Tag Archives: Angela Merkel

Has Europe Rebelled? by Oriental Review

Posted on May 10, 2018 | 1 comment

Europe may be realizing that its interests and the US’s aren’t always one and the same, and deciding to do something about it. From the editorial board at Oriental Review, orientalreview.org:

Washington’s current foreign-policy practice is a bit reminiscent of the golden era of the Ottoman Sublime Porte, in the sense that any visit by a leader of a vassal state is seen as nothing more than an opportunity for a public demonstration of his willingness to serve the great sultan or, in the modern context, to do the bidding of the master of the White House.

The visitor must also wear a big grin and speak passionately about how happy he is to have been given the opportunity to kiss the Sultan’s slippers. Or, to put it in the language of today, to be impressed with the leadership of the US and personally inspired by the energy of the American president. The Washington establishment can’t wrap its head around any other configuration, and therefore in the present era of America’s ebbing hegemony, the ideal visitors to the White House are the presidents of Ukraine or the Baltic countries. The other heads of states that come to Washington, including EU leaders and even some African presidents, act like insolent upstarts, who — from the standpoint of imperial tradition — do not stand to attention, tend to offer their flattery without fervor or exuberance, and, most importantly, do not race off to fulfill the wishes of the leaders of the empire.

Reception ceremony of the Conte de Saint Priest at the Ottoman Porte Antoine de Favray 1767
Reception ceremony of the Conte de Saint Priest at the Ottoman Porte by Antoine de Favray 1767

The meeting between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump on April 27, 2018 served only to confirm that Washington does not need allies who have their own national interests: all allies must be guided by the concept of the unipolar hegemony of the US. Anyone who is uncomfortable with this is relegated to the circle of those who are seen as unfriendly to the White House. The Washington Post makes it clear that Germany falls into this latter camp: “Angela Merkel is becoming Europe’s weakest link.”

To continue reading: Has Europe Rebelled?

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Merkel’s New Interior Minister: “Islam Does Not Belong To Germany”, by Tyler Durden

Posted on March 16, 2018 | 1 comment

Angela Merkel has lasted as long as she has as Germany’s Chancellor because she knows how to pick up on winning themes and drop losing ones. Unlimited Islamic migration to Germany is a loser, and although she was its biggest proponent, she’s moving away from it. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

In a startling confirmation of the rising power of Germany’s populist movement, on Friday Germany’s new Interior Minister Horst Seehofer declared that “Islam does not belong to Germany” while setting out hardline immigration policies in an interview published on Friday, in an attempt to ward off rising anti-immigration challengers.

“Islam does not belong to Germany,” Seehofer said, contradicting former German president Christian Wulff who fueled a debate over immigration in 2010 by saying Islam was part of Germany. In 2015 Merkel echoed Wulff’s words at a time when anti-immigration campaign group PEGIDA – or Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West – was holding marches.

 

Horst Seehofer

Closing the book on Merkel’s disastrous “open door” policies, Seehofer told Bild he would push through a “master plan for quicker deportations”, in his first major interview since he was sworn into office on Wednesday.

The minister – a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CSU Bavarian allies who are further to the right than her own Christian Democrats – said he would also classify more states as “safe” countries of origin, which would make it easier to deport failed asylum seekers. The statements – an obvious attempt to court populist voters – come after Merkel’s conservatives, and their coalition allies – the Social Democrats – lost ground to the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in elections last year.

As Reuters notes, Seehofer is particularly keen to show his party is tackling immigration ahead of Bavaria’s October regional election, when the AfD is expected to enter that state assembly.

“Of course the Muslims living here do belong to Germany,” Seehofer said before going on to say Germany should not give up its own traditions or customs, which had Christianity at their heart.

“My message is: Muslims need to live with us, not next to us or against us,” he said.

According to the German government, between 4.4 and 4.7 million Muslims live in Germany today; most have a Turkish background and many of the more than a million migrants who have arrived in the country from the Middle East and elsewhere after Merkel adopted an open-door policy in mid-2015 are also Muslims.

