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Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts
September 20, 2019
September 1, 2019
German elections: Far-right AfD falls short of first place in both German state elections – by Claire Stam
The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) achieved historical
gains in crucial elections in the eastern German states of Saxony and
Brandenburg but Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU and its socialist
coalition partner remain the strongest political parties, allowing the
current grand coalition to hold until 2021.
Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) remain the strongest party in Saxony with 32% (down from 39,4% in the last elections in 2014), with the AfD and the German Greens (Bündnis90/Die Grünen) achieving their best election results in the history of Saxony regional elections (respectively 27,3% and 8,8% vs 9,7% and 5,7%). The Social-Democrats (SPD) came out with a record low of 7,9%, compared to 12,4% five years ago.
In Brandenburg, the state neighbouring Berlin, the SPD held on to the top spot with 27.2%, albeit down from 31.9% in the previous election in 2014, while the AfD rose to 22,7%, up from 12,2% in the last elections, and the Greens reached 10,2%, from 6,2% five years ago.
Left-Wing Die Linke, which has historically performed well in eastern Germany, turns out to be a big loser in both states where voters who traditionally chose the party as a form of protest clearly migrated to the AfD.
Read more: Far-right AfD falls short of first place in both German state elections – EURACTIV.com
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Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) remain the strongest party in Saxony with 32% (down from 39,4% in the last elections in 2014), with the AfD and the German Greens (Bündnis90/Die Grünen) achieving their best election results in the history of Saxony regional elections (respectively 27,3% and 8,8% vs 9,7% and 5,7%). The Social-Democrats (SPD) came out with a record low of 7,9%, compared to 12,4% five years ago.
In Brandenburg, the state neighbouring Berlin, the SPD held on to the top spot with 27.2%, albeit down from 31.9% in the previous election in 2014, while the AfD rose to 22,7%, up from 12,2% in the last elections, and the Greens reached 10,2%, from 6,2% five years ago.
Left-Wing Die Linke, which has historically performed well in eastern Germany, turns out to be a big loser in both states where voters who traditionally chose the party as a form of protest clearly migrated to the AfD.
Read more: Far-right AfD falls short of first place in both German state elections – EURACTIV.com
Support EU-Digest, which has reported the news without any political affiliation since 2004, and opposes those who seek to discredit news organizations who believe in the right of a free Press, by investing in an advertisement, or by giving a donation to keep our efforts going : to donate or advertise click on: https://www.paypal.com/webapps/hermes?token=8BP18304C1657151J&useraction=commit&mfid=1567106786154_8591ae1288ebf
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July 28, 2019
Germany: Pride Parade as Berlin remembers homosexuals killed by Nazis in World War II
Berlin remembers homosexuals killed by Nazis in World War II
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July 9, 2019
German - US relations: Germany rejects US demand for ground troops
Syria: Germany rejects US demand for ground troops.
It was also reported recently that the Netherlands will also not provide ground troops as requested by the US for Syria.
Polls in Europe show that there is very little "appetite" in Europe for more, or additional military involvement in Syria or anywhere else in the Middle East, specially since the US pulled out of the multi-national nuclear agreement with Iran, and as such, created more unrest in the region.
It was also reported recently that the Netherlands will also not provide ground troops as requested by the US for Syria.
Polls in Europe show that there is very little "appetite" in Europe for more, or additional military involvement in Syria or anywhere else in the Middle East, specially since the US pulled out of the multi-national nuclear agreement with Iran, and as such, created more unrest in the region.
The Netherlands will
not provide ground troops for the new US mission in Syria, defence
minister Ank Bijleveld told news agency ANP on Friday, following the
weekly cabinet meeting.
Read more at DutchNews.nl:
Read more at DutchNews.nl:
Read more at
https://p.dw.com/p/3LkP3
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July 1, 2019
EU Presidency: Timmermans frontrunner as EU leaders decide against Weber for Commission president
EU leaders have agreed that conservative German candidate Manfred
Weber will not become president of the next European Commission,
Germany’s Die Welt daily reported on Friday, citing sources familiar
with the decision. Instead, Dutch Socialist Frans Timmermans is now the
frontrunner for the EU’s top job.
The decision was reached during talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Die Welt said.
