BERLIN – Germany’s watershed decision to withhold support for military action in Libya has sparked fears of a new go-it-alone stance in Berlin that could cost it precious credibility and influence. “We are not neutral,” Merkel insisted again Wednesday in a speech, defending Berlin’s abstention from a UN Security Council vote to create a no-fly zone in Libya to stop pro-government forces from slaughtering civilians. “We of course like the rest of the world want to see the end to the war Moamer Gaddafi is waging against his own people.”
Germany’s decision, which put it in the company of Russia, China, Brazil and India, stunned Western partners who aimed to muster a united front against the Libyan leader’s ruthless campaign against insurgents. And on Tuesday, Berlin announced its warships would not participate in a NATO operation in the Mediterranean to enforce a UN-mandated arms embargo on Libya – a decision that drew a baffled response across the political spectrum. “To place your forces under allied command but withdraw them when those forces may have to engage is a bald contradiction,” political scientist Christian Tuschoff at Berlin’s Free University said.
“Germany is no longer a credible partner in the Atlantic alliance. It has turned its back for the first time on the course it has pursued since World War II — this is a historic break with the past.” Merkel draws a line at the renewed use of military force in an already volatile region but has insisted she shares the goals of the no-fly zone and the embargo — ending the bloodshed. However Tuschoff said the removal of the Mediterranean warships flew in the face of such declarations and blasted his country’s stance in the Libyan crisis as a “disaster”.
Former foreign minister Joschka Fischer, a popular elder statesman, was equally withering in his criticism. “Germany’s foreign policy is a farce,” the sharp-tongued member of the opposition Greens wrote this week in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung broadsheet. He argued that the move had nothing in common with Germany’s categorical refusal to take part in the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 while he was minister. “German policy has lost its credibility at the United Nations and in the Middle East, Germany can forget forever its dreams of a permanent seat on the Security Council and one must fear for the future of Europe,” he said.
“From now on, the principle of the ‘coalition of the willing’ will rule in the EU, which will further weaken Europe.” Meanwhile the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung splashed the front-page headline Thursday, “Mounting Discontent with Chancellor in Coalition”, with the Libya decision a top bone of contention. Anything but a maverick, Merkel had carefully tended to Germany’s historic alliances during her two terms in power, while keeping a close eye on its national interests. Amid the outrage over Germany’s stand-out position, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle defended it by noting that neighbouring Poland shared its views.
Tuschoff saw this as a remarkable shift in its traditional alliances away from Britain and in particular France. He noted two crucial state elections this Sunday may have coloured the government’s views, in light of German leeriness of military action rooted in country’s militarist past.
