Actually, I found a de-bunking article in Spiegel. It is even more thorough than SZ's. However, the debunking is preceded by a dissection of irrelevant economic weaknesses of the three countries (among others, unit labour costs), so that they can answer their own question, "Is Merkel right?" with a "Jein" (combination of Yes and No that doesn't translate)... This may be worse than not doing any debunking.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}