According to Bloomberg, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had endorsed Weber and Timmermans from the Netherlands as the only candidates left in the race to lead the EU executive.
Without mentioning them by name, Merkel made clear that the centre-right German, from her political family, the EPP, and the centre-left Dutchman, are the official and only contenders to head the Commission. That leaves liberal Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s antitrust chief, out of the race.
Read more at: Timmermans frontrunner as EU leaders decide against Weber for Commission president – EURACTIV.com
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The decision was reached during talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, Die Welt said.
According to Bloomberg, German Chancellor Angela Merkel had endorsed Weber and Timmermans from the Netherlands as the only candidates left in the race to lead the EU executive.
Without mentioning them by name, Merkel made clear that the centre-right German, from her political family, the EPP, and the centre-left Dutchman, are the official and only contenders to head the Commission. That leaves liberal Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s antitrust chief, out of the race.
Read more at: Timmermans frontrunner as EU leaders decide against Weber for Commission president – EURACTIV.com
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Denmark,
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Margrethe Vestager,
The Netherlands
June 22, 2019
Germany: Aachen hosts major climate rally
Germany: Aachen hosts 'Fridays for Future' climate rally
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https://p.dw.com/p/3Kosv
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June 16, 2019
Germany: Money is the root of all evil, as Germany exports weapons to Saudi coalition
Germany exports weapons to Saudi-led alliance in 2019
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https://p.dw.com/p/3KXfP
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February 14, 2019
Belgium - Antwerp: "Cocaine's new gateway into Europe"
Belgian Authorities report that last year they seized $ 2.5 billion of Cocaine
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Cocaine,
Drugs,
EU,
France,
Germany,
Port of Antwerp,
Suriname,
The Netherlands
January 27, 2019
Germany: Zero tolerance of anti-semitism says Qngela Merkel
January 23, 2019
January 19, 2019
EU - Military - Foreign Policy: German Chancellor Angela Merkel calls for greater military cooperation in EU countries ahead of EU parliamentary elections in May - by Alex Daniel
Up Yours Donald ! |
In a speech to her Christian Democrats party (CDU) she said: “It is good that after several decades we want to develop a common defence policy ... We must develop weapons systems together.”
“We have very strict export rules, others have less strict rules ... But anyone who develops an airplane with us would also like to know whether they can sell the plane with us,” she said.
Merkel has repeatedly stressed the importance of Germany’s partnership with France, saying on her weekly podcast this week the friendship was “far from a given after centuries of military conflict between our countries”.
“We want to give an impulse to European unity,” Merkel said.
In November the German Chancellor went as far as to call for the creation of a European Army, stressing that such an effort would not mean an end to the US-led Nato.
Note EU Digest: Given the present political climate in the US, the EU can not forever rely on the NATO being there, and must get off Grandpa's knee to take some more independent decissions of their own, as it relates to their defence and foreign policies.
EU-Digest
Labels:
Angela Merkel,
Defesce,
EU,
Foreign Policy,
Germany,
Military,
Unitym Elections
January 12, 2019
Germany: New far-right German party adopts former secret Nazi symbol
New far-right German party adopts former secret Nazi symbol
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December 31, 2018
The Netherlands - terrorism: individuals arrested in Germany and the Netherlands planning terrorist attack in the Netherlands
Read more at:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/256927
November 27, 2018
World War III ? Russia vs Ukraine War? Ukrainian President Says Neighbor Is Preparing Ground Attack - by Cristina Maza
During a televised speech on Monday in which he outlined his case for
imposing martial law, Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko claimed that
his country’s intelligence service had evidence that Russia was
preparing a ground attack.
Poroshenko's speech was given after Russia blocked three Ukrainian navy vessels from passing from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov via the Kerch Strait on Sunday. The incident was a major escalation of the tensions that have existed between the two countries ever since Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine and began backing armed separatists in the country in 2014. Poroshenko is close to imposing martial law in Ukraine, which would allow the military to run the country, saying it was necessary for Ukraine’s security.
Many experts said Russia’s attack on Ukrainian naval ships on Sunday was a game changer.
“The big story here is that Russia’s armed forces, in broad daylight, launched an attack on Ukrainian navy ships. This crosses a new line. Moscow, of course, seized Crimea with its military, but under the guise of unidentified ‘little green men.’
