Mia and her Chancellor 2 - Another Romantic Short

(Appendix)

(Anne Will talk show transcript)

Seitz: "These movements of our social consciousness are often inscrutable and beyond our control. With the economic crisis, followed by the migrant crisis, coupled with the perception of rising liberal values, we saw a populist, far-right backlash sweep across Europe. It's not an accomplishment of mine, or any other government, that this trend has now reversed. It's merely a pendulum's swing to the opposite direction, fostered by the realization that populists rarely offer the solutions they promised, and the rising constitutional crisis in the US and the problems this is causing for global politics."

Will: "An interesting thesis, but one that conveniently absolves politicians from all responsibility."

Seitz: "Not all. But we need to acknowledge the limitations of our influence. Democracy could not function as a democracy if politicians were perfectly able to control the will of the people."

Haug: "Yet it's the government's lack of ability to shape a sane dialogue that got us Brexit, that caused the US constitutional crisis, that gave rise to the gilets jaunes."

Seitz: "And it's the government's demand to be able to shape any dialogue to its own liking that give us the Hong Kong protests, that continuously destabilize countries like Iraq or Venezuela, that push countries like Turkey on the brink of dictatorships—

There are no simple solutions. We must not give in to petty delusions of control where there can be none, and where there should be none. But we also cannot allow ourselves to be swept away by every small tide that washes across global politics."

Haug: "I suppose I can agree with my colleague on that point, yet as usual, the devil is in the detail: where is the compromise between being flexible when necessary, and strong where required, and being too stubborn to see an inevitable change, and being too pliable to resist counter-productive influences?"

Seitz: "I, of course, feel that my government has hit that target quite well."

Will: "A sentiment that polls seem to agree with. Now, moving on to—"

(The Guardian interview transcript)

Interviewer: "Many would describe you as an Eurofederalist."

Seitz: "I'd describe myself as an Eurofederalist. To some extent, at least."

I: "Yet when it comes right down to it, your politics have not been particularly focused on the European Union. Instead they are centered around your domestic policies, like the Fehlerfrei program."

S: "I'm not sure I'd entirely agree with that, but I can see where you are coming from."

(Pauses)

"European politics are based on hard fought and hard won compromises. It's slow, progress is difficult, and results often ambiguous.

National politics allow me to act faster, more decisively, and to greater effect."

I: "But isn't that merely a justification for neglecting European politics?"

S: "Not in my mind, no. European politics are extensions of the national politics of its member states. We must not pretend that Brussels is completely independent from any of the national governments—as long as the European Council is what it is, it remains fundamentally bound to Berlin, Paris, Madrid, Rome, and so on.

In that regard, a change in German policy is a change in German policy in Europe, and that makes it a potential change in policy for the European Union, too.