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Russian dissident Alexei Navalny echoes criticisms levelled by German chancellor’s spokesman

Angela Merkel, German chancellor, has sharply criticised Twitter’s decision to ban US president Donald Trump, calling it a “problematic” breach of the “fundamental right to free speech”.

Twitter suspended Mr Trump’s account last week in the aftermath of the riots at the Capitol Building, citing “repeated and severe” violations of its civic integrity policies. Facebook has taken similar action.

But Ms Merkel said through her spokesman that the US government should follow Germany’s lead in adopting laws that restrict online incitement, rather than leaving it up to platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to make up their own rules.

The intervention highlights a key area of disagreement between the US and Europe on how to regulate social media platforms. The EU wants to give regulators more powers to force internet platforms such as Facebook or Twitter to remove illegal content.

In the US, technology companies have traditionally been left to themselves to police their own sites, though momentum is gathering behind political moves to curtail their regulatory freedoms. Several members of Congress are working on bills which would limit the legal protections social media companies have from being sued for third-party content posted on their sites. Others are pushing for a new federal data privacy bill that could mirror the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation.

Twitter’s share price fell more than 7 per cent on Monday to about $48, as investors were spooked by the renewed debate into the prospect of tighter social media regulation.

Ms Merkel’s spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said free speech was a “fundamental right of vital importance” that could be restricted, “but only in accordance with the laws and within a framework defined by the legislator — not by the decision of the management of social media platforms”.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Merkel Inks Deal For Stalled German Coal Exit

January 17, 2020

Merkel Inks Deal For Stalled German Coal Exit

In a move that’s sure to restore a smidgen of Greta Thunberg’s childhood, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has finally hammered out a deal for Germany’s stalled exit from coal-fired power generation, after state leaders agreed to shut down the industry by 2038.

We would note that this falls outside the 12-year window of doom predicted by US climate expert Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but better late than never when environmental apocalypse is on the line.

Germany’s plan includes 40 billion euros ($44.6 billion) in compensation for impacted regions, according to Bloomberg. The country’s largest coal-fired power producer, RWE AG, will receive 2.6 billion euros according to an insider – sending the stock up 1.7% in mid-morning trade on Thursday. In eastern Germany, utility Lignite operators will receive 1.75 billion euros according to German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz.

Germany reaches agreement to phase out coal by 2038

Merkel has been in a tight spot on the issue, facing pressure from environmentalists and miners alike. Climate tops voter concerns, and Germany will already miss its 2020 targets under the Paris Agreement. On the other hand, the poorer states in the former Communist East, where the bulk of the mines are, fear a growing gap to the West. Her predicament feeds into a broader political challenge, with the Greens party and the far-right Alternative for Germany gaining support on both sides of the political spectrum to squeeze Germany’s traditional mainstream parties, including her Christian Democrats. The AfD has been particularly strong in the eastern mining states.
“It was a long night — it lasted until 2 a.m. — but we were able to achieve a sensible agreement,” Armin Laschet, premier of the state of North-Rhine Westphalia, said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk radio. “The time frame that we’ve agreed on is ambitious, but realistic.” –Bloomberg (via Yahoo!)

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Assange and Auschwitz

December 9, 2019

Assange and Auschwitz

When I read that Angela Merkel visited Auschwitz this week (for the first time ever, curiously, after 14 years as Chancellor, and now it’s important?), my first thought was: she should have visited Julian Assange instead. I don’t even know why, it just popped into my head. And then reflecting on it afterwards, of course first I wondered if it’s acceptable to compare nazi victims to Assange in any way, shape or form.

There are many paths to argue it is not. He is not persecuted solely for being part of a group of people (we can’t really use “race” here). There are not millions like him who are being tortured and persecuted for the same reasons he is. There is no grand scheme to take out all like him. There is no major police or army force to execute any such scheme. These things are all obvious.

But I grew up in Holland, where unlike in Merkel’s Germany, the aftermath of WWII and the Holocaust was very much present. I looked it up, and it’s already almost 10 years ago that I wrote Miep Gies Died Today, in which I explained this. Miep Gies was a woman who worked for Anne Frank’s father Otto, helped hide the family in the annex, and after the war secured Anne’s diary (or we would never have known about it) and handed it to Otto Frank.

So accusing me of anti-semitism for comparing the Holocaust to what is being done to Assange is not going to work. Why then did Merkel never visit Auschwitz before this week, and when she did, said how important it is to German history? And why did she not visit Assange instead?

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Angela Merkel Says Freedom of Speech Must be Curtailed to Keep Society Free

November 30, 2019

Angela Merkel Says Freedom of Speech Must be Curtailed to Keep Society Free

Wait, what?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says that freedom of expression must be curtailed in order to keep society free.

