Struggle over the Silk Road

 

BERLIN/ROME/BEIJING (Own repot) – The West’s power struggle against China is provoking new tensions between Germany and Italy. According to reports published last week, the Italian government plans to conclude a cooperation agreement with Beijing within the framework of the “New Silk Road” (Belt and Road Initiative, BRI) to benefit from Chinese investments in Italy’s infrastructure, e.g. the Trieste port and Italy’s power grid. China has already invested in several of the EU’s periphery countries, heavily affected by Berlin’s austerity dictate – such as Greece and Portugal – which gladly welcome these investments as relief. The German government is now beginning to make moves against this. Berlin seeks to prevent the People’s Republic of China from increasing its influence within the EU and fears inner-European resistance if it takes aggressive action against its East Asian rival. Fierce debates are expected at the EU summit at the end of next week and at the EU-China summit on April 9.

Italy: A Brewing Storm Within the EU

 

Over the last couple of years, the main challenge to EU cohesion has been Brexit, with the media sharply focused on the negotiations and all relevant developments. Since the release of the draft withdrawal agreement, largely perceived as a victory for the EU, those who support the European project and believe in a strong leadership from Brussels have projected confidence and optimism for the future. According to these voices, the divisions caused by the rise of nationalism and populism in the past years are healing, the relationship between member states is normalizing, while a future of stability and harmony awaits.

However, such a vision might prove naive, as it discounts a much greater risk to the EU than Brexit ever was: the political and economic powder keg that is Italy.

Macron: We need ‘real European army’ to defend against US & Russia

The EU Army, or European Defense Agency, as it’s called today, has been in the making for decades and is still well Under Construction.

All roads still lead to Berlin. Paris just toes the line.

 

 

French President Emmanuel Macron has once again revealed the desire of EU true believers for the bloc to have full military capability, calling for a “real European army”.

Worryingly, Macron is seemingly now setting out America as a potential enemy, telling Europe 1 Radio: “We have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States of America.”

A Transmission Belt of German Supremacy

 

ROME/BERLIN (Own report) – German politicians and media are intensifying pressure on Rome in anticipation of today’s EU Commission verdict on Italy’s national budget. Already last week, EU Budget Commissioner Günther Oettinger announced, in reference to the Italian deficit, that the Italian government must “correct” its draft budget. Media reports refer to a “black week” for Rome. Negative reporting – like rating agencies’ devaluation of Italy’s creditworthiness – can contribute to the destabilization of Italy’s financial and credit markets. The country’s current downward spiral threatens to re-escalate the banking crisis. Whereas Berlin insists that the EU take sharp measures against deficits, Germany’s Finance Minister at the time, Wolfgang Schäuble had prevented the EU Commission from taking measures against excessive surpluses, which the commission sees as potentially just as destabilizing. Germany has been achieving these surpluses year after year.

The ECB on the Verge of Collapse?

 

The European Central Bank (ECB) will aid Italy with an EU rescue program if the country or its banks are in financial turmoil because they are taking the view that Italy has become an “occupied” country and that Germany has conquered Europe imposing austerity and its view of inflation upon the whole of Europe without firing a shot. While the spin is that the ECB is making Italy a test case to demonstrate that Europe and its mechanisms work, in reality, it is a realization that the ECB cannot save Italy’s financial institutions because austerity has created the greatest economic depression perhaps in economic history.

“Interfere!”

 

ROME/BERLIN (Own report) – Following massive pressure from Berlin, Italy’s new government has renounced on appointing a well-known euroskeptic to become economy and finance minister. The renowned economist Paolo Savona must accept a less prominent post as Minister for European Affairs – above all because he criticizes Germany’s blatant policy of domination at the expense of the other euro zone countries. The far right Lega Nord is now almost as strongly represented in Rome’s government as the 5-Star Movement: Due to Germany’s open interference, Lega’s poll ratings have soared, thereby significantly increasing its political clout. In the run-up, German politicians and media had reactivated a tactic they had been using since the beginning of the euro crisis: With warnings of harsh financial market reactions, they fuel the fear of a crisis, thus applying even more pressure on Rome. According to German media with wide circulation, Italy’s policy “concerns all of us” – “Interfere!”

With Japan against China

 

TOKYO/BRUSSELS/BERLIN(Own report) – With the conclusion of their free trade agreement, the EU and Japan are about to establish the world’s largest free trade zone. As was reported, the agreement between the two highly export oriented economic blocks, generating nearly 30 percent of the global economic output, could already take effect in early 2019. According to the EU Commission and German economic institutes the Japan-EU Free Trade Agreement (JEFTA) could lead to significant economic growth and the creation of hundreds of thousands of new jobs. On the one hand, the agreement is aimed at making up for eventual slumps on the US market and, on the other, is part of the containment strategy against China, the emerging powerhouse. Despite their differences, Berlin and Washington continue to cooperate in their opposition to Beijing. Parallel to the JEFTA agreement, the EU, Japan and the USA have declared that they will jointly take on China more aggressively over trade issues.

