Germans put Germany first. 76% of them are opposed to expanding the EU bailout fund because Germany would have to pay the largest share. So ingrained is this thinking that Philip Rosler, the deputy chancellor and head of the FDP, the Free Democratic Party, has improved his poll numbers lately by making noises that they should stop bailing out Ireland, Portugal, and Greece.
As the September 29 vote in Parliament about the expansion of the bailout fund nears, Rosler speaks out against it more and more. He hopes that rebel conservatives from Merkel’s own party will join him.
Germans don’t like to think internationally. They like to think of their own country apart from any other place. It’s sort of like American Isolationism, but it operates differently. And it’s not moderated by Anglo ideas about liberating the world and raising them to the British level of civilization as a moral duty.