Yes, really.

“For all those who claim that they can no longer express their opinion, I say this to them; If you express a pronounced opinion, you must live with the fact that you will be contradicted,” said Merkel during a speech to the German Parliament.

“Expressing an opinion does not come at zero cost, but freedom of expression has limits,” she added, as some in the Bundestag could be heard voicing their disagreement.

“Those limits begin where hatred is spread, they begin where the dignity of other people is violated. This house will and must oppose extreme speech otherwise our society will no longer be the free society that it was,” said Merkel.

✔

Watch till the end. Angela Merkel says: we have to take away your freedom of speech, or else society won’t be free.

Of course, what “violates” the “dignity” of other people is completely subjective and could include all manner of speech that most people would find perfectly acceptable.

The debate over free speech in Germany has intensified since the country accepted over a million migrants from the Middle East and North Africa from 2015 onwards.

Many Germans have found themselves hit with charges of hate speech for pointing out ‘hate facts’ like migrants being responsible for crimes and sexual assaults

This happened despite the German government’s own numbers showing violent crime in Germany rose by 10 per cent between 2015 and 2016 and that more than 90 per cent of the rise was attributable to young male “refugees.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Pence Urged Germany To Provoke Russian Navy

March 8, 2019

Pence Urged Germany To Provoke Russian Navy

Bloomberg dropped a bombshell on Thursday, citing three high level sources familiar with US-German talks at last month’s Munich Security Conference who revealed US Vice President Mike Pence tried to persuade German Chancellor Angela Merkel to directly provoke Russia by sending German ships through the Kerch Strait, the two mile wide flashpoint off Crimea which saw Russia seize Ukrainian vessels and their crew members on November 25.

Merkel reportedly rebuffed the efforts which Bloomberg described as “a naval maneuver in Russia’s backyard aimed at provoking President Vladimir Putin.” Merkel declined Pence’s urging while citing reservations voiced by Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who viewed such an act as “not enough” to ensure Russia opens the strait permanently, according to the sources. Sources said Pence’s plan was designed “to show Putin that Western powers won’t surrender their access to those waters.”Image source: Reuters

Interestingly, Merkel’s stance wasn’t based on any principled desire to promoted peace or prevent needless provocations which could potentially spark regional war between Ukraine and Russia and western allies, but out of concern it essentially “wasn’t enough”.

According to Bloomberg:

Merkel had indicated she was willing, in coordination with the French, to send a convoy through the waterway as a one-time maneuver but Poroshenko said that wasn’t enough to solve his problem — he wants to ensure the strait is open permanently, the people said. France also refused to take part, judging the idea as an unnecessary provocation, according to another official who declined to be identified.

Following the controversial 2014 Crimean status referendum, which resulted in the peninsula coming under Russian suzerainty, Russia has been accused of choking off Ukrainian naval access to its ports on the Sea of Azov to the north of the Kerch Strait.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Are France And Germany About To Form An EU Superstate?

January 14, 2019

Are France And Germany About To Form An EU Superstate?

Inching ever closer towards an EUSSR.

As the fire rages on, the citizenry floods the streets, and political turmoil reigns supreme in Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are telling everyone to please disperse because everything is fine and there’s nothing to see here.

Thanks to 2016’s historic Brexit vote, the European Union mandate is being threatened. Despite the denials emanating from left-leaning news outlets, other nations are interested in their own emancipation from Brussels, whether it is the growing Frexit movement or the Grexit push. It’s only a matter of time before this failed experiment enters the dustbins of history and will be remembered as fondly as the Ice Capades or Nickelback.

To stave off the eurozone’s inevitable demise, the bloc’s two biggest markets are in the beginning phases of forming a superstate, and it could present the next step toward global government. France and Germany will sign a so-called twinning pact at the end of January, an unprecedented policy maneuver that could serve as a blueprint for the future of the E.U.

Twinning

Under this new agreement, the two nations will share defense, economic, and foreign policies and unite in a diplomatic front.

Ministers from both governments will be permitted to sit in each other’s cabinet meetings, policies will be presented with the goal of moving towards economic convergence, and security forces will cooperate closely in tackling organized crime and terrorism. For now, the primary objective is to get Germany accepted as a permanent member of the United Nation’s Security Council.

Perhaps the most terrifying prospect of them all is the promotion of Eurodistricts. This will consist of the Franco-German partnership merging public transportation, water, and electricity networks.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

The Merkel & Macron Tag-Team – Surrender Sovereignty to Brussels

December 31, 2018

The Merkel & Macron Tag-Team – Surrender Sovereignty to Brussels

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; Merkel has come out and said that “Nation states must today be prepared to give up their sovereignty.” This is what you have been saying that the agenda is to federalize Europe. Would you care to elaborate on her latest statement?

