(PresidentialWire.Com)- Brexit might have been the first domino to fall, but the coronavirus could prove to be the straw that broke the camel’s back for the people of Europe. The European Union, a union of 27 member countries on the European continent, may cease to exist as a result of the coronavirus is Italian politicians are to be believed.
A series of mayors and politicians in Italy paid for a full-page advertisement in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung which was distributed on Tuesday. In the ad, the politicians criticized Germany and the Netherlands for failing to back the “coronabonds” that would have underwritten Italy’s debt, along with other EU member countries struggling with the impact of the coronavirus.
“Dear German friends, with the coronavirus the shared history of the Western world has once again taken centre stage,” the advert reads. “Today the EU does not have the means to respond to the crisis in a united front. If it does not prove that it exists, it will cease to exist,” the politicians warned.
The advert also compared the virus to the Second World War and the major economic impact the war had on Europe. It described how European nations agreed to dissolve some of the debt accrued by Germany at the time, which European nations agreed the country would not be able to pay back.
According to the Italian politicians behind the ad, the Netherlands also lacked “ethics and solidarity” when its government blocked emergency funding for the coronavirus fightback. The advertisement accused the Netherlands of using its tax system “to withdraw tax revenue from major European countries for years.”
Provocative as it might be, the letter gained support from several European politicians, including the leader of the Dutch Christian Union, Gert-Jan Segers. The party leader has called for a new approach to the coronavirus outbreak, advocating a Marshal Plan system to deal with the economic damage caused by the virus.
Segers told Dutch newspaper NL Times that Italy “is in ruins” and that the first message should be “we are going to help you.”
The politicians who seem to understand the dire situation the European Union is in seem to be the leaders of the parties with no power. Isn’t it amazing how even Angela Merkel, who depends so much on the future of her European Union, doesn’t see that their response has put the entire project in danger?
