The EU can emerge stronger from the pandemic if Merkel seizes the moment | Timothy Garton Ash
(The Guardian Germany)

One member state has become a dictatorship as others spiral into debt. Germany must lead through the coronavirus crisis Coronavirus - latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverage`Europe will be forged in crises,` said Jean Monnet, one of the founding fathers of the European Union, `and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises.` What kind of Europe emerges from the coronavirus crisis will depend on the answers given to three tests.First, the Hungarian test: can a dictatorship be a member of the EU? Even before this year, Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party had so far eroded democracy in Hungary that the country would not qualify for admission to the EU if it were a candidate for membership. He has now used the coronavirus pandemic as justification to take sweeping emergency powers, allowing him to rule by decree for an unlimited period. Hungary is - for the duration of these powers - a dictatorship. Monnet also said a dictatorship cannot be a member of the European Community (which subsequently became the EU). Today, one is.Timothy Garton Ash is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...