Muslims Tell Europe: “One Day All This Will Be Ours”

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán recently said: “Our view is that we must solve our demographic problems by relying on our own resources and mobilising our own reserves, and… by renewing ourselves spiritually”. (Image source: David Plas/Wikimedia Commons)

 

• The Archbishop of Strasbourg Luc Ravel, nominated by Pope Francis in February, just declared that “Muslim believers know very well that their fertility is such today, that they call it… the Great Replacement. They tell you in a very calm, very positive way: One day all this, all this will be ours…”.
• Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán just warned against a “Muslimized Europe”. According to him, “the question of the upcoming decades is whether Europe will continue to belong to Europeans”.
• “In the coming 30 years, the number of Africans will grow by more than one billion people. That is twice the population of the entire European Union… The demographic pressure will be enormous. Last year, more than 180,000 people crossed in shabby boats from Libya. And this is just the beginning. According to EU Commissioner Avramopoulos, at this very moment, 3 million migrants are waiting to enter Europe”. — Geert Wilders, MP, The Netherlands, and leader of the Party for Freedom and Democracy (PVV).

This week, yet another Islamic terrorist attack targeted the Spanish city of Barcelona. As it was for many years under Muslim rule, it is, therefore, like Israel, land which many Islamists believe they are entitled to repossess.

Insults fly after EU ultimatum to Poland

Kaczynski with Law and Justice prime minister Beata Szydlo in parliament (Photo: pis.org.pl)

 

The Polish government has accused the European Commission of “arrogance” and of “playing God” in a dispute on judicial reform.

Wednesday’s (26 July) barrage of reactions came after the Commission, earlier the same day, gave Poland one month to address concerns on political interference in the judiciary amid threats of an unprecedented EU voting penalty.

Brussels’ Provocations

BERLIN/LONDON (Own report) – German business associations are calling on the EU Commission to end its Brexit provocations. An unorderly Brexit would entail enormous costs for the German economy, the President of the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) warned; therefore an amicable Brexit agreement with London must be reached. The Federation of German Industries (BDI) expressed a similar view. The head of the EU’s Commission’s recent audacious financial demands and deliberate indiscretions have stirred massive resentment in the United Kingdom and were rightfully considered an attempt to influence Britain’s upcoming parliamentary elections. Observers attribute these indiscretions to EU Commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker’s German Chief of Staff, Martin Selmayr (CDU), who is currently playing a key role in the Commission’s Brexit negotiations’ preparations. The German Chancellery is now calling for restraint in view of the severe damage a hard Brexit could entail for the German economy.

EU Will Force Countries to take Migrants

Veselin Borishev / Shutterstock.com

 

Brussels bully boys continue with the threats.

In a sinister turn, the EU’s unelected Commissioner for migration Dimitris Avramopoulos has warned that countries will be forced to take more migrants and refugees.

EU: Do as you are Told or be Stripped of Funding

IDN / Shutterstock.com

 

One of the EU’s unelected Commissioners, Vera Jourova, has warned that countries within the EU such as Poland who do not do as they are told may be stripped of funding moving forward.

Countries like Poland and Hungary have become increasingly outspoken at the way that the EU is increasingly being dominated by a small clique including the Germans and the French.

European Parliament votes for European army and EU centralisation

The European Parliament adopted the resolution, suggest creating an EU finance minister, an army and giving the EU Commission the power to formulate and give effect to a common EU economic policy, backed up by a euro-area budget.

Transatlantic Trade War

BERLIN/WASHINGTON (Own report) – In the looming trade war between the EU and the USA, Brussels is threatening to officially denounce the United States as a “tax haven.” The EU Commission is currently preparing this affront to the world power, following Washington’s strong criticism of Germany’s excessive trade surplus. In the six years, from 2010 to 2015 alone, this surplus has led to an outflow of nearly a quarter trillion euros to Germany from the United States because of the “grossly undervalued” euro, according to Trump’s trade advisor Peter Navarro. This has been confirmed by the Bundesbank’s recent analysis, showing that through its monetary policy the European Central Bank (ECB) has contributed to the euro’s undervaluation, which in turn has facilitated record German exports and the large US deficit. The trade conflict is flanked by a propaganda offensive against the Trump administration, exploiting the new US president’s racist and chauvinist policies to designate him as an enemy. This conflict could lead to the first major power struggle between Germany and the United States since 1945.

The European War Union (II)

Now we know why Britain might leave the EU sooner than expected. It was always ‘in the way’ of the plans to create the European Army since it was reluctant to join and blocked its development wherever it was able to, all in order to keep from being a subjugated vassal state of the German-Franco vision.

Germany, bent on continuing to create a Fourth Reich, didn’t care which route Great Britain took. It would be out of the way in either case. Get ready to see the world’s next superpower: The United States of Europe with its own army, dominated by Germany, likely within five to ten years — maybe even sooner at this current pace.

 

BERLIN (Own report) – The EU will significantly increase the number of its military interventions. This was one the results of the EU heads of state and government summit meeting, held yesterday in Brussels. The member countries will also intensify cooperation of their armed forces. This coincides with demands repeatedly put forward by the German government during its campaign, launched last summer to promote the militarization of the EU. Recently, after the EU defense ministers, along with other bodies, including the European Parliament, passed several resolutions, the EU Commission published a “Defense Action Plan,” which provides for annual expenditures from a “European Defense Fund” of half a billion Euros for weapons research, beginning in the early 2020s. Most recently, the European Parliament called for the EU to upgrade its military to be able to use “its full potential as a world power.“ The objective, according Hans-Peter Bartels (SPD), Parliamentary Commissioner for the German Armed Forces, is to establish an EU army.