BRITAIN : The Brexiteers failed, so now they blame Theresa May - Populist can not and must not be trusted

Read more at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2018/12/12/brexiteers-have-failed-so-they-blame-theresa-may/?utm_term=.67c601740db5

Engeland: Populisten hebben met het doordrukken van Brexit Engeland's ekonomie in grote moeilijkheden gebracht

Het moet toch hopenlijk in de EU tot de ingezetenen en politici van de bij de EU aangesloten lidstaten zijn doorgedrongen dat eenheid macht betekend en verdeeltheid catastrofe.

Vooral als we zien hoe de "moedige" Theresa May nu langs de Europese lidstaten loopt te bedelen om "water bij de wijn te doen", wat betreft de Brexit overeenkomst met de EU.

Notabene het Brexit drama, die de Engelsen zich door ,nationalistische populisten, zoals Nigel Farage en Boris Johnson hebben laten inluizen en die nu in geen velden of wegen te bekennen zijn terwijl Engeland ten onder gaat.

Een duidelijk omschreven 2e referendum is waarschijnlijk de enige redding voor Engeland.

Hopenlijk laten de ingezetenen van de EU zich voor en tijdens de Europese Parlements verkiezingen in mei 2019 niet om de tuin leiden door nationalistische en populistische politici en andere onrust kraaiers.

We hebben zeer zeker geen nieuwe dramas als Brexit meer nodig.

Almere-Digest 

EU: Muslims make up 4.9% of Europe's population in 2016 Says Report Pew Research Center

Note EU-Digest: this figure is in total contrast to the nonsense European Populist politicians are saying, which is that the EU will become a Muslim Political Entity by 2030

Read more: Muslims make up 4.9% of Europe's population in 2016 | Pew Research Center

EU-US Relations: The new Trump Isolationist Doctrine and Strategy requires a reevaluation of the EU foreign policy objectives

A wall around America, instead 
of one between Mexico and US

President Donald Trump declared a new national security strategy on Monday,December 18, stressing the "America first" message of his 2016 campaign and faulting previous U.S. leaders for failing to measure up to it and look out for the nation's citizens. Isolation

"Our leaders engaged in nation building abroad while they failed to build up and replenish our nation at home," he said, pointing to the economy's strong performance and predicting even better under his policies.

His security strategy envisions nations in constant competition, reverses Obama-era warnings on climate change and affirms that the United States will unilaterally defend its sovereignty, even if that means risking existing the agreements with other countries that have dominated the United States' foreign policy since the Cold War.

The strategy from the Republican president could sharply alter U.S. international relationships if fully implemented. It focuses on four main themes: protecting the homeland, promoting American prosperity, demonstrating peace through strength and advancing American influence in an ever-competitive world.

Trump's doctrine holds that nation-states are in perpetual competition and that the U.S. must fight on all fronts to protect and defend its sovereignty from friend and foe alike. While the administration often says that "America First" does not mean "America Alone," the national security strategy makes clear that the United States will stand up for itself even if that means acting unilaterally or alienating others on issues such as trade, climate change and immigration.

Despite the risk of potential isolation presented by Trump's strategy, its fundamentals are not a surprise. The strategy emphasizes that U.S. economic security is national security. And it stresses that the U.S. is interested only in relationships with other countries, including in alliances such as NATO, that are fair and reciprocal.

The strategy also details the threats of "rogue regimes," like North Korea. It says that China and Russia "challenge American power, influence, and interests, attempting to erode American security and prosperity."

Despite international challenges, the document cites emerging opportunities to advance American interests in the Middle East. "Some of our partners are working together to reject radical ideologies and key leaders are calling for a rejection of Islamist extremism and violence," it says. "Encouraging political stability and sustainable prosperity would contribute to dampening the conditions that fuel sectarian grievances."

Note EU-Digest: Obviously the President of the USA can and must do what in his eyes he believes is good for America. As to the EU, what is good for America, necessarily does not have to be good for the EU. Consequently, as has been written many times, the EU must stop being the "lapdog" of America, given its importance as a world class economy, with a population of close to half a billion people, and establish its own independent foreign policy based on EU principles and  priorities, and include a review of its military objectives within this context.

As to the leaders of European Populists and Nationalist parties, like Geert Wilders, Jean Marie Lr Pen, Nigel Farage, and others, who apparently admire Trump's "America First Isolationist Doctrine",  we  recommend they pack their bags and request asylum in the US  from their idol Danald Trump.   

Read more: Trump unveils details of 'America First' security strategy

EU: Turbulent times require peoples involvement and action

Today we were discussion among a group of friends how it seems that the world is going through very turbulent times, specially if you are American, British, Catalan, Spanish, Turkish, Middle East, or a citizen from another country in the European Union. 

Unfortunately this appears to be because populists and demagogues’ communication styles,designed to confuse audiences and convince citizens that there are facts that matter, and facts that don’t, have taken over the political scene. 

