Only unseen hegemony seems acceptable to Germany

Yesterday I read an extraordinary piece in the Irish Times, it is linked here. I have been pondering its meaning for over twenty-four hours and have come to only one conclusion, which is summarised in the headline to this posting.

Let me begin to explain with some selected quotes:

"BERLIN IS not interested in leading the EU but is anxious to renew its “pacemaker” role with France, according to German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble."

.... " "I have a sceptical view of a kind of general German leadership because the term ‘hegemony’ has bad associations in the light of our history,” he wrote in the Frankfurter Allgemeine daily yesterday.

...."Instead the finance minister said the EU’s challenges, in particular the euro-zone crisis, made clear the need to move beyond national thinking to post-national strategies.

“Much more promising is co-operation with France, not as a dual hegemony but as joint pacemaker,” he wrote.

My conclusion from the above ( here I can see no other possible meaning) is that Germany is to use its 'influence' over France to share the blame for finally attaining its centuries old but recently more secret long-term aim of achieving hegemony over its EU neighbours.

We must hope President Sarkozy's London trip this week with several cabinet ministers is a visible rejection of such an agenda! I have often and at length warned on this blog of the dangers of the present direction of EU policies!