Merkel's blunt message: Save the euro to save Europe

Angela Merkel: No one should think peace
and prosperity…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave a blunt assessment of the stakes as European leaders struggle to solve their continent's government debt crisis and save their common currency, the euro.

"No one should think that another half-century of peace and prosperity is assured" if leaders in the European Union fail in this crisis, Merkel said last week to German legislators before a key vote on the latest financial rescue package.

The comment by Merkel, who grew up in the former East Germany and, as head of Europe's biggest economy, has taken the leading political role in steering Europe through its turmoil, alluded to the European Union's fulfillment of its main goal.

That goal was to bind Germany's fortunes to those of Western Europe to pacify the nation that had dragged the continent through two devastating world wars.

Merkel's dogged leadership, especially her speech on Wednesday to her own parliament, is noteworthy. She might lead the mightiest of Europe's nations, but Germany simmers with the rest of Europe in a cultural stew spiced by bitter memories of militarism and bloodshed. It is a mix of national sensibilities, bound by an abstract cultural heritage, that can be variously described as disciplined, casual, and reckless.

Backed by the economic might of the United States, Germany evolved from its status as a nationalist trouble-maker in the first half of the 20th century to the expected, though somewhat reluctant, saviour of Europe today, though it, too, has violated financial rules meant to ensure the euro's stability.

"If the euro fails, Europe fails," Merkel has said repeatedly, trying to convince Germans that their nation's long-term success depends on the prosperity of an ever-more unified Europe, even as her government takes baby steps toward fixing the problems.

One reason for Merkel's incremental approach is the increasing resistance in Germany - which prided itself on financial conservatism, at least until state-owned banks fell hard for subprime-mortgage bonds in the last decade - to opening its wallet to bail out countries that borrowed more than they could afford.

The counter-argument, by analysts in France and elsewhere, is that Germany, as the biggest European economy and one powered by exports that drew wealth from weaker economies to the south, now has to pay.