The dispute over the combustion engine is over. That’s good news. But the question must be allowed as to what price was paid for this month-long political theatre. Because the result is, compared to the great excitement, simply ridiculous.
No matter how often Transport Minister Volker Wissing speaks of a victory for openness to technology. The FDP politician clings to a technology that is doomed to die out in the passenger car sector in Europe. Even the car industry has recognized this and has long since heralded the departure from the combustion engine.
Worse, however, is the political damage that Wissing has caused with his blockade in the European Union. Germany was always seen as a reliable partner that other countries could use as a guide. Recently, however, Berlin’s unpredictable behavior has increasingly become a disruptive factor, which is causing resentment across the continent.
This applies to energy supply, for example, when Germany bought the gas market in a panic after Russia invaded Ukraine, driving prices to astronomical heights. Then the government shocked the less well-to-do EU partners with the famous “double boom” when it came to state aid. European solidarity looks different.
Berlin seems to have learned nothing from these ego trips. On the contrary, because now followed the surprising blocking of an agreement that the government had already agreed to. In this case, too, those responsible in Berlin consistently and without consideration placed the domestic benefit above the European interest.
This is behavior that the EU has so far only known in Hungary and Poland in this way. This is not a good sign for the unity of Europe.
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