Moscow has been conducting a not-quite-covert war in Donbass. Yes, there are thousands of Russian officers there and they control the fighting, but Moscow denies it. In this case, there is no denial,” John Herbst, U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2003 to 2006, told Newsweek.
Note EU-Digest : For those of us remembering our history classes, this is starting to resemble very much how the second world war started, when on October 1, 1938, Adolf Hitler's army marched into the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia.
This accelerating Nazi Germany's aggressive World War II offensive.
At that time Europe also was divided, as it is now over Brexit, and to make natters even worse, the US, which used to be the West's major defender of Democracy, has now taken an isolationism turn under the leadership of a not too bright, ego-maniac President, who is in charge of a dysfunctional government, and a population, divided in two polarized camps.
Putin looking at this picture is probably thinking in the same way as Hitler thought back in 1939. "this is a window of opportunity and it appears there is no need to pull down the shades." Bottom-line, we in the West, and specially the EU, could become involved in a major war pretty soon, if we don't get our act together.
Read more: Russia vs. Ukraine War? Ukrainian President Says Neighbor Is Preparing Ground Attack
Labels:
Brinkmanship,
Britain,
Donald Trump,
EU,
EU Commission,
France,
Germany,
Military,
Third World War,
Ukraine,
UN,
US Congress,
USA,
Vladimir Putin
November 26, 2018
EU Defence Force: Germany may increase troop numbers to 203,000 by 2025
The defense ministry is set to approve a plan to create 5,000 more
Bundeswehr jobs than initially foreseen, according to a newspaper
report. Whether officials can convince young Germans to sign up is
another matter.
Germany's military is planning to increase the number of active soldiers to 203,000 by 2025 — some 5,000 more than originally planned, the Bild am Sonntag newspaper has reported.
The plan by German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen foresees creating a total of 20,000 active duty and reservist jobs to bolster Germany's cyber defense capabilities and meet the country's NATO and European commitments.
Read more: Germany may increase troop numbers to 203,000 by 2025 | News | DW | 26.11.2018
Germany's military is planning to increase the number of active soldiers to 203,000 by 2025 — some 5,000 more than originally planned, the Bild am Sonntag newspaper has reported.
The plan by German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen foresees creating a total of 20,000 active duty and reservist jobs to bolster Germany's cyber defense capabilities and meet the country's NATO and European commitments.
Read more: Germany may increase troop numbers to 203,000 by 2025 | News | DW | 26.11.2018
Labels:
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Germany,
Increase,
Military Deployment
November 1, 2018
October 28, 2018
Saudi Arabia: France and Britain still selling weapons to Saudi Arabia despite killing of journalist and other human rights problems
Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Emmanuel Macron clash over Saudi weapons.
Read more at :
https://p.dw.com/p/37GIs
https://p.dw.com/p/37GIs
Labels:
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France,
Germany,
Macron,
Merkel,
sales,
Saudi Arabia,
Weapons Industry
August 18, 2018
Germany′s planned immigration law – what you need to know
The German government is preparing a new immigration law
aimed at bringing more skilled workers to Germany – but has apparently
rejected the "points-based" system that other countries favor.
The new "key-point" paper, seen by DW, acknowledges that low unemployment and an aging population in Germany have meant that companies are struggling to fill posts with qualified people, and even creating more opportunities for other European Union citizens will not meet the shortfall – so " we will have to be significantly more successful in winning qualified specialist workers from third countries" – meaning countries outside the EU.
Read more: Germany′s planned immigration law – what you need to know | Germany| News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 17.08.2018
The new "key-point" paper, seen by DW, acknowledges that low unemployment and an aging population in Germany have meant that companies are struggling to fill posts with qualified people, and even creating more opportunities for other European Union citizens will not meet the shortfall – so " we will have to be significantly more successful in winning qualified specialist workers from third countries" – meaning countries outside the EU.
Read more: Germany′s planned immigration law – what you need to know | Germany| News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 17.08.2018
Labels:
Aging population,
EU,
German Workforce,
Germany,
New Immigration Law
July 19, 2018
EU, US relations sinking further after divisive Trump tour - by Raf Casert
After a week of the worst barrage of insults yet from U.S. President
Donald Trump, the European Union is looking westward toward the White
House less and less.