As Ken Wilber outlines in his most interesting book “Trump and a Post-Truth World”: It now appears we are living in a no-truth culture, where liars are considered the most truthful, since the truth becomes whatever they want it to become. 

Regretfully many politicians have embraced this theory, because they have realized that the battle for citizens´ hearts and minds is to be won by crafted narratives and Orwellian language.Young and old, it is time to wake-up and become involved in any way you can, within the field of your expertise, and protest. A revolution for positive change can only start with you, but the time is now.

Almere-Digest

The Extreme Right in the EU: Why do Far-Right White Nationalists Support Zionism?

Wilders:Extreme Right, Nationalist or just an opportunist?

The success of Sebastian Kurz in Austria's recent election means that the extreme right Freedom Party, the FPO, will likely join the governing coalition. 

 Populist right-wing parties are on the rise in many European countries in recent years. 

These parties include the Party of Freedom in the Netherlands headed by Geert Wilders, the National Front in France headed by Marine Le Pen, the Sweden Democrats headed by Jimmie Akesson, and more. Although highly nationalistic in their politics, these right-wing parties are very similar to each other. They share an Islamophobic and xenophobic ideology, and very interestingly, they all share a strong support for Zionism and for the state of Israel.

 Michael Colborne wrote an article for the Haaretz newspaper with the title "Rise of a New Far-right: The European 'Philosemites' Using Jews to Battle Muslims," to address the seeming contradiction in the European far-right. Indeed, there really is no difference between philo-Semitism and anti-Semitism. 

There is no such thing as positive racism. The far-right groups did not replace their hatred of Jews with the hatred of Muslims. They continue to hate both groups. Richard Silverstein told The Real News about how the election of President Trump emboldened those groups in the United States.R. SILVERSTEIN I think that the anti-Semites in the United States are affiliated with the alt-right movement that you correctly associated with Breitbart, and this alt-right movement includes a very big cadre of anti-Semites, and they feel empowered by Trump's victory and his nativist, kind of populist, extremist kind of views. 

That's why a lot of the anti-Semitic attacks are happening, and they're very much linked to the attacks on the Muslim community, which is why American Jews should really be making common cause with Muslims. SHIR HEVER: White nationalism has its roots in Europe in the 19th century as it developed and took form in order to serve as justification for European colonialism. In those European countries that had smaller and fewer colonies, such as Germany, Italy, and Hungary, white nationalism turned inwards in the form of fascism, implementing the strict, hierarchical, colonial structure on their own citizens. It sought to find its enemies within and turned on minorities. 

During the Second World War, an unprecedented industrial genocide was perpetrated against Jews, against Sinti and Roma, against homosexuals and lesbians, against people with mental disabilities, and against others who were deemed enemies of the state. Since Jews were targeted above all other groups during this genocide, and since the State of Israel, which was founded three years after the Holocaust, defines itself as a Jewish state, it raises the question of why does the European racist right-wing support the State of Israel? 

Aren't they on completely opposite sides? There are two explanations for this. 

One is that the Zionist movement and the State of Israel seek to convince Jews from all over the world to migrate to the State of Israel. The prospect of European Jews and North American Jews leaving their homes and moving to the Middle East appeals to many racist groups. 

The second explanation for the alliance between the Western far-right and the State of Israel is that Israeli policies towards immigrants, towards Arabs and towards Muslims, are precisely the kind of policies that the European and North American far-right would like to implement. President Trump, during his campaign for the presidency, commented on Fox & Friends on how the US can and should imitate Israeli racial profiling.DONALD TRUMP: Our local police, they know who a lot of these people are. 

They're afraid to do anything about it because they don't want to be accused of profiling, and they don't want to be accused of all sorts of things. You know, in Israel they profile. They've done an unbelievable job, as good as you can do.

Read more: Why do Far-Right White Nationalists Support Zionism?

The Netherlands: Dutch PM refuses 2nd try at governing with anti-Islam nationalist PVV Geert Wilders

Dutch PM Mark Rutte

VVD leader Mark Rutte is carefully considering the next steps in the Dutch cabinet formation now that negotiations between his party, the CDA, D66 and GroenLinks collapsed. He is clear on one thing however - the VVD still won't rule with anti-Islam nationalist Geert Wilders and his PVV, he said to RTL Nieuws.

Wilders posted on Twitter that the PVV is available for a coalition almost immediately after mediator Edith Schippers announced that the negotiations had collapsed. To cameras the leaders of the VVD, CDA, D66 and GroenLinks all said that they are disappointed by the mutual agreement to end the talks.

But sources told NRC that the talks collapsed because GroenLinks leader Jesse Klaver would not agree with a proposal to make an asylum deal with north African countries that is similar to the deal between Turkey and the EU - money for shelter in the region, in return for the borders being closed to asylum seekers who want to come to Europe.

Rutte would not say anything about his preference for a coalition. "We're going to take it step by step", he said to the broadcaster, adding that he wants to "first calmly discuss it with the faction."

The Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Dutch parliament, will debate on how to proceed regarding the government formation from 10:45 a.m. on Wednesday, Kamer president Khadija Arib announced after meeting with all the party leaders on Tuesday. Schippers is expected to send her report on the failed negotiations to the Kamer later this afternoon.

The leaders of the parties not involved in the formation talks are demanding clarity on what happened as soon as possible, according to the Volkskrant. "Was this a serious attempt or a stage play?" PvdA leader Lodewijk Asscher wants to know. He added that the PvdA is still not available for the next formation attempt.

"I'm surprised that it took six weeks to find out that you can't agree with GroenLinks on migration", PVV leader Geert Wilders said.

ChristenUnie, considered by many as the most likely party to replace GroenLinks in the formation talks, is wonderig how definite this negotiation collapse is. Leader Gert-Jan Segers is willing to discuss joining a VVD, CDA, D66 coalition, but only if GroenLinks is definitely off the table.

This is the first time the Kamer has to deal with failed formation negotiations since the King was removed from the formation picture in 2012. Because new negotiations now have to start, a new mediator may be appointed. As the VVD is the biggest party, Rutte will nominate a mediator.

According to the Volkskrant, it is likely that Edith Schippers will again be nominated as she already knows all the parties wishes and demands.

Read more: Dutch PM refuses 2nd try at governing with anti-Islam nationalist PVV | NL Times

The Netherlands: What the Dutch elections are all about … and what they’re not about - by Cas Mudde

Mark Rutte benefiting  from his brawl with Erdogan?

The Dutch parliamentary elections are tomorrow and, like most Dutch political scientists, I cannot wait for them to be over. Never before have Dutch elections been so intensely followed by the international media and I am, honestly, tired of having to answer another question about “the Dutch Trump” (Geert Wilders) or “the Dutch Trudeau” (Jesse Klaver). Obviously, the international media are not really interested in Dutch politics. Rather, they have declared the Netherlands to be the bellwether of European politics. Never mind that the country has a fairly specific political culture, and party politics has changed from ultra-stable in the 20th century to ultra-volatile in the 21st century, the Netherlands is Europe’s future.

Given that the Dutch elections are covered in the same frame as the British EU referendum and the US presidential elections, and are the first of a series of similar elections in Europe, much of what is truly at stake is missed. Moreover, much of what is focused on is secondary at best and irrelevant at worst. So, what is (not) at stake tomorrow?

1 These are not “winner takes all” elections

2 The Dutch are not voting on the European Union

3 The Dutch are not electing a president

International media style the Dutch elections as a “neck-and-neck race” between conservative prime minister Mark Rutte of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) and radical-right challenger Wilders, to fit the broader frame of status quo versus populism. Understandably, Rutte has tried to push this idea on the Dutch media too, positioning himself as the only democratic hope to stave off a populist victory. But however convenient it is for selling newspapers or for Rutte, this formula is inconsistent with the essence of the elections. The Dutch are electing a parliament, not a president or premier, and it is not guaranteed that the leader of the biggest party will be the premier. In a parliamentary system the government needs the support of the parliamentary majority, not necessarily of the biggest party. Moreover, the struggle between Rutte and Wilders captures only a minority of the voters: together the VVD and PVV are only polling between 30 and 35%. In other words, the real story is somewhere else.

4 The Dutch are uninspired …

The most stunning number regarding the Dutch elections is that, four days before election day, a majority of the population (54%) did not yet know for which party they were going to vote.

5 … (partly) because the parties discuss the wrong issues

Since the beginning of the 21st century Dutch political campaigns have been dominated by the “three Is” – immigration, integration and Islam – and this year is no different.

In fact, voters are being beaten around the head with those issues on the campaign trail, even if few concrete solutions are offered, at the expense of some of the basic bread-and-butter issues that are actually concerning the majority of population: economic inequality, education, healthcare, and protection of the welfare state.

Note EU-Digest: Unfortunately the Turkey-Holland  brawl has not helped the candidates on the left in this Dutch election, who have hammered on more and real pressing problems, like economic inequality, education, healthcare, and protection of the welfare state on a sure footing, to the contrary. 

So basically, if there are no major surprises it unfortunately could turn out to be business as usual in Holland with Mark Rutte benefiting from the weekend crises with Turkey?

Read more: What the Dutch elections are all about … and what they’re not about | Cas Mudde | Opinion | The Guard

The Netherlands-Almere: Can This City Predict The Fate Of The Dutch Elections?

Solar Island Almere

Founded in 1976, this city 30 kilometers from Amsterdam offers a glimpse into the future of the Netherlands. Leaving behind the tourist droves of the capital, a 20-minute ride on an Intercity train — equipped with WiFi — whisks you through windmills and farmland to reach Almere.

Lying 3.2 meters below sea level, the 7th largest city in the country has a population of almost 200,000 people. One in three locals hails from outside the European Union (EU). The local statistics office says Almere is home to 153 nationalities and 181 ethnicities.

