But if we are looking for a deeper motivation, it derives from Merkel’s appreciation that the coronavirus presented Europe with a new type of challenge, a harbinger of the new era of violent environmental shocks. It was telling that in the pivotal press conference with Macron on May 18, Merkel made the point that Covid was the kind of crisis that demonstrated the obsolescence of the nation-state. “Europe must act together, the nation-state alone has no future.”