To continue reading: Merkel’s New Interior Minister: “Islam Does Not Belong To Germany”

 

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The High Price of Denial, by Douglass Murray

Posted on March 15, 2018 | 1 comment

There are too many European immigrant problems for politicians to ignore. From Douglass Murray at gatestoneinstitute.org:

  • They are now admitting what is visible to the eyes of ordinary Europeans may be an admission that things have got so bad — and are so well known — that even Chancellor Merkel and the New York Timesare no longer able to ignore them.
  • If so, one thought must surely follow: imagine what might have been solved if the denials had never even begun?

Is it possible that mainstream politicians and the mainstream media are finally recognising what the European public can see with their own eyes? Two recent occurrences suggest that this might be so.

The first is a concession by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who almost half a year after her party’s embarrassment in national elections has finally managed to put together a coalition government. Last September saw not only Merkel’s party and her erstwhile coalition partners suffer a historic dent in their vote-share, but also saw the entry to Parliament of the five-year old anti-immigration AfD (Alternative for Germany) party, which is now so large that it constitutes the country’s official opposition. If German voters meant to send a message, it could hardly have been clearer.

Perhaps it was even listened to. On Monday February 26, Merkel gave an interview to the German broadcaster N-TV. In it she finally admitted that there are “no-go areas” in her country: “that is, areas where nobody dares to go.” She continued: “There are such areas and one has to call them by their name and do something about them.” The Chancellor claimed that she favoured a “zero tolerance” attitude towards such places but did not identify where they were. Two days later, her spokesman, Steffen Seibert stressed that “the Chancellor’s words speak for themselves.”

To continue reading: The High Price of Denial

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Merkel Finally Acknowledges German “No-Go” Zones, Vows To Eliminate, by Tyler Durden

Posted on February 27, 2018 | 1 comment

It took her awhile, but Angela Merkel finally realized that when regular Germans can’t enter significant swaths of Germany because of immigrant violence and crime, you have an immigrant problem. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

Following approval from Germany’s conservatives to cooperate with the Social Democrats (SPD) on several political impasses, German Chancellor Angela Merkel sat down with Germany’s RTL Aktuell where she discussed a number of policy positions – including an acknowledgement of Germany’s growing “no-go” zones, and the need to do something about them.

Amid a spike in crime attributed to refugees, German officials been slowly acknowledging the negative impact of the flood of migrants taken in after the destabilization of Libya and similar regions – even going so far as to offer thousands of Euros to rejected asylum seekers.

The scheme, which the government has dubbed “Your country. Your future. Now!” will run until February next year. Individual migrants can receive up to €1,000 ($1,185) if they voluntarily return home, while families can receive up to €3,000 to do the same. The assistance is meant to help reintegrate rejected asylum seekers in their home countries. –Quartz

While on the topic of keeping Germany safe, Merkel said “It’s always a point to me that internal security is the state’s duty, the state has the monopoly of power, the state has to make sure that people have the right to it whenever they meet and move in a public space.” (translated)

Merkel then discussed Germany’s “zero tolerance” policy of enforcement:

“That means, for example, that there are no no-go areas, that there can be no rooms where no one dares to go, and there are such spaces, and you have to call that by name and you have to do something about it. And I think that Thomas de Maizière did a very good job as Minister of the Interior, but we also said now that we want a model police law, we can not stand by the different security standards in different states and that needs to be as unified as possible“

To continue reading: Merkel Finally Acknowledges German “No-Go” Zones, Vows To Eliminate

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Merkel’s Last Stand – Article 7 For Poland, by Tom Luongo

Posted on December 19, 2017 | Leave a comment

Countries in Europe will do as the EU says, and the EU will do as Germany says. So says Angela Merkel. From Tom Luongo at tomluongo.me:

As she fights for her political life Soon-to-be-ex-Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel will go down swinging against her stiffest political opponents in the European Union, the Poles.  Merkel and French President Emmanual Macron publicly agreed to back Article 7 proceedings against Poland for refusing to comply with EU immigration quotas and changes to its judicial system.

Immigration quotas, I might add, that are becoming harder to defend as the war in Syria is mostly over and the flow of refugees from there has slowed to a trickle.   But, those brought in and stranded in camps in Italy and Greece apparently need to go somewhere else.

