EU breakup 'is no longer unthinkable,' says German vice chancellor

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU, R) and Vice Chancellor and Economy and Energy Minister Sigmar Gabriel (SPD)
(Image credit: Adam Berry/Getty Images)

The breakup of the European Union in the relative near future is not inconceivable, German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told Der Spiegel in an interview published Saturday.

"I know that this discussion is extremely unpopular," said Gabriel, who is the German analog to a vice president. "But I also know about the state of the EU. It is no longer unthinkable that it breaks apart." If that happens, he continued, "our children and grandchildren would curse us, because Germany is the biggest beneficiary of the European community — economically and politically."

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.