Italy and Poland in talks on anti-EU league

Polish ruling party chief Jaroslaw Kaczynski seldom meets foreign visitors (Photo: pis.org)

 

Poland and Italy’s right-wing rulers are to cement their “special relations” at a meeting in Warsaw, in what could make a new anti-EU league a major force in the next European Parliament (EP).

The meeting, between Polish ruling party chief, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, and Italian interior minister and deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, on Wednesday (9 January) is to discuss Poland’s membership in Salvini’s new EP group, according to Italian daily La Repubblica.

Hungary’s Orban in sweeping victory, boosting EU populists

The victory will embolden Hungary’s Orban to continue cracking down on critics (Photo: Viktor Orban’s Facebook page)

 

Hungary’s nationalist prime minister Viktor Orban secured a third term with a sweeping majority in a boost to Europe’s populist forces.

Orban’s Fidesz has likely won a two-third majority in parliament in Sunday’s (8 April) general election, paving the way for amending the constitution, the electoral law, rules on local governments and the courts.

Hungarians voted in record numbers, but contrary to expectations, the large turnout favoured Orban’s Fidesz, not the opposition.

In Historic Speech, Macron Makes “Radical” Appeal For United Europe, Calls For “Military Intervention Force”

The construction of the United States of Europe and its European Army is still in full motion with Germany’s Fourth Reich at the helm and France toeing the line. This is barely beginning to be noticed by a few people but has been discussed and tracked on Global Geopolitics since 2011.

 

 

Just two days after the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won a larger-than-expected 13% of the vote in Germany’s federal elections over the weekend – dealing a staggering defeat to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat-led coalition which suffered its worst electoral showing since 1949 – French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a lesson in contrasts when he gave what the Financial Times described as “the most integrationist speech by a French leader since the creation of the euro.”

Speaking to students at the Sorbonne in Paris, Macron said that “the challenge is vital: the sea walls behind which Europe has thrived have gone,” adding that “we need to trace the only path ensuring our future; it is the refoundation of a sovereign, united and democratic Europe.”

In other words, a United States of Europe.

Putin And Erdogan Drifting Away From The West

 

Political and economic developments in the European Union, Turkey and Russia are cumulatively aiding Russian President Vladimir Putin to become an ascending star in the international firmament. In an unexpected twist, the supporting actor in this dramatic ascent is Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a former staunch critic of the Kremlin in the Syrian civil war who is now aligned with Putin in hostility towards the EU.

The rise of right-wing populism in the EU – Brexit, improved performance by Geert Wilders’ Party for Freedom in the 15 March Dutch general election, and the lead position of the National Front’s Marine Le Pen in French opinion polls – is a contributory element. Another is the refugee crisis which has widened the base of Europe’s rightwing parties. Though less severe now than in 2015, the present quiescent state of the refugee crisis depends on Erdogan’s good will. By closing Turkish borders with neighboring Greece, he drastically reduced the refugee influx into the EU. Equally, he could reverse his decision and revive the crisis.

Marine Le Pen Blacklisted by EU Bureaucrats

Marine Le Pen Blacklisted by EU Bureaucrats

 

(PARIS, FRANCE) European Union lawmakers lifted the EU parliamentary immunity of French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen on Thursday for tweeting pictures of Islamic State violence.

• Le Pen, who leads her National Front party in the European legislature, is under investigation in France for posting three graphic images of Islamic State executions on Twitter in December 2015, including the beheading of American journalist James Foley.
• Le Pen’s immunity shielded her from prosecution. By lifting it, after a request from the French judiciary, the parliament is allowing any eventual  against her.
• The move grants the prosecutor looking into the affair power to bring Le Pen in for police questioning.
• In the next steps, the prosecutor could drop the case, appoint an investigating magistrate to delve further into it, or send it straight to trial.
• A trial date ahead of the election in April and May would require the French legal process to go much faster than it normally does.

The offence being considered is “publishing violent images”, which under certain circumstances can carry a penalty of three years in prison and a fine of 75,000 euros ($78,930).

Marine Le Pen SURGES INTO THE LEAD in latest French presidential election polls

As foretold on Global Geopolitics many times throughout the years, Europe will make a sharp turn to the right.

