German business strongly against war in Iraq

German big business is also strongly against a war in Iraq.

Many feel that the real threat in the region comes from Israel's unrestrained campaign against the Palestinians rather than the weakened and humiliated regime in Baghdad. However, those colorful peace rallies, once a familiar sight in the 1970's and 1980's, are strangely absent from German towns and cities.

The reason is simple: the German may quarrel with the current red-green government coalition over the sluggish performance of the economy, but they overwhelmingly support chancellor Schröder's stance against what he calls any 'military adventures' in the Gulf.

This list includes all the top names of German business that nonetheless constantly attack the red-green politicians for their inability to reform the economy. They not only fear the consequences of higher oil prices leading to inflation, recession and disruption of world trade, but, in the case of a prolonged war, a destabilization of the entire Middle East.

Most political observers agree that it was ultimately Schröder's refusal to back up President Bush's ambitions in the Middle East, which won him the re-election in September last year.

In the past weeks it looked as if Berlin would soften its attitude towards Washington. But now that France has come out strongly with a similar position, the tone has hardened again. During somewhat emotional meetings in Versailles and Berlin in January commemorating the 40th anniversary of the German-French Friendship Treaty, both Gerhard Schröder and Jacques Chirac made it clear that their countries' political and economic interests in the Middle East differed significantly from those of the United States. And now the gap is widening.

When US defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld remarked that the two countries represented diminishing 'Old Europe' with the center of gravity shifting to the east of the continent, this drew not only an extraordinarily sharp response from all political quarters, but also triggered off a lively public debate.

It would not be surprising at all if the latest verbal intervention from Washington contributes to a better definition of European values and a clearer identity of the 'Old Europe' in today's world. This new reasoning is likely to extend to the relationship of the old continent to the Arab world, to which it is geographically and historically so much closer to than the 'New America'.