But, no one wants them.  And the rest of the EU is trying to bully Poland and the rest of the Visigrad countries – Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia – into taking on their ‘fair share.’  The problem with this is that Merkel made this decision unilaterally and foisted it on the rest of the EU.

And she is determined not to lose this fight to Poland, not because this is any kind of humanitarian issue at this point.

No, this is about the primacy of EU diktats being enforced at the expense of logic and political cohesion.  And, as I’ve been warning about all year, Merkel will put the EU before any practical consideration and bring Article 7 proceedings against Poland.

Because she has to.

Immigration and the destruction of individual European cultures is the guiding principle behind the EU’s biggest benefactors.  This policy is part of the long-term strategic goals of the EU.  It has created an army which will be used to quell secessionist movements in the name of ‘continental security.’

Because despite the fevered dreams of a few hundred Latvians, the Russians are not invading Europe anytime soon.

To continue reading: Merkel’s Last Stand – Article 7 For Poland

 

 

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German Election: Merkel’s Pyrrhic Victory, by Soeren Kern

Posted on September 26, 2017 | Leave a comment

Angela Merkel’s party didn’t register too well n Germany’s election, although it did well enough for her to retain the chancellorship. Discontent was registered in the better than expected showing for the Alternative for Germany, a right wing party that opposes Merkel’s policies on immigration and further intergration with Europe. From Soren Kern at gatestoneinstitute.or:

  • “Angela Merkel has ruled this country for twelve years. She has imposed a debt burden of billions on the Germans to protect the southern part of Europe from collapsing and to implement her idea of ​​a European community. She has shaken the German energy industry to save the world’s climate. And she has opened the gates of the country to hundreds of thousands of refugees because she considered it a humanitarian obligation. She also changed the traditional notion of marriage, as marriage of husband and wife, just like that….” — Tagesspiegel.
  • “We will reclaim our country and our people.” — Alexander Gauland, a former CDU official who is now co-chairman of the Alternative for Germany party (AfD).
  • “The reality is that as of today, September 24, Ms. Merkel is in effect a lame duck.” — Handelsblatt.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has won a fourth term in office, but the real winner of the German election on September 24 was the Alternative for Germany, an upstart party that harnessed widespread anger over Merkel’s decision to allow into the country more than a million mostly Muslim migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Preliminary election results show that Merkel’s center-right CDU/CSU alliance won around 33% of the vote, its worst electoral result in nearly 70 years. Merkel’s main challenger, Martin Schulz and his center-left SPD, won 20.5%, the party’s worst-ever showing.

The nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) won around 13% to become the country’s third-largest party, followed by the classical liberal Free Democrats (FDP) with 10.7%, the far-left Linke party with 9.2% and the environmentalist Greens with 8.9%.

“With only 33%, Merkel has not only achieved the worst result of all the campaigns she has led, but also the second-worst in the party’s history,” wrote Die Zeit.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks to the media in Berlin on September 25, the day after her CDU/CSU party alliance won first place with 32.9% of the vote — its worst electoral result in nearly 70 years. (Photo by Maja Hitij/Getty Images)

To continue reading: German Election: Merkel’s Pyrrhic Victory

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Angela Merkel’s Tears, by Justin Raimondo

Posted on May 31, 2017 | Leave a comment

It’s hard being kicked out into the cold, cruel world; just ask a college graduate who was reared by parents who actually parented. Now, Angela Merkel may be getting that bracing feeling of being on her own. From Justin Raimondo at antiwar.com:

Empires are continually confronted with the prospect of rebellions: that is one of the occupational hazards of imperialism. The Romans had to contend with those contentious Judeans, whose revolt arguably gave rise to one of the word’s great religions. The British lost control of their American colonies to a motley crew of libertarians. And now the Americans, in turn, are struggling with … well, something quite different.

The historical pattern follows the old Roman/British tradition: the imperial power launches a campaign to acquire territory, it conquers its enemies, and occupies the vanquished nation(s). The goal is not only to take new lands and spread the authority of the State beyond its traditional boundaries, but also to extract wealth from the defeated in the form of taxes, raw goods, and markets closed to competitors.