Thank you from Berlin

ANSWER: Merkel has stepped down as leader of the CDU. She knows that she is on the way out. She hopes to cling to her position of power until she is dragged out by the hair. This statement is indeed the behind the curtain view. But she qualified that statement insofar as yielding sovereignty to Brussels over especially migration. This is a shot across the bow at the rising nationalism. You must look at the entire statement she made in order to expose the thinking process.

Merkel condemned any notion that Germany should join a fast-growing number of nations pulling out of the migration agreement. Even Australia pulled out of the UN migration agreement. She said that “there were [politicians] who believed that they could decide when these agreements are no longer valid because they are representing The People”. What is interesting is how she is splitting a democratic form of government which represents the people and one of an anti-democratic position because politicians know better than the people. She continued to remark that “the people are individuals who are living in a country, they are not a group who define themselves as the [German] people.” She holds the position that migration is inevitable, necessary and desirable. She refuses to admit that allowing in the refugees was a mistake.

Her reasoning states that nationalism “is not patriotism, because patriotism is when you include others in German interests and accept win-win situations.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Angela Merkel: Nation States Must “Give Up Sovereignty” To New World Order

December 28, 2018

Angela Merkel: Nation States Must “Give Up Sovereignty” To New World Order

“Nation states must today be prepared to give up their sovereignty”, according to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who told an audience in Berlin that sovereign nation states must not listen to the will of their citizens when it comes to questions of immigration, borders, or even sovereignty.

No this wasn’t something Adolf Hitler said many decades ago, this is what German Chancellor Angela Merkel told attendants at an event by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Berlin. Merkel has announced she won’t seek re-election in 2021 and it is clear she is attempting to push the globalist agenda to its disturbing conclusion before she stands down.

“In an orderly fashion of course,” Merkel joked, attempting to lighten the mood. But Merkel has always had a tin ear for comedy and she soon launched into a dark speech condemning those in her own party who think Germany should have listened to the will of its citizens and refused to sign the controversial UN migration pact:

“There were [politicians] who believed that they could decide when these agreements are no longer valid because they are representing The People”.

“[But] the people are individuals who are living in a country, they are not a group who define themselves as the [German] people,” she stressed.

Merkel has previously accused critics of the UN Global Compact for Safe and Orderly Migration of not being patriotic, saying “That is not patriotism, because patriotism is when you include others in German interests and accept win-win situations”.

Her words echo recent comments by the deeply unpopular French President Emmanuel Macron who stated in a Remembrance Day speech that “patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism [because] nationalism is treason.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Blain’s Morning Porridge – 29 Oct 2018

October 29, 2018

Blain’s Morning Porridge – 29 Oct 2018

“We are not now that strength which in old days, moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;”

I’m up in Edinburgh for a few days, so Porridge might be a bit sporadic this week. Will try to keep it updated.

UK will be distracted by UK Budget. Loads of stuff in the papers – so I won’t bore you further…

Instead, I’m adding a new list to my list of Blain’s Market Mantras: “The deeper you delve into a problem you perceive to be the next crisis, the more certain you can be it will erupt somewhere else.”*

Politics are a major driver of market sentiment. As the US is front and centre of global growth, the market is fixated on the looming US mid-terms. This morning there are plenty of headlines about Germany.. concluding Merkel had a narrow escape in the Hesse elections. The CDU got a spanking, but it was the SDP that suffered the usual fate of Merkel’s coalition partners – a complete shoeing. Analysis and commentary seems somewhat relaxed about it.

I reckon there is more to come. Despite some reassuring post result comments from the SPD, the sustainability of the coalition in doubt as the CDU wakes up to the reality of Merkel past her sell-by date, and Europe heads into a very dangerous 2019.

I did joke earlier this month – who gets chopped first? May or Merkel?

I suspect the noise we heard from the East last night was the prelude to Merkel’s Gotterdamerung. A slow motion crisis as German politics unravels could prove a massive distraction for Europe. It’s certainly worth keeping a close eye upon.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Why We’re Ungovernable, Part 15: Germany’s Merkel Demoted To Figurehead

September 23, 2018

Why We’re Ungovernable, Part 15: Germany’s Merkel Demoted To Figurehead

You don’t see “Germany” and “ungovernable” in the same headline very often. But that might be about to change, as Chancellor Angela Merkel, for the past decade the central pillar of Europe’s Establishment, loses influence both at home and abroad.

