Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts

Sunday, September 1, 2019

Merkel and allies lose votes but hang on in German elections as AfD surges



Journalists watch first exit polls following the regional state elections in Saxony and Brandenburg in Berlin © Reuters / Fabrizio Bensch
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU and coalition partners SPD have managed to cling to power in two crucial state elections. However, these former strongholds have seen a surge in support for Alternative for Germany (AfD).

The states of Saxony and Brandenburg –once part of the East German DDR– have long been considered bastions of support for Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and the left-wing Social Democrats (SPD). However, parliamentary election results on Sunday have dealt another blow to the so-called ‘Grand Coalition.’
Saxony has been ruled by CDU prime ministers since the 1990s and is considered by some as the party’s spiritual home. However, the CDU saw its support drop to 32 percent on Sunday, down 7.4 points since the last election in 2014, according to an exit poll by German broadcaster ARD. While the party remains the largest in the state, the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) came a close second, taking 27.5 percent of the vote on Sunday, up from 9.7 percent in 2014.
Brandenburg encircles Berlin, and has been ruled by the SPD since German reunification in 1990. The AfD’s hopes of surrounding the German capital were dashed on Sunday, but not by a wide margin. The SPD won 27.5 percent of the vote, ahead of the AfD's 22.5 percent. In 2014, AfD only managed to score 12.2 percent, while the socialists took just under 32 percent.
ALSO ON RT.COMTight election race in Germany’s Saxony & Brandenburg may show AfD is definitely no mayfly
While campaigning in Branderburg, AfD invoked the spirit of 1989 to win votes, printing posters bearing the slogan “Wende 2.0,” referring to the German word for 'turnaround,' used to describe the collapse of East Germany. While the party made a name for itself by vocally opposing Merkel’s 'open door' immigration policies, it has also positioned itself as a champion of the relatively disadvantaged east, protesting the planned closure of coal mines and calling for urban regeneration.
Though refugee and migrant arrivals to Germany have slowed since the initial 2015 influx - which saw more than a million new arrivals turn up in the country - AfD has managed to grow and strengthen, despite initial predictions that its popularity would wane as the refugee crisis abated. Previously unrepresented in the Bundestag, AfD became the parliament’s third biggest party in the 2017 federal election, taking 12.6 percent of the vote.
ALSO ON RT.COMForeigner pushes 8yo boy in front of train in Germany, reigniting migration debate
With right-wing voters abandoning the establishment parties for AfD, left-wing voters are also being pulled away. The SPD, in particular, is currently going through arguably the worst popular support crisis in the party’s modern history, with many members accusing leaders of drifting from party values over their years-long alliance with Merkel’s CDU. 
Waiting in the wings to hoover up the disaffected left vote are parties like the Greens, who though traditionally unpopular in eastern Germany, managed to make modest gains on Sunday. The Greens scored 8.8 percent in Saxony and 10.2 percent in Brandenburg, up from around six percent in both states in 2014.
While two poor results in state elections don’t quite spell doom for Merkel’s ruling coalition yet, they are an important barometer of public opinion, two years out from Germany’s next federal election. Should the decline in support continue, and should all of the country’s other political parties continue to rule out working with AfD, the question of who will steer Europe’s economic powerhouse next is a truly open one.



https://www.rt.com/news/467759-germany-elections-saxony-brandenburg-afd/


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Thursday, August 1, 2019

Germany Rejects US Anti-Iran Maritime Coalition. Will Other EU Member States “Follow Suit”?



