11 April 2014
If one addresses the controversy between Wolfgang Streeck and Jürgen Habermas following the “logic of demand and supply” that Hans-Georg Gadamer[1] posed as the foundation for all pragmatics of an agreement, what strikes one is the “polarity of familiarity and extraneousness” [Polarität von Fremdheit und Vertrautheit] of these two intellectuals, who, although both debating the future of European integration, follow diverging argumentative paths and refute the dominant theses of their reciprocal stands. In his reply Vom DM-Nationalismus zum Euro-Patriotismus? Eine Replik auf Jürgen Habermas, published in September in the “Blätter für deutsche und internationale Politik,”[2] in fact, Streeck totally rejects the nucleus of Habermas’ critique of the “nostalgic option” in favour of the old national-state[3] of which he is not at all a strong supporter, blaming Habermas for the passage from the “nationalism of the German mark” to “the patriotism of the euro” which certainly provides an image that does not reflect his thoughts on the European Union.