Despite its diversity, Almere voted for the xenophobic right-wing Party for Freedom (PVV) for the last seven years. Headed by Geert Wilders, a controversial figure, the party is leading in national polls ahead of Wednesday’s election. PVV could even unseat the current government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte. The Dutch election is the first in a long line of crucial polls in Europe this year. It comes ahead of votes in France, Germany, and the Czech Republic.

In Almere, no house is further than 400 meters from a bus stop. Public transportation and bicycles have dedicated lanes on roads. The town square is an enormous open-air shopping mall with three-story buildings that make it reminiscent of a college campus. An atmosphere of order and tranquility prevails in residential neighborhoods — this is not a neglected area where far-right parties often thrive.

A third of Almere’s residents are aged younger than 25 years and only 9% of inhabitants are older than 65 years. Local economic trends match national ones — 2% GDP growth and an unemployment rate of 5.3%, much lower than the Eurozone average of 9.6%. After a day in the city, it’s difficult to find someone who openly admits to supporting the PVV.

Faiza, 50, has lived in the Netherlands for 20 years. She’s waiting for her number to be called in the city hall, a vast open space with comfortable couches and floor lamps that makes it seem like a furniture showroom. "They are ashamed to say so publicly but in private many residents support Wilders’ views," she says. "I don’t know what’s happening to Dutch society, it used to be that respecting rules and laws was sufficient for integration. It’s not like that anymore, especially for Muslims, and our religion is seen as a disease that must be kept at bay."

In recent years, there have been a few cases of radicalized Islamists in Almere but none managed to carry out terrorist attacks. This trend may have contributed to anti-Muslim sentiment in the city. The first point of Wilders’ policy manifesto promises to "de-Islamize" the Netherlands. This would involve shuttering mosques and Islamic schools and banning the Islamic veil and sales of the Koran.

Few people in the country believe the Netherlands will split from the EU.

The upcoming election has also focused on the question of immigration. Denk, which means "think" in Dutch, is a new pro-immigrant party. Founded by Turkish immigrants, the party may gain representation in parliament for the first time.

There are 28 parties contesting the election but only half of them are likely to get enough votes to win seats. Even if Wilders gets the most votes, it will be difficult for the PVV to form a coalition in a country with an ultra-proportional electoral system. It will take at least three months for any winner to put together a credible coalition.

"Wilders definitely won’t be in the coalition government that emerges," says Meindert Fennema, a political scientist at the University of Amsterdam. "No one wants to ally with the PVV and even he has no intention of becoming Prime Minister."

The logic goes that it would be too politically risky for Wilders to govern; it suits him better to stay in the opposition.

This is exactly what has happened to the PVV in its stronghold of Almere. Despite being the single largest party to win there, it has been kept out of local government by a coalition of opposing parties. 

Instead, the city government is controlled by the progressive liberal D66 party. Franc Weerwind, the mayor, is the son of immigrants from Suriname. In 2015, he also became the first person of color to become a mayor in the Netherlands.

Read more: Can This City Predict The Fate Of The Dutch Elections? - Worldcrunch

European fascists embrace Trump - by John J. Dunphy

European Fascism 2017

Members of what Tom Brokaw calls our nation’s Greatest Generation defeated fascism in World War II. Fresh out of the Great Depression of the 1930s when, as kids, many of them had experienced deprivation firsthand, they fought the combined might of Germany, Italy and Japan on land, on sea and in the air. Many of these young patriots didn’t wait to be drafted. They eagerly enlisted because they knew they were needed to turn back this threat to global civilization.

My late father served in the army and earned a Purple Heart. Dad rarely talked about his wartime experiences. Once in a very great while, however, he let something slip out. I recall when the TV news was broadcasting a story about an aged Nazi war criminal, who had been located living quietly in the United States. “Hang him! I saw what they did!” my father exclaimed. The implication was obvious. At some point while stationed in Europe, Dad had seen some of the horrors of the Holocaust.

Fascists feared and hated the American flag because it represented values such as justice and equality, which they abhorred. Our flag also symbolized military defeat for fascists, since it was carried into areas liberated by our fighting men. It made me sick and angry when I read that the Stars and Stripes, once the bane of fascists, is now carried by them during demonstrations.

The 62 million Americans who voted for Trump betrayed the legacy left to us by the Greatest Generation. Men such as my father fought to save the world from fascism. Trump voters allowed fascism to entethe USA  through the ballot box.

Read more: The Telegraph | Dunphy: European fascists embrace Trump

The Netherlands: The "Dutch Trump" Geert Wilders PVV party losing support in the polls

Trump and Wilders "one and the same" - disaster

Dutch political scientist Tom Louwerse, creator of Peilingwijzer, told NOS Dutch TV News station : "The PVV lost 5 seats since December and you can now see that decline to a greater or lesser extent at all polling agencies",

Researchers see several reasons why voters in the Netherlands are turning their back on the PVV, according to the Dutch newspaper AD. Some people are concerned about American president Donald Trump's policies, for which Wilders expressed great support and he even went to the US to support him .