Global Research, August 01, 2019

Trump regime hardliners are struggling to enlist anti-Iran Operation Sentinel maritime coalition partners.
Britain’s limited Persian Gulf naval presence so far is separate from the Trump regime’s. The size of its fleet is a limiting factor. It’s been declining for years.
According to Defense News.com,
“(t)he US Navy has struggled to maintain its global commitments with a fleet of 290 ships, and it has seen a 52 percent decrease from its 1987 peak of 594 ships. The US Navy is today pursuing a goal of 355 ships,” adding:
“(D)uring roughly the same time period, (Britain’s) navy has lost more than 40 percent of its fleet, that stood at more than 130 ships. Today’s Royal Navy numbers fewer than 80 ships.”
Pentagon warships are deployed worldwide, limiting its capability to mobilize a large strike force in multiple global areas, along with maintaining its other global deployments.
Despite no Persian Gulf threat by Iran to commercial shipping of any countries, US Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force General Paul Selva invented a nonexistent regional IRGC maritime threat, claiming:
“…(T)here is a military role in defending freedom of navigation” in the Hormuz Strait. “The question will be to what extent the international community is behind that effort,” adding:
“If the Iranians come after US citizens, US assets or US military (sic), we reserve the right to respond with a military action. They need to know that. It needs to be very clear.”
Selva, other Pentagon commanders, and senior US political officials know Iran is “com(ing) after” no one.
The US military presence in the Middle East and elsewhere worldwide poses a major threat to world peace, stability, and security.
Nonbelligerent Iran is threatened by the US military presence near its territorial waters, coastline, and mainland, not the other way around.
France so far hasn’t agreed to join the Trump regime’s Operation Sentinel. According to Germany’s Deutsche Presse-Agentur and other Western media, Angela Merkel’s government declined a White House request to join Pentagon warships in monitoring Hormuz Strait seaborne traffic, a Berlin statement saying:
“Members of the German government have been clear that freedom of navigation should be protected…Our question is, protected by whom” against what threat?
Iran poses none. A German Foreign Ministry statement said Berlin “took note of the (US) proposal, but made no promises,” adding:
“Foreign Minister Maas has repeatedly stressed that, in our opinion, priority must be given to reducing tensions, and to diplomatic efforts.”
“We are in close consultation with France and the UK. Participation in the US strategy of ‘maximum pressure’ is ruled out for us.”
German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said his government is working with its UK and French counterparts to deescalate Persian Gulf tensions.
“The goal of all responsible politicians must be to observe the situation very soberly and carefully, and not to sleepwalk into an even bigger crisis,” he stressed, adding: “Deescalation is the order of the day.”
In May during a visit to Iraq, nonbelligerent Iran signed a non-aggression pact with Persian Gulf littoral states.
It emphasizes mutual cooperation for regional peace in a part of the world boiling from US aggression. Reportedly Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, and likely Oman welcome the agreement, Tehran still awaiting responses from other regional countries.
An unnamed Arab source said
“(i)n response to Washington’s request for joining an international coalition to protect commercial ships in the region, Kuwait stated that the situation in the region was not like Saddam Hussein’s…”
“Kuwait had earlier rejected the US request for deployment of four B-52 bombers in Kuwait.”
Russia prepared its own plan for Persian Gulf Security, its principles polar opposite US belligerent aims.
It calls for for peaceful cooperative security, stressing adherence to international law, Russia’s Foreign Ministry saying:
“Under the current circumstances, active and efficient steps at the international and regional levels are needed to normalize and further improve the situation in the Gulf area, overcome the protracted crisis phase, and turn this subregion towards peace, good-neighborliness, and sustainable development.”
The initiative includes the following principles:
Mutual cooperation to eliminate regional extremism and terrorism in Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere in the region.
Mobilizing and influencing regional public opinion about the threat posed by terrorist groups and need to counter them by collective action.
All nations adhering “to international law, to the UN Charter, and UN Security Council resolutions in the first place. We all aim for a democratic and prosperous Middle East that would encourage inter-faith peace and coexistence.”
Trump regime hardliners strongly oppose Moscow’s initiative, along with any proposal for world peace and stability.
Achieving it undermines its imperial aims, why Russia’s plan won’t get out of the starting gate.
The Pentagon’s Operation Sentinel has nothing to do with protecting commercial or other shipping from an Iranian threat that doesn’t exist.
It may set the stage for a Gulf of Tonkin type false flag, wrongfully blamed on Iran, something more serious than others weeks earlier no evidence suggests Iran had anything to do with.
If US, UK, or other Western casualties occur, it could be a pretext for greater US toughness on Iran, including belligerence against its vessels, provoking the IRGC to respond, risking possible war.
What cool heads in the US, other Western states, and regional ones want avoided could be undermined a staged Trump regime incident, falsely blamed on Iran, setting off a chain reaction with unpredictable consequences.
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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)
His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
Featured image: German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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The Globalization of War: America’s “Long War” against Humanity

Michel Chossudovsky

The “globalization of war” is a hegemonic project. Major military and covert intelligence operations are being undertaken simultaneously in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia and the Far East. The U.S. military agenda combines both major theater operations as well as covert actions geared towards destabilizing sovereign states.
ISBN Number: 978-0-9737147-6-0
Year: 2015
Pages: 240 Pages
List Price: $22.95

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https://www.globalresearch.ca/germany-rejects-us-anti-iran-maritime-coalition-will-other-eu-member-states-follow-suit/5685299

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Sunday, June 23, 2019

Germany vs. Iran – Has Germany Sold Out to the Devil?