First came a wave of populist (read anti-euro, anti-austerity, anti-immigration) gains across Europe, culminating with an actual victory in Italy’s most recent election. Then came the rise of Germany’s own populist movement, Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which has become a legitimate power in some parts of the country.

And now Mekel has apparently lost control of her cabinet. From yesterday’s New York Times:

As the Far Right Gains in Germany, Merkel Weakens

BERLIN — For nearly two weeks Chancellor Angela Merkel tried to find a way to fire her own domestic intelligence chief, a man who had publicly contradicted her and become the darling of the far right for questioning the authenticity of a video showing angry white men chasing an immigrant.

But she couldn’t — not without risking the collapse of her fragile government.

Hans-Georg Maassen, the rebellious spy, has powerful friends, among them his immediate boss, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, the leader of the Bavarian conservatives and one of Ms. Merkel’s pricklier coalition partners.

Instead of firing Mr. Maassen, Ms. Merkel had to allow Mr. Seehofer to promote him. Mr. Maassen will get a pay raise of about 2,500 euros a month.

“You couldn’t make it up,” said Andrea Römmele, a professor of political science at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.

If the episode shows anything, analysts said in the aftermath, it is that Ms. Merkel is growing more feeble even as the far right — in Parliament, online and on the streets — is getting stronger.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

How the US, Under Obama, Created Europe’s Refugee Crisis

June 24, 2018

How the US, Under Obama, Created Europe’s Refugee Crisis

The current US President, Donald Trump, claimed on June 18th, that Germany’s leadership, and the leadership in other EU nations, caused the refugee-crisis that Europe is facing:

“The people of Germany are turning against their leadership as migration is rocking the already tenuous Berlin coalition. Crime in Germany is way up. Big mistake made all over Europe in allowing millions of people in who have so strongly and violently changed their culture!”

The US Government is clearly lying about this. The US Government itself caused this crisis that Europeans are struggling to deal with. Would the crisis even exist, at all, if the US had not invaded and tried to overthrow (and in some instances actually overthrown) the governments in Libya, Syria, and elsewhere — the places from which these refugees are escaping? The US Government, and a few of its allies in Europe (the ones who actually therefore really do share in some of the authentic blame for this crisis) caused this war and government-overthrow, etc., but Germany’s Government wasn’t among them, nor were many of the others in Europe. If the US Government had not led these invasions, probably not even France would have participated in any of them. The US Government, alone, is responsible for having caused these refugees. The US Government itself created this enormous burden to Europe, and yet refuses to accept these refugees that it itself had produced, by its having invaded and bombed to overthrow (among others) Libya’s Government, and then Syria’s Government, and by its aiding Al Qaeda in organizing and leading and arming, jihadists from all over the world to come to Syria to overthrow Syria’s Government and to replace it with one that would be selected by the US regime’s key Middle Eastern ally, the Saud family, who own Saudi Arabia, including its Government, and who are determined to take over Syria.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

“Can’t Work With That Woman Anymore”: Merkel Handed A Two-Week Ultimatum On Her “D-Day”

June 18, 2018

“Can’t Work With That Woman Anymore”: Merkel Handed A Two-Week Ultimatum On Her “D-Day”

Adding insult to injury, one day after Germany’s historic loss to Mexico (which resulted in a man-made earthquake in USA’s southern neighbor), Europe’s most important country is facing the “Destiny Day” to a political crisis like no other in its recent history.

For almost 13 years as chancellor, Handeslblatt writes this morning, Angela Merkel managed to outmaneuver all rivals, schemers and plotters.

“But her time could finally be up.”

Two of her Christian-Democratic predecessors, Konrad Adenauer and Ludwig Erhard, fell from power not after losing the electorate, but after losing the support of their own parliamentary bloc. That may now be Merkel’s fate, too.

Today, the top brass of her party, the CDU, and its Bavarian frenemies, the CSU, are meeting separately in Berlin and Munich, to agree on a common course about the coming days and weeks, however chances of a deal appear increasingly remote: according to Handelsblatt, Horst Seehofer, the CSU’s boss, federal interior minister and perennial Merkel gadfly, told one newspaper that he “can’t work with that woman anymore.”

*Horst Seehofer and Angela Merkel. Photo: DPA*

The issue is, as it has been since the crisis of 2015, refugees.

If Seehofer, acting as interior minister, really starts turning back asylum seekers at the border, this will count as open insubordination to Merkel. She would have to fire him. That would probably lead to a break between the CDU and CSU, which would cost their governing coalition with the Social Democrats its parliamentary majority.

Merkel would step down or be forced out.