"Trump has turned out to be a completely deranged person and so is his Dutch supporter Geert Wilders - they are very similar and voting for him makes no sense at all. It will only cause disaster and chaos in the Netherlands", said a member of the Dutch  Parliament, who wanted to remain anonymous

Others doubt the feasibility of the PVV's plans or have their doubts about whether the PVV will be part of the next government, given that very few other Dutch political parties want to work with him

EU-Digest

Are narcissists taking over politics ? - Trump in the White House, with Geert Wilders, Marie Le Pen and Frauke Petry waiting in the EU wings

Xenophobia is growing in Europe

Xenophobia is growing in Europe, with France, the United Kingdom, Austria, Greece, Denmark and Sweden all electing far-right nationalist candidates.

Like Trump did, they unite voters with a platform of blocking migrants from the Middle East and Africa. More blatant demonstrations of anti-Semitism flared up in Greece, with its Golden Dawn party donning Nazi-like uniforms and symbolism.

Cas Mudde, a political scientist at the University of Georgia, commented on the parallels between European and American politics. “I see the phenomena as very similar. Trump is the functional equivalent of the far right in Europe; he performs the same functions in the political system, and attracts the same kind of support… white, nativist, lower-educated and those very unhappy with the establishment.”

Looking at Europe we see that also there a narcissists group of populist political personalities have benefited from the great disparity between the "have and have's not" and distrust by  the people of political parties who are not serving the people, but rather corporate interest.

Following focus is on three countries which will be  holding national elections this year where ultra-right narcissist  politicians have made major inroads. 

In the Netherlands: Geert Wilders, a Dutch politician who founded the right-wing Freedom Party, also endorsed Trump, tweeting, “Make the Netherlands Great Again.”

Wilders, who also bears a weird physical resemblance to Donald Trump, applies similar nationalistic rhetoric with confusing undocumented statements, sprinkled with vague plans.

France: French Jews who also hold Israeli citizenship will have to give up one of their nationalities if Marine Le Pen, the far-Right French Presidential candidate, wins the presidential election this spring.

The leader of the anti-immigration Front National said she would bar the French from holding the citizenship of countries outside the European Union, except for Russia, which she described as part of “the Europe of nations.”

Germany: You can tell well in advance when Frauke Petry, the leader of Alternative für Deutschland, a burgeoning new right-wing party, is going to give a speech. AfD members put up posters all over a town’s main streets declaring, “Frauke Petry Is Coming.” As the appointed hour approaches, police assemble, and usually demonstrators, too, protesting against a woman known to her enemies as “Adolfina” and “die Führerin.”

More than a century ago, philosopher George Santayana reminded us that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

His words ring true today.  The growing rise of Nationalism on virtually every continent should give cause for great concern.

Following World War II, the global goal was to create political and economic structures and forge alliances like the UN, EU, IMF, WTO, NAFTA and the recently signed Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership to bring peace and prosperity to the world.

In many ways, these efforts succeeded. More people than ever now have the means to travel outside their native countries.  Global investments have given rise to vastly improved living conditions in poorer countries.  Political structures like the EU have led to the creation of powerful new markets for global commerce.  Modern communications now transcend borders in Nano-seconds, bringing the world ever closer together.

But, achievements like these have come with a price: The re-emergence of Nationalism throughout the world was also caused by the disruptions brought about by globalization.

Global Trade must become Fair Trade again, not one controlled by large corporations who get unfair tax breaks and special favors from the local governments where they operate.

Nationalism is a powerful force and can at times work positively. It can be the glue that holds people together especially in challenging times.  It celebrates a country’s culture, history and religion.  It instills national pride and a sense of strength, but also, unfortunately, at times, creating scapegoats, real or imagined. The latter is happening today

Don't be fooled by the "nationalistic talk" of Wilders, Le Pen, Petry, and many other so-called nationalists - they definitely are not true nationalists and will sink all of us in Europe into a deep hole if they ever are elected and allowed to rule by you the voter. Worse of all, if you do elect them, you might never again get the power to vote them out of office.  Just look at Turkey today and see what  has happened there. 

Or see how Donald Trump has performed the first weeks of his Presidency. Scary stuff.

For example, the common US belief today exposed by Donald Trump that China has claimed the bulk of jobs lost in America since 2000 is not true. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, roughly 700,000 of the six million US manufacturing jobs lost in the first decade of this century went to China. The rest disappeared because of decreased consumer demand after the 2008 global financial crisis and technological advances that made many jobs obsolete.

Job losses aside, perhaps the biggest impact of the 2008 global financial crisis is that it intensified a worldwide backlash against globalization and the ever increasing disparity between poor and rich that had been festering for decades, further bolstering the steady global tilt toward Nationalism.

But not all is lost - if you get involved. Staying at home and complaining will not work. Go to local government, city and town meetings, ask questions, protest if you don't like what you hear.

Don't vote for politicians and parties who have not delivered what they promised.