 

A French politician who is the president of the National Front (FN), a national-conservative political party in France and one of its main political forces. [AFP/Getty Images]

 

MARINE Le Pen has rocketed into the lead in the race to become France’s next president – just months ahead of the country’s general election.

The National Front leader has usurped Conservative candidate Francois Fillon to take the lead according to an Ifop-Fiducial opinion poll.

Le Pen is now leading the polls for the first time after taking advantage of Fillon’s declining popularity among France’s working class voters, according to the survey carried out for French weekly newspaper Paris Match, TV channel iTele and radio station Sud-Radio.

Germany’s Gabriel says EU break-up no longer unthinkable

German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel addresses a news conference in Berlin Germany, December 19, 2016. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

 

Germany’s insistence on austerity in the euro zone has left Europe more divided than ever and a break-up of the European Union is no longer inconceivable, German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told Der Spiegel magazine.

Gabriel, whose Social Democrats (SPD) are junior partner to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives in her ruling grand coalition, said strenuous efforts by countries like France and Italy to reduce their fiscal deficits came with political risks.

Europe’s Far-Right Anger Is Moving Mainstream

(Getty)

 

Anti-immigrant, anti-Europe, anti-Muslim sentiment is resonating with more and more voters in Europe.

In the wake of the Brexit vote in Britain and the recent Italian referendum, and with national elections looming in 2017 in the Netherlands, France, and Germany, there is concern that Europe may be inundated by a populist wave, driven in large part by right-wing parties exploiting anti-globalization, anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim sentiments. Indeed, the strategy seems to be working: Polls show that people who have a favorable view of the National Front (FN) in France, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Germany, and the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands tend to be more negative about immigrants, refugees, and Muslims than their fellow countrymen. In addition, they are more euro-skeptic and more wary of globalization than their compatriots.

France on the Verge of Total Collapse

In his new book, Will the Church Bells Ring Tomorrow?, Philippe de Villiers notes the disappearance of churches in France, and their replacement by mosques. Pictured above: On August 3, French riot police dragged a priest and his congregation from the church of St Rita in Paris, prior to its scheduled demolition. Front National leader Marine Le Pen said in fury: “And what if they built parking lots in the place of Salafist mosques, and not of our churches?” (Image source: RT video screenshot)

 

• France did not perceive it at the time, but it placed itself in a trap, and the trap is now closing.
• In the 1970s, the Palestinians began to use international terrorism, and France chose to accept this terrorism so long as France was not affected. At the same time, France welcomed mass-immigration from the Arab-Muslim world, evidently as part of a Muslim wish to expand Islam. France’s Muslim population has since grown in numbers while failing to assimilate.
• Polls show that one-third of French Muslims want the full application of Islamic sharia law. They also show that the overwhelming majority of French Muslims support jihad, and especially jihad against Israel, a country they would like to see erased from the face of earth.
• “It is better to leave than flee.” — Sammy Ghozlan, President of the National Bureau of Vigilance against Anti-Semitism. He was later mugged, and his car was torched. He left.
• Villiers also mentions the presence in “no-go zones” of thousands of weapons of war. He adds that weapons will probably not even have to be used; the Islamists have already won.
• Originally, France’s dreams might have been of displacing America as a world power, accessing inexpensive oil, business deals with oil-rich Islamic states, and the prayer of no domestic terrorism.

France is in turmoil. “Migrants” arriving from Africa and the Middle East sow disorder and insecurity in many cities. The huge slum commonly known as the “jungle of Calais” has just been dismantled, but other slums are being created each day. In eastern Paris, streets have been covered with corrugated sheets, oilcloth and disjointed boards. Violence is commonplace. France’s 572 “no-go zones,” officially defined as “sensitive urban areas”, continue to grow, and police officers who approach them often suffer the consequences. Recently, a police car drove into an ambush and was torched while the police were prevented from getting out. If attacked, police officers are told by their superiors to flee rather than retaliate. Many police officers, angry at having to behave like cowards, have organized demonstrations. No terrorist attacks have taken place since the slaughter of a priest in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray on July 26, 2016, but intelligence services see that jihadists have returned from the Middle East and are ready to act, and that riots may break out anywhere, any time, on any pretext.

