European democracy is coming to a boil
Illustration: michaelmucci.com
Europe is the cradle of Western civilisation but it has yet again become a battleground between democracy and autocracy, in a much more insidious form. This battle is taking place not on the fringes but in the very heart of the European Union.
The year that started with a massacre in Paris, followed by deadly combat between Islamists and police in France and Belgium, is going to deliver a rolling salvo of shocks for the great experiment of European unification.
Some of those shocks we can see coming. The Swiss, who had the good sense to stay out of both World War I and World War II, and the European Union, value their freedom and independence. So they delivered a shock of their own last Thursday.
When the Swiss Central Bank moved last week to de-link the Swiss franc from the Euro, it jolted the world currency markets and sent the Swiss franc soaring 18 per cent in a single day. It was a vote of no confidence in the Euro.
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The day before, the European Court of Justice had issued a ruling that, in effect, said the European Union had sovereignty over its 28 member states: "It seems all but an impossible task to preserve this union, as we know it today, if it is to be made subject to the discretion of each of the member states".
This sweeping reach for legal primacy was contained in a ruling that found the European Central Bank had not broken its EU treaty obligations by printing money to buy distressed sovereign bonds of Italy and Spain.
This rulingis almost certain to berepudiated in the German courts. It endorsed wider money printing-powers by the European Central Bank.
The Swiss Central Bank thus moved quickly to get its currency out of the way before the announcement, expected this week, that the European Central Bank will begin injecting at least half a trillion euros of stimulus into the euro system, perhaps one trillion euros, perhaps more.
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European democracy is coming to a boil