In the case of the American Empire, however, things have been turned on their heads, and nothing dramatizes this bizarre inversion more than the conflict now playing out between the US and, principally, Germany over the future of the NATO alliance.

When President Donald Trump, on his first overseas tour, lectured the assembled NATO-crats on their failure to pay their “fair share” of the alliance’s costs, the looks on their faces were a study in contemptuous annoyance. When he failed to reassert Washington’s commitment to Article Five of the NATO treaty, it was as if the Pope had refuted the divinity of Christ. The failure to reach accord on trade and “climate change” exacerbated the split in the Western alliance, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel was quick to respond.

“Speaking in a packed beer tent in Munich on Sunday, after a Group of Seven summit in Sicily and a NATO meeting in Brussels – both dominated by tensions with Trump – Merkel spoke with surprising frankness.

“’The times when we could fully count on others are over to a certain extent. I have experienced this in the last few days,’ Merkel said.

“’We Europeans must really take our destiny into our own hands, of course in friendship with the United States, in friendship with Great Britain, with other neighbors wherever possible, also with Russia,’ she continued.

“’But we must know that we need to fight for our future ourselves, as Europeans, for our destiny.’”

To continue reading: Angela Merkel’s Tears

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Germany’s Jihad on Freedom of Speech, by Vijeta Uniyal

Posted on March 6, 2017 | Leave a comment

You can make fun of Trump in Germany, that’s just satire. But you’d better not make fun of Angel Merkel and her refugee policy; that’s criminal hate speech. From Vijeta Uniyal at gatestoneinstitute.com:

• Germany’s police and legal systems, which took weeks to prosecute anyone in the city of Cologne in the wake of the New Year’s Eve mass sexual assaults, and then closed most of the cases after a year-long investigation, immediately swung into action against a group of small-town revellers.

• In Merkel’s Germany, you are allowed to walk free after setting fire to a synagogue, but not for mocking the Chancellor’s “sacred” refugee policy.

• While German police are busy raiding homes across the country and targeting citizens who write “hateful” or “offensive” Facebook postings, mosques in German are openly preaching anti-Semitism and ISIS-style jihadism.

Carnival in Germany is a time for some light-hearted fun, fancy costumes and political satire. This year, many German cities held traditional float parades on Rosenmontag, or Rose Monday, many of which depicted political themes. Images of U.S. President Donald Trump took centre stage in many float processions, in some instances with his decapitated head held up high by the Statue of Liberty, in the style of an ISIS beheading.

Other floats went after nationalist European leaders and right-wing parties. In Düsseldorf, President Trump was shown standing next to a blond Hitler, joined by France’s Marine Le Pen, and the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders.

Germany prides in its traditional Narrenfreiheit (“jesters’ freedom”) to mock the high and mighty. This year, Germany’s state-run Deutsche Welle news agency proudly proclaimed, “German jesters take on kings for 2017 Carnival.”

To those objecting to some of these violent depictions of President Trump, prominent German journalist Christian Thiels reminded the public that, “It’s called ‘freedom of satire’. You don’t have to like it or find it tasteful but it is part of free speech.”

To continue reading: Germany’s Jihad on Freedom of Speech

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German Media Says Merkel Can Not Afford To Bail Out Deutsche Bank, by Tyler Durden

Posted on October 2, 2016 | Leave a comment

Pity Angela Merkel (just kidding). Deutsche Bank is Germany’s largest bank and a big part of the German economy. It has a huge derivatives exposure and now the US Department of Justice is asking for $14 billion. Merkel and Germany have insisted that southern European nations, particularly Greece and Italy, not bail out their insolvent banks and force depositors and bond holders to share the pain. She has also said that Deutsche Bank will get no government aid. But it’s Deutsche Bank and what happens if depositors start pulling their money? From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

Having kept mostly silent during the past week when Deutsche Bank stock was crashing, its default risk soaring, and only a spurious rumor by French AFP, based on a Twitter report, prevented the bank’s stock from going into a three day weekend at all time lows , on Saturday the German press woke up to the ongoing local banking crisis, reiterating what stoked the crisis in the first place, namely Angela Merkel’s statement last weekend that it won’t bail out Deutsche Bank.