Which is why, on Sunday Germany’s Bild said that Monday is “destiny day for Angela Merkel. For the government.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Why Merkel’s coalition could be about to collapse

June 16, 2018

Why Merkel’s coalition could be about to collapse

Photo: DPA

A fight between Angela Merkel and and her Interior Minister Horst Seehofer is threatening to collapse the German government less than three months after it was formed. Not for the first time, the two can’t agree on how to treat asylum seekers at the border.

What is the strife all about?

Merkel and Seehofer have been squabbling ever since the autumn of 2015, when the Chancellor decided to open Germany’s borders to refugees who were stranded in Hungary.

Pressure had been building throughout the summer on the government to do more to help people fleeing war in Syria. When 71 decomposing bodies were found in the back of a smugglers van in Austria, the German public was left stunned at the desperate plight of people seeking refuge in Europe.

Inside her own CDU party, Merkel was being told that her Christian voting base was becoming disenchanted by the Chancellor’s seeming indifference to the fates of the migrants. Meanwhile, on the European level, the migrants crisis was threatening to sow discord between countries like Greece and Italy on the front line and northern European states that were insulated from the arrivals.

Seehofer, head of Bavaria’s CSU party, saw things differently though. At the time he was state leader in Bavaria, the southern state bordering Austria. His voter base there was staunchly conservative and well known for its suspicion of outsiders, even those from other parts of Germany. He also knew though that his state would have to bear the biggest initial burden, as the vast majority of refugees were coming into Bavaria from Austria.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

“The World Is On Fire”: Merkel Warns Of Unprecedented Disasgreement At G7 Summit

June 6, 2018

“The World Is On Fire”: Merkel Warns Of Unprecedented Disasgreement At G7 Summit

Following last weekend’s G-7 meeting for the world’s most important finance ministers and central bankers in Whistler, Canada, at which the US was introduced as a “+1” to the G-6, and whose positioned was “condemned” by the rest of the Developed World, this week’s G-7 showdown in Toronto where Trump will also be present, promises to be a historic event, one in which Chancellor Angela Merkel has vowed to challenge Donald Trump on trade and climate, and warned the lack of room for compromise means leaders may fail to agree on a final statement, an unprecedented event at a summit of the world’s 7 most advanced nations.

Speaking before German lawmakers on Wednesday, two days before the G-7 summit starts in Canada, Merkel said that Trump’s “America First” doctrine shows that “we have a serious problem with multilateral agreements.” She added that failure to reach common ground could lead to the highly unusual step of host Canada issuing a concluding statement not agreed by all participants, according to Bloomberg.

Merkel said she plans to speak to Trump specifically about trade at the G-7. “There will be some controversial discussions” at the gathering, she told lawmakers. Germany will make sure that what was agreed on trade and climate at the last G-7 summit and at a G-20 meeting will be maintained in joint statements from the two-day meeting in Quebec “if any are agreed.”

We doubt Trump will be too “burned” by that statement.

Separately, in an interview with Bloomberg TV, former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen called Trump a “fully fledged American isolationist” and, in regurgitating the familiar script according to which if you’re not with us (the globalists), then you are a pawn of Russia (or China), said that the U.S. leader has opened the door to the likes of Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping to play a bigger role on the global stage.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Merkel: “Trump’s Decision Damages Trust In The International Order”

May 11, 2018

Merkel: “Trump’s Decision Damages Trust In The International Order”

One day after Angela Merkel said Europe can no longer rely on the US “to protect it” in the aftermath of Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear accord, stating that “It’s no longer the case that the United States will simply just protect us. Rather, Europe needs to take its fate into its own hands, that’s the task of the future”, the German Chancellor has doubled down, and said President Trump’s decision to scrap the Iran nuclear accord was “not right.”

“It’s not right to unilaterally cancel an accord that was negotiated, that was unanimously approved in the UN Security Council,” Merkel said in a speech at a Catholic religious conference in Muenster, Germany “That damages the trust in the international order.”

“What we’re seeing at the moment, which is probably the most alarming, is that multilateralism is in a real crisis” she added. She then echoed her prior warning: “I’ve said this about the U.S. decision on the Iran accord, I could say the same thing about the climate accord, the WTO – if we always say that something doesn’t suit us, and we don’t get a new international order, and everybody simply does what they want – then that’s bad news for the world.”

Or it could simply be bad news for Europe, or rather everyone but the US, and since Trump’s promise was “America first” it should hardly come as a surprise. Perhaps what Angela should be more worried about is that her disastrous “open door” immigration policy has ushered in not only Brexit but – as of yesterday – laid the groundwork for the first populist, anti-establishment government in Italy where the Five Star and League are about to form a government, which will have immigration as its key talking point.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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