The Story

If one believes reports that have emerged from Brussels over the past couple of weeks, Germany is rapidly losing friends inside the EU.

Ahead of an energy summit earlier this month, French president Emmanuel Macron warned Germany that it was “isolating itself,” while leaders from the small Baltic nations also lined up to have a pop at Berlin over a failure to compromise.

Even long-time allies in the Hague and Stockholm seem less than willing to stick their heads above the parapet to support Germany.

Of course, we’ve been here before. During the sovereign debt crisis, Angela Merkel and her Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble had to put up with cartoons of them wearing Nazi uniforms as they drove through a rescue package for Greece that came tied to painful reforms.

This time, critics are lamenting the fact that Germany has rescued its own industry with a €200 billion energy ‘protective shield’ while failing to think about the needs of its neig…