Repeating not only what Merkel herself said last week – a statement which first prompted this week’s plunge in DB stock – but what we have said all along, namely that a bailout of Deutsche Bank would be political suicide for the Chancellor due to pressure from AfD, and may lead to the collapse of Europe, where other nations, namely Italy, have been pushing for a similar bailout of their own banking systems only to be met with stern denials by German, Reuters reports that according to much of the German media, Angela Merkel cannot afford to bail out Deutsche Bank given the hard line Berlin has taken against state aid in other European nations and the risk of a political backlash at home.

Last week’s events, which have prompted numerous flashbacks to that certain historic week in September 2008 when Lehman failed after counterparties yanked cash from the doomed bank, culminated when the German government denied a newspaper report on Wednesday that it was working on a rescue plan for the Germany lender, unleashing a plunge in DB shares, which was accelerated after a Bloomberg report that hedge fund counterparties to DB’s prime brokerage had quietly withdrawn cash from the bank.

Only a so-far unconfirmed and very improbable report on Friday morning that the DOJ is willing to cut the $14 billion penalty to DB by more than half, prevented the stock from plunging further into the Friday close.

And while we wait to find what the real story about the DOJ’s settlement decision is, Germany’s press is already making it clear – once again – that a Deutsche Bank bailout is out of the picture.

As Reuters adds, Germany, which has insisted Italy and others accept tough conditions in tackling their problem lenders, can ill afford to be seen to go soft on its flagship bank, the Frankfurter Allgemeine wrote. “Of course Chancellor Merkel doesn’t want to give Deutsche Bank any state aid,” it wrote in a front-page editorial. “She cannot afford it from the point of view of foreign policy because Berlin is taking a hard line in the Italian bank rescue.”

To continue reading: German Media Says Merkel Can Not Afford To Bail Out Deutsche Bank

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Be Careful What You Wish For, Angela, by Raúl Ilargi Meijer

Posted on March 9, 2016 | Leave a comment

From Raúl Ilargi Meijer at theautomaticearth.com:

“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.”
– Groucho Marx

What is perhaps most remarkable about the deal the EU is trying to seal with Turkey to push back ALL refugees who come to Greece is that the driving force behind it turns out to be Angela Merkel. Reports say that she and temp EU chairman Dutch PM Mark Rutte ‘pushed back’ the entire EU delegation that had been working on the case, including Juncker and Tusk, and came with proposals that go much further than even Brussels had in mind.

Why? Angela has elections this weekend she’s afraid to lose.

It’s also remarkable that the deal with the devil they came up with is fraught with so many legal uncertainties -it not outright impossibilities- that it’s highly unlikely the deal will ever be closed, let alone implemented. One thing they will have achieved is that refugees will arrive in much larger numbers over the next ten days, before a sequel meeting will be held, afraid as they will be to be pushed back after that date.

They may not have to be so scared of that, because anything remotely like what was agreed on will face so many legal challenges it may be DOA. Moreover, in the one-for-one format that is on the table, Europe would be forced to accept as many refugees from Turkey as it pushes back to that country. Have Merkel and Rutte realized this? Or do they think they can refuse that later, or slow it down?

Under the deal, Turkey seems to have little incentive to prevent refugees from sailing to Greece. Because for every one who sails and returns, Turkey can send one to Europe. What if that comes to a million, or two, three? The numbers of refugees in Turkey will remain the same, while the number in Europe will keep growing ad infinitum.

Sweet Jesus, Angela, we understand you have problems with the refugee situation, and that you have elections coming up this weekend, but what made you think the answer can be found in playing fast and loose with the law? And what, for that matter, do you expect to gain from negotiating a Faustian deal with the devil? Surely you know that makes you lose your soul?

You said yesterday that history won’t look kindly on the EU if it fails on refugees, but how do you think history will look on you for trying to sign a deal that violates various international laws, including the Geneva Conventions? You have this aura of being kinder than most of Europe to the refugees, but then you go and sell them out to a guy who aids ISIS, massacres Kurds, shuts down all the media he doesn’t like and makes a killing smuggling refugees to Greece?

To continue reading: Be Careful What You Wish For, Angela

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