Turkey risks missing historic EU opportunity

"Brexit means more Germanification of the European Union, and you know that this is not good for us," a Spanish participant told an Italian participant at a two-day conference I attended last week. One Dutch participant, on the other hand, underlined the lack of French leadership within the EU as a key concern for the Netherlands. Ironically, the event that brought them together was organized by a German think tank!
At a time when many European capitals are struggling with economic and political problems, (for instance Spain, where the conference took place, still has no government even after the Spaniards went to the ballot box for a second time), German Chancellor Angela Merkel has had to assume leadership of the EU.

"Those who have visions should go see a doctor," former German leader Helmut Schmidt once said, suggesting that he was a leader who took action when needed, unrestricted by the limits of ideology. It is worth sharing part of the Der Spiegel article written after Schmidt died in 2015:

"On [Schmidt's] 90th birthday, Angela Merkel gave a speech for him. She spoke of how she, as a young woman in East Germany in 1962, followed the news on the other side of the border of the great flood in Hamburg, where she had been born. Her family in Hamburg was in danger but she said she was impressed by the un-bureaucratic action taken by Schmidt, who was a senior city-state official at the time. 'In a moment of great need, he was able, through his presence, to give my family a very important feeling: Confidence,' the chancellor said. 'What more can one say about a politician?'"

It is interesting that a few years after Merkel gave this speech, she took action to welcome refugees to Europe despite the anti-immigration sentiment within her...