for a different scenario. Although the precondition for German dominance is French obedience, its days may be drawing to an end. The French right has realized that the only way to regain greatness of their country is to do away with deference to Berlin. Marine Le Pen has already questioned the purpose of an alliance with Germany: “But what is the diplomatic and military added value of this alliance for France? Nothing but disillusionment, betrayal and abandonment.”
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Source:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/the-end-of-ghibelline-europe/