Support parties which focus on your needs: more jobs, better education, health care, a clean environment, alternative energy  and cutting military spending' 

For it to succeed, real European integration—of which much more will be needed if Europeans want to retain stability and current levels of economic well-being—needs to learn a crucial trick from the nation. In much the same way that the power of the nation made people look beyond the blood bonds of family and tribe and elevate solidarity to a higher level, so European integration needs to surpass citizens’ attachment to the nation and raise it by one level. 

The trick is not to dismiss the lower-level identity and try to make it superfluous. The way to go is to leave the nation undamaged by adding another layer that can become politically and emotionally meaningful.

This rising nationalism in Europe also demands that leaders on the left look beyond austerity to a more robust economic policy built on investments in infrastructure, jobs, and education.

EU-Digest

FRANKRIJK: EU opgelicht voor drie ton door Nationalist Marine LePen, politiek maatje van Geert Wilders

I saw this on the BBC and thought you should see it: Marine Le Pen: Deadline passes for National Front leader to repay EU funds - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38821074

Klik hier voor volledig verslag

Canada Terrorism: Trump Silent As Quebec Mosque Terrorist Is White Christian Pro-Trump Fanatic - by Colin Taylor

Canadian police have just identified the lone gunman who attacked a Quebec mosque during prayers last night, killing five praying Muslims and injuring eight. Alexandre Bissonnettte, a Quebec native, has been taken into police custody.

Not surprisingly, Bissonnette’s Facebook page  (since taken down) shows that he “likes” Donald Trump and far-right, Islamophobic French politician Marine Le Pen. He also likes the Christian site Reasonable Faith. Here’s a screenshot from Bassinet’s Facebook page, taken before it was deleted, according to Heavy.com:

Bissonnettte is ardently pro-Trump and anti-Islam, according to a former classmate of his from Université Laval, who told Heavy.com that Bissonnettte “has right-wing political ideas, pro-Israel, anti-immigration. I had many debates with him about Trump. He was obviously pro-Trump.”

Furthermore, a Facebook group called “Welcome to Refugees – Quebec City” posted that it was familiar with Bissonnettte, and that he is “unfortunately known to several activists in Quebec City for his pro-Le Pen and anti-feminist identity positions at Université Laval and on social networks.” Le Pen is an ardent anti-Muslim French politician who has been closely linked to Trump in the past.

So let’s recap: one day after Donald Trump bans Muslims from several countries because, he claims, they pose a threat to the West, one of HIS deranged followers shoots up a crowd of Muslims whose only crime was peacefully practicing their faith.

Obviously, religions do not create terrorism, only terrorists do. But will Donald Trump now ban Canadian Christians from entering the United States? This tragic incident perfectly illustrates why blaming entire religions for violence is not only hateful and bigoted, but stupid and counterproductive.

Donald Trump’s Twitter has been uncharacteristically silent since the identity of the gunman was revealed. Hypocrisy, thy name is Donald Trump!
 
Read more: Trump Silent As Quebec Mosque Terrorist Is White Christian Pro-Trump Fanatic

The Netherkands: Geert Wilders tweets image of Angela Merkel with blood on her hands but does not point at the real culprits of EU Refugee crises

EU Populists: Geert Wilders and Marie Le Pen

Far-right leaders across Europe have accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of having blood on her hands following Monday's Berlin terror attack.

Not one European politician, however, from the right or left, so far has dared to point their finger at the US Government Middle East Policies as the direct cause of this refugee disaster and terrorism in Europe, or demanded that George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Tony Blair be tried as war criminals. 
  

Instead obsessed out of control Dutch Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders  tweeted a provocative photo of Angela Merkel with blood on her hands as he blamed Europe's 'cowardly leaders' for a 'tsunami' of Islamic terrorist attacks.

In a previous tweet, he wrote: 'They hate and kill us. And nobody protects us. Our leaders betray us. We need a political revolution. And defend our people. 

Germany's far-right has also blamed Angela Merkel's immigration policy for the Berlin Christmas attacks as the chancellor insisted terrorists will not destroy 'freedom' in the country.

Mrs Merkel has laid white roses at the scene where 12 died after she said she was 'shocked and shaken' by the deadly attack in Berlin. She admitted it would be 'particularly sickening' if the terrorist was an asylum-seeker.

In Britain, the extremist Britain First organisation also claimed Mrs Merkel's immigration policy has put the entire continent at risk.

The party's 'acting leader' Jayda Fransen issued a two-and-a-half minute video for her organisation's followers claiming they had predicted such an attack would happen.

She said: 'After allowing millions of asylum seekers into Europe, Angela Merkel has put every single one of us at risk. 

There are now millions of people who are able to move freely throughout Europe who want us dead. 

The war in Iraq was the beginning of all this drama and disasters we are facing today.

Europe has to change its Middle East Policies by stepping away from blindly following the US lead in this area and thereby providing deranged populists politicians like Geert Wilders and others of his kind with the amunition to spout their hate speeches and other nonsense.

