The German Elections

[BoyRacer]

[Thing_Fish]

the grovelling irish media will be all over this.

There could be a EUropean broadcaster/journalist/gossip queen/ award in it for them.

[BoyRacer]

Angela Merkel’s conservative party and the pro-business Free Democrats have again failed to win a key state election. The Social Democrats and Greens will now form a coalition in Lower Saxony.

[BoyRacer]

Germany’s anti-euro party is a nasty shock for Angela Merkel - Ambrose Evans-Pritchard -> telegraph.co.uk/finance/comm … erkel.html

A new party led by economists, jurists, and Christian Democrat rebels will kick off this week, calling for the break-up of monetary union before it can do any more damage.
“An end to this euro,” is the first line on the webpage of Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). “The introduction of the euro has proved to be a fatal mistake, that threatens the welfare of us all. The old parties are used up. They stubbornly refuse to admit their mistakes.”
They propose German withdrawl from EMU and return to the D-Mark, or a breakaway currency with the Dutch, Austrians, Finns, and like-minded nations. The French are not among them. The borders run along the ancient line of cleavage dividing Latins from Germanic tribes.

there is more

AEP alert.

[Tis_Meself]

I cannot see why some folk here feel shock at ‘Non European’ Europeans in the more fiscially responsible parts growing more than a little jaded at carrying the rest along.
We have a bit of Troika inspired “Me Fein-ism” chafing already - and we are being bailed out!
if our Tax-Euro was propping up other countries like we are being supported, imagine the sentiments arising!

[dipole]

Returning to the original founding principals of the community; if there is no mass genocide and no-one is absolutely destitute then everything is going tickety-boo.
Beyond that there is little need to push the EU as a superstate. The wealthy and responsible countries in europe dislike the EU sticking it’s nose in to their own affairs as much as the less responsible ones.

[ex-Patrick]

They propose German withdrawl from EMU and return to the D-Mark, or a breakaway currency with the Dutch, Austrians, Finns, and like-minded nations. The French are not among them. The borders run along the ancient line of cleavage dividing Latins from Germanic tribes.

Ah yes, that well-known Germanic tribe called the Finns, speaking that very Germanic language Finnish…
And yet somehow the Franks weren’t Germanic, nor the Normans?

[Tis_Meself]

The Finns and Germans got along very well together for a few years back in the 40s - had a big ‘gathering’ around what was then Leningrad trying to starve and shell the locals out!

[ex-Patrick]

In fairness, the Soviets attacked Finland after shelling their own town and blaming the Finns.

[temene]

A poll suggests that 26% of Germans would vote for a €uro-sceptic party

**…the poll conducted by TNS-Emnid for the weekly Focus magazine showed 26% of Germans would consider backing a party that wanted to take Germany out of the euro and as many as four in 10 Germans in the 40-49 age bracket would do so.
The survey, which canvassed the views of 1,007 people on March 6-7, coincides with the launch of a new party, Alternative for Germany (AfD). AfD and other German critics of the euro say it is unfair and undemocratic to expect Germany to bear the costs of other countries’ economic mistakes and call for a return to the Deutschmark dailymail.co.uk/news/article … ws-EU.html **

[BoyRacer]

Merkel’s One Europe attacked by Adenauer grandson -> bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-0 … ndson.html

Stephan Werhahn remembers playing at the feet of his grandfather as a child. The man was a towering figure in more ways than one. Lionized as Der Alte, or the Old One, Konrad Adenauer was West Germany’s first postwar chancellor, a founder of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) political party and an early proponent of European unification.
At 59, Werhahn is adding politics to a 30-year career in finance by running against Chancellor Angela Merkel in an election scheduled for Sept. 22, Bloomberg Markets will report in its April issue. Werhahn says he’s doing his bit to protect his grandfather’s greatest legacy, the European Union.

there is more

[BoyRacer]

[BoyRacer]

German opposition parties warn each other: don’t team up with Merkel - -> buenosairesherald.com/articl … ith-merkel

Germany’s two main opposition parties traded warnings against joining forces with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives after September’s election if they fail to win their own left-of-center majority.
The leaders of the Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens party issued unusually shrill messages to each others’ supporters about the risk their votes might end up going to a party that could join forces in a coalition with Merkel.
The SPD and Greens want to form a center-left government after September’s election but opinion polls show they will fall short of the needed margin. Surveys show Merkel’s best chances of serving a third term could be to lure either the SPD or the Greens into a coalition with her Christian Democrats (CDU).

there is more

[BoyRacer]

Reuters: German Chancellor Says EU Nations Must Be Prepared to Cede Sovereignty - Becket Adams -> theblaze.com/stories/2013/04 … vereignty/

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday said that in order for the European Union to overcome its economic crises, euro zone members should be prepared to “cede control over certain policy domains to European institutions,” as Reuters puts it (Editor’s note: That quote is Reuters summation of what Merkel said, not her actual words).

“We seem to find common solutions when we are staring over the abyss,” Merkel said at an event hosted by Deutsche Bank in Berlin. “But as soon as the pressure eases, people say they want to go their own way.”

“We need to be ready to accept that Europe has the last word in certain areas. Otherwise we won’t be able to continue to build Europe,” she added.

there is more

[Carrot_and_stick]

Reuters: German Chancellor Says EU Nations Must Be Prepared to Cede Sovereignty - Becket Adams -> theblaze.com/stories/2013/04 … vereignty/

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday said that in order for the European Union to overcome its economic crises, euro zone members should be prepared to “cede control over certain policy domains to European institutions,” as Reuters

puts it (Editor’s note: That quote is Reuters summation of what Merkel said, not her actual words).

“We seem to find common solutions when we are staring over the abyss,” Merkel said at an event hosted by Deutsche Bank in Berlin. “But as soon as the pressure eases, people say they want to go their own way.”

“We need to be ready to accept that Europe has the last word in certain areas. Otherwise we won’t be able to continue to build Europe,” she added.

there is more

Is this not obvious? What is clear in this statement though is the current crisis is manufactured so as to move the federation forward.

[BoyRacer]

EU: All Europeans have a right to social services in Germany -> translate.google.com/translate?s … schland%2F

Every EU citizen has in any other EU country, to social services, the EU Commission. The extent of these benefits will now be even more extended. Given the growing immigration to Germany of German taxpayers will then soon have to support other EU citizens even longer financially.

there is more

[dipole]

That article is just scare mongering. No one goes to Germany to draw benefits. The beamters in Germany aren’t pushovers like the social welfare staff in Ireland.
Hartz IV social welfare is a basic existence and the system won’t give you peace; they keep pushing people to take jobs.

[BoyRacer]

In Germany there are hardly any vacant homes -> translate.google.com/translate?s … ungen.html

Nationwide, only three percent of the apartments are empty. The vacancy rate was always lower due to internal migration and the increasing demand of smaller households. As a result, rents are rising.

there is more

[owenm]

Is this not obvious? What is clear in this statement though is the current crisis is manufactured so as to move the federation forward.

“Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity” - a roundabout version of Occam’s razor.

[BoyRacer]