Global Research, June 23, 2019

Madame Angela Merkel – the head of Europe’s strongest economy, of the leader of the European Union, said that there was strong evidence that Iran attacked the two tankers in the Gulf of Oman. Ten days ago, German Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, travelled to Tehran, officially to “save” the Nuclear Deal (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – JCPoA), but in reality, to ‘negotiate’ with Tehran ways so Germany and by association other EU members, might still do business with Iran, against some “concessions” by Iran, in order to appease Washington.
Iran’s President Rouhani reacted quickly. FM Maas got the cold shoulder and was dismissed. And rightly so. Maas was not really representing Germany – but the United States. Iran gave the EU an “ultimatum” of 60 days to stick to their commitments on trading with Iran according to the Nuclear Deal – despite the US reneging on it – or else, Iran may bypass some of the conditions under the JCPOA accord. The EU – not being independent and her member countries having lost all sovereignty by submitting to the dictate first from Brussels, second from the tyranny of Washington, didn’t like the ultimatum, and said so in a joint statement. They added a weak and meek phrase, “We call on countries not party to the JCPOA to refrain from taking any actions that impede the remaining parties’ ability to fully perform their commitments;” not even daring calling the country by name, for whom the statement was destined, i.e. the US of A.
Germany’s position is as absurd as it has ever been since Merkel and the entire Bundestag accepted the sanctions imposed by Washington on Russia in 2014 – and replicated them along with the rest of the EU – even to their own detriment and to the detriment of the entire EU. Chancellor Merkel and apparently the entire Bundestag, again, go along with Washington’s equally absurd and false accusation that Iran has attacked the two tankers, one Japanese owned, the other Norwegian. The latter belonging to a close friend of Iran’s, and the Japanese one, hardest hit – exactly at the time when Japan’s PM Shinzō Abe, was visiting the Ayatollah in Tehran to discuss how to maintain the Nuclear Deal – trading – despite the sanctions and threats of Washington, hence, a friendly visit.
A blind person can see that these were two false flags – so thinly masked, with badly fabricated US ‘video evidence’ that even according to CIA and US military brass did not deliver conclusive evidence. In fact, none at all. Madame Merkel – why do you not first ask the obvious question “Cui bono?”— Who benefits? Certainly not Iran – but the aggressor, the US which has been planning and preparing for war with Iran for decades, ever since the first Iraq war under Father Bush, in 1991. At the 2003 invasion of Iraq – Bolton openly expressed his dreams to demolish Iran. He and Pompeo are liars and war criminals, who run the White House and pretend to run the Pentagon – and who act in impunity. Their power seems limitless. Trump – seems to be a mere puppet.
Getting Merkel on board of the flagrant US lie that Iran was attacking two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, is a strategic hit, enhancing the lies’ credibility and, thus, making a US attack on Iran more palatable to the rest of the world. Yet, apparently this was not enough. The Pentagon sent an unmanned high-altitude Global Hawk drone into Iranian airspace, a provocation Iran could not resist and shot the drone down, but not before sending warning signals, about which today nobody talks. The world shouldn’t know that Iran had the noblesse to warn the US about the drone being in their airspace. As can be expected the White House gnomes deny that the drone was invading Iranian airspace, but pretend it was in international air space, when it was shot down.
This raised the ante for Washington to launch an attack on Iran. All was planned to be carried from Thursday to Friday (20 to 21 June), and at last minute Trump stopped it. Is it true? – It could be, because somebody a bit ‘higher up’ than Trump and his warrior minions, must have realized the danger that such an attack may pose to the rest of the world – or actually that it could trigger a nuclear conflict. However, that the attack plan was stopped doesn’t mean it was canceled. Maybe it was just postponed.
In the meantime, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered all US airlines to avoid the Gulf of Oman and the Gulf of Hormuz. And, as could be expected, the airlines of Washington’s “true” puppet allies have followed suit, i.e. Australia’s Qantas Airways Ltd, Singapore Airlines Ltd, Germany’s Lufthansa, British Airways, Air France and its Dutch KLM affiliate, as well as Malaysia Airlines, said they were re-routing flights to avoid the area. Others may follow under direct or tacit pressure of the US. The Japanese airline ANA said they were considering alternative routings. Effectively, the US was able to declare a no-fly zone over a significant area of Iran.