EU-DIGEST

The Netherlands: Geert Wilders named Dutch politician of the year - Criteria, Choice And Results Questionable

Geert Wilders: Is he really so popular?

Netherlands: Populist anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders was Monday named Dutch politician of the year in a television poll that came on the heels of his conviction for discrimination.

The 53-year-old charismatic leader of the Freedom Party (PVV) got 26 percent of the 40,000 votes cast in the poll conducted by NPO1 public television.

"I thank the Dutch who elected me the politician of 2016," Wilders said in a tweet. His party's fortunes have been steadily rising in the approach to legislative elections in March.

A December 11 survey by the respected Maurice de Hond Institute found that if elections were held now, the PVV would pick up 36 out of the 150 seats in the lower house of parliament, making it the biggest single political group.

It is the fourth time Wilders has been chosen as Dutch politician of the year thrice. His previous wins were in 2010, 2013 and 2015.

In a ruling earlier this month, Wilders was found guilty of discrimination against Moroccans but acquitted of hate speech over remarks he made at an election rally in March 2014.

He had asked supporters whether they wanted "fewer or more Moroccans in your city and in the Netherlands." When the crowd shouted back "Fewer! Fewer!" a smiling Wilders answered: "We're going to organize that."

But how accurate are all these polls being analyzed and publicized?

Looking at this particular poll about Wilders and other similar polls around the world, one can not escape the feeling that these polls not always tell the real side of the story. 

The mainly corporate controlled and profit motivated media around the world is not interested in providing objective news, but rather wants to achieve high ratings and maximum exposure, through populist and sensationalist news reporting.

In the case of naming Wilders  the Netherlands most popular politicians, the headline does not really reflect a true picture of the actual situation. 

Wilders got only 26 percent  of the total vote, this also means that 74% of those voted did not like him. In fact that is very close to three out of 4 people not liking him. Popular politician - not really.

Certainly not something Mr. Wilders or his party can brag about.

EU-Digest

Austria: Left-leaning 'professor' Van der Bellen to become Austria's new president

Independent candidate and former Green Party leader Alexander Van der Bellen – affectionately known as "the professor" among his supporters – won Austria's presidential election on Sunday over right-wing populist Norbert Hofe.

Note Almere-Digest: This is bad news for Marie Le Pen France and Geert Wilders from the Netherlands

Read more: Left-leaning 'professor' Van der Bellen to become Austria's new president - France 24

The Netherlands: Geert Wilders - PM of the Netherlands in 2017 ?

Will  Geert Wilders ever become the PM of the Netherlands?

To read the complete report click here.

Religious Tensions: US Turned Its Back on Anne Frank, Will Trump Do the Same with Muslim Refugees? - by Robert Fisk

I’ve just visited the hiding place of some troublesome refugees who should make Donald Trump very angry. It’s not the first time I’ve called at the little house on the old canal, but you only have to glance at the family’s papers to see how they fall under Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric. They fled a dangerous country full of extremists – a nation which threatened its own neighbours – and they sought their first new home for “economic reasons”.

Worse still, they even tried to enter the United States. They were turned away – on the grounds that even if they had good reason to flee their persecutors, they didn’t have good enough reason to choose America as their place of refuge.

No, they’re not Syrians or Turkmens or Yazidis or Afghans, although the younger daughter of the family was reading a book about “Palestine” and was very much a member of a persecuted race. She was, of course, Anne Frank, the German Jewish girl who with her family fled the Nazis in 1933 and was given sanctuary in Holland – until Germany invaded the Low Countries in 1940 and she found herself under the rule of her own vicious country all over again. By 1941, her father Otto – realizing that the Nazis had in store for Jews in Holland the very same fate that was already being perpetrated against the Jews of Germany – sought visas to the United States. And the door was slammed in their face.

Yup, I do wonder what the Trump administration would have done.

Anne Frank’s diary was the first book my mother wanted me to read “on my own” (without having it read to me) and this wonderful narrative of childhood-growing-into-adulthood, of fear and love and joy and fury – especially at the other refugees crowded into the family hiding-place behind Otto’s office on the Prinsengracht Canal in Amsterdam – has stayed with me all my life. With other people too. It has been translated into 70 languages. It’s even been translated into Arabic. Officials at the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam tell me, sadly, that – despite its awful relevance – they sell only about one copy a month in the Arabic language.

No matter. So powerful, so tragic and so relevant is Anne’s story to us today – and that of her mother Edith and her elder sister Margot and the others squeezed into the secret annex in Prinsegracht – one of them a boy called Peter van Pels with whom Anne is slowly falling in love – that queues stand round the block in the cold Amsterdam rain to take their turn to walk up the stairs behind the false bookcase to see where these frightened Jewish men, women and children lived until, two years after they first hid here, the Gestapo arrived. You can still see – it’s so genuine, it allows of no clichés – the newspaper photographs of 1930s film stars (Ray Milland, Diana Durbin, Ginger Rogers) and of a very young Princess Elizabeth of England (plus sister Margaret and corgis) and of the Dutch royal family in exile whose nationality Anne wished to adopt after the war and whose pictures she glued to the wall of her room.

