Counterpoint: Here in Germany there is relatively little centralization. For example, the government could not implement country wide corona measures, which in the end meant that much less was accomplished compared to centralized countries such as France. In France, one can just close borders and announce curfews. In Germany, such measures always end up as the minimum consensus between 16 states. Frequently, federal…
To me this sounds like you made an excellent argument for more decentralization, not less. - Germany vs France in regards to Corona: similar sized countries, yet I venture that Germany has been doing far better than France in dealing with the pandemic. Maybe it is because the local governors have a better idea of what are the real challenges of their regions than some bureaucrat sitting in Berlin? - Bavaria takes too…
Sure, one can get rid of the EU. But you'll notice that most countries actually don't want this - especially Euro-critical countries in eastern Europe profit hugely from the EU and would never seriously consider going back to the previous state of things.
No, I think the EU is far too decentralized in areas that matter. It has power, to some degree, but it doesn't have real representation. For example, if the EU had a centralized fiscal&monetary policy, things would have looked much less bleak for southern parts of the Union.
For covid, Germany was doing well initially due to having a far better medical system. However, in relative terms, it did poorly. Yes, the pre-established institutions worked well, such as having the most advanced hospital system and the most ICU units by a mile, however everything that followed was a disaster characterized primarily by doing too little. Germany never managed to beat the second wave. France did.