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An open letter to Europe

por Estado Sentido, em 10.02.12

 

When Mrs. Merkel was elected German Chancellor, she saw her predecessor Gerard Schroeder leaving for a profitable position provided by the questionable Russian democracy. Gas was the motive of that influence peddling and Europe is now at the mercy of Mr. Putin. Chancellor Merkel travels to China and Portuguese-speaking African countries. For clearly commercial purposes, Mrs. Merkel goes to Brazil and other South American countries, some of which are democracies that strangely resemble the Bonapartist model. Never mind the ethical arguments, because the business world does not stop at trifles, especially if Mercedes Benz or any other large German company can charge attractive dividends by exchanging technology for cash.

 

The CDU-SPD duo in the persons of Merkel and Schulz does not have a centennial historical memory that could allow them to look with some caution at the relations that a country like Portugal, nine centuries old, has established for over half a millennium with other continents. When the Portuguese arrived in China, the geographical expression of Germany lived fratricidal religious wars and its hundreds of micro-states were fighting for tiny portions of land, a piece of river that could offer a slight advantage over the others. All this in a framework of an illusory I Reich destroyed two hundred years ago by another European project, undoubtedly as imperial as the one some now seem to desire. France, that now follows Berlin’s purposes, had its brief moment of glory for a decade – actually undermined in Portuguese territory, where together with its traditional British ally Portugal fought and won for true freedom in the Europe of nations. Germany itself, the recent creation of just over a century, benefited from this Luso-British sacrifice, hearing the birth of its national consciousness in the bells tolled in Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro and London’s victory celebrations.

 

Portugal has its own foreign policy, not depleted in mere accounting exercises or transfers of funds. Unlike twenty-five other states of the European Union, our language, just like English, is spoken in four continents, the very ones that today's German businessmen and politicians ambition having as business partners. Portugal can, should and must participate in this effort to modernize and diversify its economy, which unlike Germany, will further complement the existing deep cultural relations with Africa, Asia and America. Never have the Portuguese allowed the imposition of Continental Blockades, free trade prohibitions or outrageous limitations of its sovereignty. The communitarian Europe that Portugal joined was the one that existed in 1985, very different in purposes and fundamentals from the Europe that some want to impose nowadays, countering the national sovereignties and identities and forgetting that only these allow for the international expression of the different peoples’ wills, formulated through the democratic institutions where they feel truly represented. It is through the plurality of belongings and the diversification of external relations that European states can best contribute to fulfil the Universalist vocation of the European Union in face of the challenges posed by globalization.

 

Germans must be warned of the dangers arising from the ignorance and adventurous spirit of their unconscious leaders. This is certainly a task for one of the three oldest countries in the Old Continent, precisely the one that has made Europe known to the world.

 

Miguel Castelo-Branco

Nuno Castelo-Branco

Samuel de Paiva Pires

publicado às 00:21


2 comentários

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De JeanD (French) a 10.02.2012 às 12:38

"Never have the Portuguese allowed the imposition of Continental Blockades, free trade prohibitions or outrageous limitations of its sovereignty". => LoL? what happened to your centenial memory? => Treaty of 1703, Ultimatum of 1890... and others... Portugal was basically exploited and monitored by England who received in the end all the gold from south america... easy come, easy go...But that's of course a French point of view and you may disagree...


we obviously do not share the same understandings of the events following the French Revolution and the Napoleonics wars but since you were allied with Albion that's no surprise.. (speaking about "True Freedom",since when are you a democracy by the way?... 1974?... )


but i will stop with History since i'm only teasing you  so don't take it bad... i was just kinda bothered by your contemptuous tone about my country's(France) and our neighbour's (Germany) policy and history while presenting Portugal as a great achievment...



On the "serious part" about the becoming of Europe i do believe we need more integration and more federalism to fix EU problem... for instance with stricter budgets rules to avoid such crisis like those we are encountering now because some governements did not take their responsabilities towards citizen to stay popular and put others states at risk because of their behaviors... So, yes, i do support Germany and France on reinforcing EU power. Some country are like "Danaide Tonnel" if you know the old greek mythologic story and some others are getting tired to fill them with money...


Federalism would means of course less sovereignty on some points, doesnt mean total submission either! Federalism does protect a lot of the States rights if you look at the federal constitution around the world (USA, Canada, Germany, Switzerland etc.)

You are claiming federalism was not one of the purpose of the founder of the CEE when you joined in but this  is a lie: read Monnet, Schuman etc. That was one of their original goal with the strategy of the "small steps" which was obvious to everyone...


That's why France didn't want England to get in because it only wanted a single pan-european market to make business. (That, and of course, the long resentment of 1000 years of fighting with them... even before Portugal even existed...) 


Moreover federalism doesn't mean to eradicate identities and specificities of the members, look at Canada, Switzerland or USA: does the states in those country looks identical, don't they have different culture and way of life? i don't think so... Especially in Canada and Switzerland where history mixed different languages and specific cultures who still exist nowadays.



About your conclusion on the  "ignorance and adventurous spirit of their unconscious leaders" , weirdly enough, i do believe Germany and France are still in better shape than most of EU country, so i think i trust them more than Greeks or Portuguese leaders...


I hope i wasn't rude, cause it wasn't my goal, but since you were writing an "open letter to Europ" which i completly disagree with  on many points, i had to be as clear as possible.
I wish you a good day and hope you have better weather than we have in France right now^^
PS: French is also spoken on all continents by the way...

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De Nuno Castelo-Branco a 10.02.2012 às 13:10

Well, the history about Napoleon's France "achievements" in Portugal it's done, as also is in the rest of Europe. The III Reich policy regarding unequal economical (and cultural "intervention") relationships had a good teacher. 




You must understand that if we exclude a very short period of time (1640-60), France was always an opponent of Portugal, always allied with the country who never recognised us as a nation, an independent entity. That cannot be put in question, so you must to understand our special and permeant ties with the U.K., even if we consider the Ultimatum of 1890 (due to the megalomania of the Portuguese Foreign Minister Barros Gomes and the opportunism of the republican party). France suffered a much "shameful" Ultimatum in Fachoda. Can you denied it? And France was then considered one of the "big powers".


You should also inform yourselff about the rise of the liberalism in Portugal. It started as an Constitutional item as far as 1834 and endured until 1910, at least. By the way, in a very French way, with clear handicaps for the regime of the Constitutional Monarchy. 


Your text it's very clear about the huge differences regarding Portugal's and France's aims for the defence of national interests. Are not the same and fortunately for us, our country never lived obsessed about fighting for some inches of land to conquer at expenses of our neighbour. The true is that Brazil it's something to consider and in Lisbon we see our cultural and linguistic space in a very different way.


* Forgive my English writing, please.

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