Angela should keep her nose out of Irish politics

TWICE I checked the date above your headline ‘Merkel rejects Ahern to urge FG vote’ (Irish Examiner, April 2) so as not to be taken in by an April Fool’s Day joke.

As chairperson of the EU presidency, German Chancellor Angela Merkel should be very careful about meddling in another country’s election.

If the statement read out by Simon Coveney MEP at the Fine Gael árd fheis is true, then Ms Merkel has committed a serious breach of protocol and our Department of Foreign Affairs should lodge a formal complaint.

Perhaps the chancellor had a lapse of memory and forgot she is no longer living and working in the former Soviet- controlled East Germany?

Or perhaps it is a sign of things to come? First the Nice Treaty, then the EU constitution, which Germany seems hell-bent on enforcing against the will of the majority of member states.

This being Easter, it is perhaps the right time for Irish people to step back and reflect on our history.

Having fought for centuries against British rule, are we now prepared to hand over all real decision-making to unelected bureaucrats in Brussels?

If we are not careful, Dáil Eireann will become just a forum to rubber stamp decisions made in Brussels.

Winfried Eamon Scheidges

147 Laurel Park

Galway