German Attitudes....Allegedly
Monday, September 28, 2009 at 11:26AM In "The Irish Times" on Saturday, Derek Scally wrote movingly
Since Ireland’s No to Lisbon, the Irish in Germany have been made to feel like ingrates. Wherever you go, the same insinuation:"Three decades of EU cash and then you give us the finger."
...The fact is that, when explaining why the first Lisbon referendum fell, there are four million Irish people in the EU who believe the complicated version and 82 million Germans who don’t. We are on the wrong side of the argument, and not just with the Germans. Next week, nearly half a billion people across the EU will reach their own conclusions about the second vote. If Ireland votes No again, there is little we can do to stop them thinking that we took the money and ran.
This is where the Lisbon debate in Ireland misses the point entirely: if Ireland votes No a second time, it is up to our EU neighbours - not us - to decide how we will be treated in the future. We may not be thrown to the wolves, but politicians in Germany will certainly keep in mind their electorate’s dim view of Ireland when they consider any kind of alliances with their colleagues from Dublin.
... Like all Irish living around Europe... if our countrymen vote No, we are the ones who will first feel the chill.
Some of the on-line commenters to the article (which you can see below the article itself) have punctured his typically (for the Irish mainstream media on this topic) tendentious picture. I would add
- According to a Forsa poll commissioned by More Democracy, 82% of Germans believe that citizens in each of the EU member states should be able to vote directly on an EU constitution
- In yesterday's German elections, I note that at least two parties with Lisbon-sceptic tendencies gained in vote share
Reader Comments (1)
Although I'm based on no poll, I'm pretty sure that percentage is also applicable to the Portuguese:
http://notolisbontreaty.blogsome.com/