Or is it Coup des États?
Definitely one or the other. Let’s stick with the headline one.
My latest Commentator piece is out, belabouring a theme familiar to regular readers here, namely the Limits of Trust:
Once upon a time world leaders met only rarely if at all. They maintained their dignity if not power precisely by not meeting.
Now EU leaders are meeting and talking almost every month in one way or the other. This (for now) has the effect of making wars in Europe a lot less likely. How can Hans send his country to war against Juan and Maria’s countries when they had such a jolly expensive dinner together last week in Brussels?
There is nonetheless a downside. Which is that Trust reasserts itself in a peculiarly personal way. Private tiffs can spill over into public disagreements, and vice versa.
Imagine that you are the Dumpling Finance Minister who is getting it in the neck from the Dumpling media and public opinion for being far too lenient with the EU’s Olive tendency. You sit there at the EU Council meeting listening to an Olive drone on about urgent reforms which both of you know won’t be carried out quickly or honestly or even at all. Worse, the predecessor of this Olive (probably a cousin of the current one) actually lied at Council meetings time and again about the state of his country’s finances – that’s how the whole mess started.
Basically, your willingness to listen to any more Olive nonsense is trending towards absolute zero. Your exasperation is likely to burst out when it is your turn to speak. Meanwhile your unctuous officials sense your mood and are freezing out their Olive counterparts in the coffee breaks.
And lo!