Europe’s Rising Far Right: A Guide to the Most Prominent Parties

Amid a migrant crisis, sluggish economic growth and growing disillusionment with the European Union, far-right parties — some longstanding, others newly formed — have been achieving electoral success in a number of European nations. Here is a quick guide to eight prominent far-right parties that have been making news; it is not a comprehensive list of all the Continent’s active far-right groups. The parties are listed by order of the populations of the countries where they are based.

Germany

Alternative for Germany

The Alternative for Germany party, started three years ago as a protest movement against the euro currency, won up to 25 percent of the vote in German state elections in March, challenging Germany’s consensus-driven politics. Last fall, support for the party was reportedly in the 5 percent range, but shot up after the New Year’s Eve sexual assaults in Cologne. The party “attracted voters who were anti-establishment, anti-liberalization, anti-European, anti-everything that has come to be regarded as the norm,” said Sylke Tempel of the German Council on Foreign Relations. Frauke Petry, 40, the party’s leader, has said border guards might need to turn guns on anyone crossing a frontier illegally. The party’s recently adopted policy platform says “Islam does not belong in Germany” and calls for a ban on the construction of mosques.

December 12 1991: Maastricht Treaty hailed as great leap forward despite Major concessions

European leaders, spearheaded by Chancellor Helmut Kohl, yesterday hailed the results of the Maastricht summit as a great leap forward in an irreversible process of integration and played down concessions granted to John Major.

French and German politicians closed ranks to present Britain as the great loser of the 31 hours of intense negotiations on economic/monetary and political union while underlining to a sceptical public opinion that Britain would be forced to join in fully sooner or later.

But Dr Kohl’s euphoria about his success in imposing the German model of currency union was punctuated by open expressions of disappointment, not least within his own Christian Democratic Union, about the relatively meagre progress in establishing political union.

Marseille synagogue to be converted into mosque

Marseille’s population of nearly two million includes around 220,000 Muslims (AFP Photo/Biju Boro)

 

Marseille (AFP) – A synagogue in Marseille is to be converted into a mosque, reflecting demographic shifts in the southern French city, a Jewish leader has told AFP.

A Muslim cultural association, Al Badr, is to purchase the Or Thora synagogue, which is used less and less by the Jewish community, the city’s top Jewish leader Zvi Ammar said Tuesday.

How the Kremlin Manipulates Europe’s Refugee Crisis

Russian intelligence is detectable in the huge migration wave hitting Europe. What does this mean for Western security?

None can now deny that the refugee crisis that descended on Europe over the last year has changed the continent’s political landscape. The arrival of millions of migrants, mainly from the Middle East and Africa, with the encouragement of some European leaders, has birthed a political earthquake that promises to reshape Europe’s politics in important ways.

Even Europeans who initially supported the efforts of Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor and the most powerful politician in the European Union, to welcome millions of refugees have begun to express public doubts about this enterprise. This week, Austria’s foreign minister, whose country only months ago was welcoming tens of thousands of migrants, expressed Vienna’s position concisely: “The concept of no borders is not going to work.”

Europe turns to the right after terror attacks

Yet another reminder of many throughout the years here as to which direction Europe is turning:

 

Nationalist leaders throughout the continent score political points as public opinion turns against Muslim immigrants

BRUSSELS — The Brussels attacks have given a boost to the far right in Belgium and beyond, and their anti-Islam language is finding a special resonance after another bloodbath by Islamic State extremists.

Just as the Paris attacks that killed 130 people in November reinvigorated the right-wing National Front in regional elections, last week’s bombings in the Belgian capital have given radical-right leader Filip Dewinter’s Flemish Interest party fresh impetus to re-ignite his group’s flagging fortunes.

Kremlin’s French front

Infiltrate, redirect, divide… and conquer. The objective is not only to break the EU, but get NATO kicked out. And here, we see again new information being brought up that the refugee crisis was Russian orchestrated.

 

On December 13, France will hold the second round of regional elections, which are considered a dress rehearsal before the parliamentary and presidential elections in 2017. UNIAN gathered expert opinions on what the change of the French political elites would mean for Ukraine.

In the first round of local elections, the far-right National Front led by Marine Le Pen showed the best results in six out of 13 regions of the metropolis scoring 27.88% of the votes across the country. At the same time the Republicans Party led by Nicolas Sarkozy, in alliance with the centrists, took 26.98% and topped the lists in four regions. The ruling Socialists led by Francois Hollande received 23.33% becoming leaders in only three regions.