Oh, Europe - An Analysis by Prof. Dr. Winfried Hassemer
Süddeutsche Zeitung contributes to the current debate on Europe with a critical evaluation of the present situation in Europe. The text was composed by the recently deceased lawyer Winfried Hassemer, former professor and judge at the Federal Constitutional Court, and shows impressively how the European development presents itself from a citizen’s point of view and how the crisis is escalating.
“If normal people don’t succeed - despite continual efforts - in gaining rational ground in a matter that is vital for the community and for themselves, if their perception is consolidated that politicians limit themselves to ignoring problems because even they don’t see clearer than them, then panic could be a reaction that fits the political situation.” The author also bemoans the loss of trust and solidarity as well as the one-sided economic approaches and procedures which are the cause that there only remains a “distorted picture of Europe”. Winfried Hassemer – the brother of “A Soul for Europe”-initiator Volker Hassemer - sees a resource not in “re-thinking Europe in a new way”, but in “reconfiguring Europe on an institutional level”.
(Süddeutsche Zeitung, 14 January 2014, Copyright Mohr Siebeck Verlag, Tübingen )