Making it worse, Trump spent Monday cozying up to EU adversary Vladimir Putin in an extraordinary chummy summit with the Russian leader in Helsinki.
Never mind. In an age when Trump has made political optics all-important, on Tuesday the EU struck back. Key EU leaders were in the far east in Japan and China looking for the trust, friendship and cooperation they could no longer get from a century-old ally.
Trump's embrace of Putin and the EU's Asian outreach highlight the yawning rift, widening more by the day, in a trans-Atlantic unity that has been the bedrock of international politics for the better part of a century, as countless graves of U.S. soldiers buried in European soil bear witness to.
Trump's abrasiveness and "America First" insistence had been a given even before he became president. Europe's increasing resignation to letting go of the cherished link to the White House is much more recent.
After last week's brutal NATO summit where Trump derided Europeans as freeloaders, EU chief Donald Tusk spoke on Tuesday of "the increasing darkness of international politics."
"This Helsinki summit is above all another wake-up call for Europe," said Manfred Weber, the German leader of the EPP center-right group in the European Parliament, the legislature's biggest.
"We Europeans must take our fate in our own hands."
It was a startling sentiment coming from someone who hails from the same German Christian Democrat stock as Angela Merkel, Helmut Kohl and Konrad Adenauer, staunch supporters of the trans-Atlantic link over the past three-quarters century.
There have been other signs of the growing European detachment from the White House, especially after Trump pulled out of the global climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal the EU brokered.
"With friends like that, who needs enemies?" Tusk asked two months ago.
Soon, Trump had also piled on economic punishment with punitive tariffs on European steel and aluminum.
Then came the NATO summit. Already viewed with apprehension, reality turned out to be worse.
First, Trump called Germany, the powerhouse of the European Union, "captive" to Russia. Then he suggested that Britain should "sue" the EU over Brexit terms. Finally, he finished off by calling the 28-nation bloc a trade "foe."
"For Trump, the categories of friend, ally, partner, opponent, enemy don't exist. For him there is only his own ego," said the head of the German parliament's foreign affairs committee, Norbert Roettgen.
So little wonder the EU has turned for friends elsewhere — and found one Tuesday in Japan, where the bloc said it put in place "the largest bilateral trade deal ever."
Up to two years ago, that was supposed to be the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, trade deal between the EU and the United States. But Trump quickly let it be known that such an international agreement would not happen on his watch.
"This is an act of enormous strategic importance for the rules-based international order, at a time when some are questioning this order," Tusk said at a joint news conference in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
"We are sending a clear message that we stand together against protectionism."
Despite it all, until last week there had remained hope that on the most critical of geopolitical security issues, Trump would remain true to American ideals. Instead, he unleashed unprecedented criticism at the NATO summit.
Fully extracting itself from the United States, though, is a daunting challenge for Europe.
Militarily, with the exceptions of France and Britain, the European allies have lived under the nuclear umbrella of the United States since World War II. Defense cooperation outside of U.S-dominated NATO is only now taking off and the blocked Brexit negotiations make such a prospect fraught with uncertainty.
That military dimension, and the bond between Europe and the United States, have a special resonance in nations like Poland and the Baltic states, which had long been under the thumb of Moscow before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Hence, Monday's Helsinki summit was seen with apprehension that Trump might make dramatic concessions to Putin and leave parts of Europe with too little protection. In Poland, the 1945 Yalta Conference is seen as a symbol of political treason because, without Poland's participation and against Poland's will, it put the country under Soviet control for decades, until 1989.
Read: EU, US relations sinking further after divisive Trump tour
Making it worse, Trump spent Monday cozying up to EU adversary Vladimir Putin in an extraordinary chummy summit with the Russian leader in Helsinki.
Never mind. In an age when Trump has made political optics all-important, on Tuesday the EU struck back. Key EU leaders were in the far east in Japan and China looking for the trust, friendship and cooperation they could no longer get from a century-old ally.
Trump's embrace of Putin and the EU's Asian outreach highlight the yawning rift, widening more by the day, in a trans-Atlantic unity that has been the bedrock of international politics for the better part of a century, as countless graves of U.S. soldiers buried in European soil bear witness to.