The Dutch nation would certainly have been more loyal to her than the Americans. Otto sought help for US visas from friends who were relatives of those who owned Macey’s department store. He had two brothers-in-law in the States. He wrote of the plight of his wife and two daughters. The State Department was not interested. Otto even pleaded for Cuban visas. He got one – on 1st December 1941 – but it was cancelled a week later when Germany declared war on Japan after Pearl Harbour. Thus did Japan as well as Hitler and the Americans join hands to doom the refugees on the Prinsengracht Canal. Roosevelt’s US – and Democratic – administration did a “Trump” on the Frank family.

To add to the travails of refugeedom, Nazi Germany had already deprived German Jews of their own citizenship – so the Franks, originally – and legally – in exile in Holland, also became stateless under their own country’s occupiers. Stateless? Economic migrants? Illegal migrants in Holland now that their German passports were invalid? What earthly chance did they have?

Each time I read Anne Frank’s diary – and reader, if you haven’t read it, make up for lost time, as they say, and do so – I find something new which I missed on my previous journey through her pages. She wanted to be a writer. She wanted to turn her diary into a novel called The Secret Annex. And she wrote, on May 11th 1944, “my greatest wish is to become a journalist one day.” You can’t beat that.

I find that one day she is about to read a book called Palestine at the Crossroads. Although she does not say so, it was published in 1937 by a Jewish writer called Ladislas Farago – an author I read many years later when he wrote a best-selling biography of General Patton – which is a rather plodding pro-Zionist book, put together after Farago visited, rather indifferently, the old British Mandate. I’ve read bits of it. I doubt if it would have persuaded Anne to help found the state of Israel, had she lived long enough to do so, for she was wedded to European culture and wanted to live among the Dutch and return to school with their children. She waited with childish excitement for her liberation, recording in her diary the joy of learning about the Allied landings at D-Day, writing movingly of the plight of the crew of an RAF bomber which she sees – through the secret office skylight – shot down over Amsterdam.

But then – and her story sometimes seems to have the inevitability of Greek tragedy about it – her family was betrayed and three members of the Dutch Nazi Party and an Austrian (and therefore Reich) SS officer came storming up the staircase behind the false bookshelves on 4 August 1944. And that was the end of all of them. Except for Otto. He was eventually freed from Auschwitz by the Soviet army and travelled slowly back to Amsterdam to find that his family were dead. Edith died in Auschwitz, Margot and Anne at Bergen-Belsen, both of typhus. Anne, now 15 years old, died last. An old school friend says she caught sight of Anne in her last days and threw food to her over the camp barbed wire.

Anne’s was one of tens of thousands of corpses piled into the mass graves of Belsen. Even if he can’t find the time to fly his private jet into Schipol airport and visit the little house on the old 17th-century Amsterdam canal, Donald Trump could at least read Anne Frank’s diary. It’s a short book. It’s by a child, and is therefore easy to read. It’s by a Jewish girl, who asks at one point why God has visited such terrors upon her people. Just as refugees today seek to know why God has forsaken them.

Four Dutch citizens helped Anne and her family and friends throughout their two years of solitude, at daily risk of their lives. They said later that it was a natural thing to do. Odd, that. Because today we are supposed to find it “unnatural” to help these people. I guess that’s Trump’s view. Yet in the streets around the Prinsengrach this week – after all the hundreds of thousands of refugees who have arrived in Europe, and just 72 years after the Gestapo came to Anne’s hiding place round the corner, I found small cafes whose Dutch owners had written on their front doors the words: “Refugees welcome”.

Read more: America Turned Its Back on Anne Frank, Will Trump Do the Same with Muslim Refugees?

Netherlands: Rise of the right: 'Anarchist' media in the Netherlands

Over the past 10 years in the Netherlands, the far-right Freedom Party has moved from the political wilderness to where it is today: leading in the polls with an election coming up next year.

The party's leader, Geert Wilders, has long argued that the Dutch mainstream media cover populist movements with a tone of mockery and cynicism.

"You could say that the traditionally left, progressive media, until this point, have only engaged with far-right movements by opposing them, by discarding them, by saying people are bad or stupid for holding such beliefs. This has only been counterproductive, because by repressing this sentiment, you end up radicalising the debate. Yet, for 15 years, politicians and the media have failed to offer an alternative that goes beyond merely denying those sentiments you don't agree with," says Rob Wijnberg, editor, De Correspondent.

Feeling the mainstream media no longer catered to their views, a part of the Dutch audience started looking elsewhere for their media coverage.

Alternative right-wing outlets, such as GeenStijl and PowNed, who call themselves "anarchist", have grown more popular and have now found a platform on Dutch state-funded TV channels, where their anti-Islam and anti-immigration rhetoric can reach larger audiences.

Read more: Rise of the right: 'Anarchist' media in the Netherlands - Al Jazeera English