Wer, wenn nicht wir...

Reflections on integrated European models for political and economic governance Thomas Händel, Frank Puskarev  Article published in the journal Sozialismus, volume 11/2012  We are currently witnessing the acceleration and increasingly authoritarian nature of the response to the financial crisis. The cuts in salaries and social security, austerity diktats and the orders to sell off public property are a path leading directly to economic recession. The southern European countries are not the only ones hit by the economic downturn: previously prosperous states are already feeling the effects of the devastating austerity policy. Only recently the European automotive industry, usually a good indicator for the overall state of the economy, reported an 11% drop in sales. In crisis-hit southern European countries, the situation looks even worse: Italy has seen a 25% drop, France 17% and Spain 37%. Even Germany, which had previously seen itself as still winning in the economic sta...