Let’s make no mistake, all the visible key figures at the helm of the White House – are run in the back by Israel, by Netanyahu and the Chosen People he represents, those who also run Wall Street and the western world’s banking and financial system. Israel would like to see Iran in rubbles, or better, in eternal chaos, the goal that was set for Iraq, Afghanistan and that the US was and still is dreaming for Syria. This bunch of evil elite pulls the strings and hopes to soon pull just ONE string for global hegemony, under a ONE World Order.
Back to Germany. Instead of jumping off the sinking ship of Washington and its faithful entourage of the willing, as rats would do, and as the vast majority of the German people would prefer, let alone German and European business, Madame Merkel and apparently all her circles, including Berlin’s Parliament, follow the US flagrant lie propaganda. Why? – Well, this is the deal: There are many ways to “buy” top politicians, with threats or with money or by outright inflicting fear through ‘proxy-assassinations’.
Once Germany is on board – the rest of Europe will follow suit. In that case, Washington – Trump and consortia – think they have Iran totally strangled, by blocking all trade and all financial transactions, plus confiscating Iranian assets abroad – on top of imposing stiff tariffs, so that Iran can no longer afford importing vital goods for manufacturing – or for sheer survival from the west. Once a country is weak, it can be taken over easily. So, the western, AngloZionist thinking goes.
Iran – her Fifth-Columnists aside – is strong and has already proven that it is detaching from the west. Even trying to adhere and fight for the Nuclear Deal which the west, i.e. Europe is incapable of respecting for lack of backbone, is a waste of time. To demonstrate that Iran has alternatives, Mr. Rouhani was attending the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on 13 and 14 June 2019, by invitation of China, the leader of the 8-member “club”.
SCO stands for promoting peace, trade and a non-aggressive defense strategy (the antidote to the NATO-type military aggression). As of now, Mr. Rouhani is an observer for his country, Iran which is in an advanced stage in the process of entering the SCO as a full member. This could happen later this year or in 2020. Iran would recover her sovereignty, her economic potential and would – and will – be able to detach from the west, pretty much as did Russia and China, the two super-powers under constant assaults of sanctions, denigration and false accusations.
Turkey – is in a similar situation. If Turkey is admitted by the SCO – also very likely – their NATO exit will be imminent. What that will mean for the rest of NATO, at this point we can only guess and dream of, especially since there is an ever-stronger people’s movement throughout Europe to exit NATO. It is particularly strong in Italy and paradoxically also in Germany. The vast majority of Germans want to exit NATO, but the government doesn’t listen. “So far” doesn’t listen. The German anti-NATO movement has been gaining strength ever since the anti-nuclear energy protests in the early seventies which were followed and intensified in the late 1970’s early 1980s against nuclear arms stockpiled in Germany by the US, particularly those stored at the US Air Force base of Ramstein, near Kaiserslautern.
The “so-far” is a precursor to a break with NATO, as the pressure against the USAF base Ramstein, against NATO, is mounting, and that, when Madame Merkel decides firmly to go with the sinking ship – risking to pull Germany and her people down the drain for sheer senseless and outdated obedience to the succumbing tyrant. How absurd!
While Iran is making smart moves, gradually away from western economics, from trading with the west – and moving eastwards – where the future is – Germany backtracks, literally into the orbit of a dying beast, into what is ever-more detectible – a decaying empire.
When will Germany wake up? When the first bombs fall on her cities – a WWI and WWII redux? Except this time, it may not be just the falling of conventional bombs. It may be nuclear meeting nuclear at Ramstein. Madame Merkel, your obligation to the people who apparently elected you is larger than you think and larger than yourself – and much larger than whatever goes on in your mind to follow a defeated warrior and rogue nation into hell.
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This article was originally published on New Eastern Outlook.
Peter Koenig is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also a water resources and environmental specialist. He worked for over 30 years with the World Bank and the World Health Organization around the world in the fields of environment and water. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for Global Research; ICH; RT; Sputnik; PressTV; The 21st Century; TeleSUR; The Saker Blog, the New Eastern Outlook (NEO); and other internet sites. He is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed – fiction based on facts and on 30 years of World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a co-author of The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from the Resistance. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.


https://www.globalresearch.ca/germany-vs-iran-has-germany-sold-out-to-the-devil/5681471


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