Trump's abrasiveness and "America First" insistence had been a given even before he became president. Europe's increasing resignation to letting go of the cherished link to the White House is much more recent.
After last week's brutal NATO summit where Trump derided Europeans as freeloaders, EU chief Donald Tusk spoke on Tuesday of "the increasing darkness of international politics."
"This Helsinki summit is above all another wake-up call for Europe," said Manfred Weber, the German leader of the EPP center-right group in the European Parliament, the legislature's biggest.
"We Europeans must take our fate in our own hands."
It was a startling sentiment coming from someone who hails from the same German Christian Democrat stock as Angela Merkel, Helmut Kohl and Konrad Adenauer, staunch supporters of the trans-Atlantic link over the past three-quarters century.
There have been other signs of the growing European detachment from the White House, especially after Trump pulled out of the global climate agreement and the Iran nuclear deal the EU brokered.
"With friends like that, who needs enemies?" Tusk asked two months ago.
Soon, Trump had also piled on economic punishment with punitive tariffs on European steel and aluminum.
Then came the NATO summit. Already viewed with apprehension, reality turned out to be worse.
First, Trump called Germany, the powerhouse of the European Union, "captive" to Russia. Then he suggested that Britain should "sue" the EU over Brexit terms. Finally, he finished off by calling the 28-nation bloc a trade "foe."
"For Trump, the categories of friend, ally, partner, opponent, enemy don't exist. For him there is only his own ego," said the head of the German parliament's foreign affairs committee, Norbert Roettgen.
So little wonder the EU has turned for friends elsewhere — and found one Tuesday in Japan, where the bloc said it put in place "the largest bilateral trade deal ever."
Up to two years ago, that was supposed to be the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP, trade deal between the EU and the United States. But Trump quickly let it be known that such an international agreement would not happen on his watch.
"This is an act of enormous strategic importance for the rules-based international order, at a time when some are questioning this order," Tusk said at a joint news conference in Tokyo with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
"We are sending a clear message that we stand together against protectionism."
Despite it all, until last week there had remained hope that on the most critical of geopolitical security issues, Trump would remain true to American ideals. Instead, he unleashed unprecedented criticism at the NATO summit.
Fully extracting itself from the United States, though, is a daunting challenge for Europe.
Militarily, with the exceptions of France and Britain, the European allies have lived under the nuclear umbrella of the United States since World War II. Defense cooperation outside of U.S-dominated NATO is only now taking off and the blocked Brexit negotiations make such a prospect fraught with uncertainty.
That military dimension, and the bond between Europe and the United States, have a special resonance in nations like Poland and the Baltic states, which had long been under the thumb of Moscow before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Hence, Monday's Helsinki summit was seen with apprehension that Trump might make dramatic concessions to Putin and leave parts of Europe with too little protection. In Poland, the 1945 Yalta Conference is seen as a symbol of political treason because, without Poland's participation and against Poland's will, it put the country under Soviet control for decades, until 1989.
Read: EU, US relations sinking further after divisive Trump tour
Labels:
Donald Trump,
EU Commission,
EU Parliament,
EU-US relations,
France,
Germany,
Meltdown,
Nato,
Russia,
US Congress
July 4, 2018
USA - NATO: Trump sends sharply worded letter to NATO leaders to pay more or else
Note EU-Digest: Trump says he is losing his patience with NATO
allies, whom he finds should be paying more for the upkeep of NATO.
Why don't his NATO Allies finally get the guts to tell this narcissist to go to hell, and have the Trump Administration pay for his own disastrous military adventures around the world.
Fortunately there has been a good counter-move by Europe, which is presently setting up their own united military defense force, combining all the EU Nations military forces into one.
Why don't his NATO Allies finally get the guts to tell this narcissist to go to hell, and have the Trump Administration pay for his own disastrous military adventures around the world.
Fortunately there has been a good counter-move by Europe, which is presently setting up their own united military defense force, combining all the EU Nations military forces into one.
For the complete report click on link below
Labels:
.The Netherlands,
Donald Trump,
EU,
EU Commission,
EU Defence Force,
EU Parliament,
France,
Germany,
Italy,
Nato,
Poland,
Spain,
Turkey
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