Widespread Interest - Merkel was furious. In a Monday party meeting, she complained bitterly about the critique reported on by SPIEGEL and took the authors of the paper to task. "We are both older than 18," she snapped at one of the renegade party members, according to meeting participants. Her touchiness is understandable. For months, the CDU and the FDP have sought to ignore the Alternative for Germany in the hopes that it would simply disappear as so many anti-euro movements have in the past. Instead, though, the party has quickly grown. Earlier this month, it surpassed the 10,000 member mark -- just seven weeks after its official founding -- and it has attracted widespread interest among the German electorate. More worrisome, significant elements within Merkel's CDU have grown uncomfortable with massive bailouts of heavily indebted euro-zone member states, with several conservative lawmakers either abstaining or voting no on aid packages in German parliament last year. While no parliamentarians have yet abandoned the CDU, the Alternative for Germany has proven adept at attracting lower-ranking CDU and FDP members. Just last week, a state lawmaker with the FDP in Hesse named Jochen Paulus switched parties. Many see the AfD as a political home representing what German conservatives used to stand for, before Merkel moved the CDU to the center in recent years. And before the euro crisis forced Berlin to embark on the expensive path of saving the common European currency. While most Germans remain favorable toward the euro, a significant number are not -- and many of them are political conservatives. The fact that AfD head Bernd Lucke is a professor of economics, with many of the other founders working as economists, academics, lawyers or business leaders, has also helped. For one, it lends the party the aura of respectability and expertise. For another, it has helped the party to quickly navigate the various bureaucratic obstacles for establishing a party and getting on the ballot. Furthermore, even as there have been some complaints that the party has not done enough to clearly define its right-most boundary, the AdL has not emerged thus far as a home for racists and Islamophobes. Party leadership has also been careful to keep a tight rein on the kind of cranks who often plague new political movements, even if that has meant strict limits on grassroots influence on strategic decisions....Germany's center-right has long been in a luxurious position. Whereas conservatives across Europe have been struggling in recent years with the rise of right-wing populist parties eating into their base, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats have had little to worry about. Though the German left is splintered among three, or even four, parties, the right is a monolith. There is the CDU, its Bavarian wing known as the Christian Social Union, and its favorite coalition partner, the Free Democrats (FDP).Yep - I like Merkel and I think she's good for Germany; but good for the rest of the Union she isn't.
Germany has done v-e-r-y well out of the Euro thank you; mostly at the expense of the other nations. If we'd (I mean the whole Europe, not Germany only) been in there we would have been able to counterbalance the whole thing and make some sense out of it. As it is - the Eurozone is all about a 'greater' (small 'g') Germany - which will gradually extend its economic influence until its at the center of a highly fiscally controlled and regulated Eurozone! It'll work - but I'll work in the long run and it'll work for the Germans first!...The alternative would be to 'grow' everyone else in the EU - but this would impact upon German growth and Merkel is dead set against that. And as she is paying the piper these days I suppose she gets to call the shots! Shame - it could mean the end of the European Union. If only the Little Englanders had been made to shut up and we'd have been in there too - all this would as likely as not been a very different view.
6 comments:
Some people might think that the only people hurt by high inflation are people with lots of savings in the bank. (I presume you don't have savings, or else you would not have said that).
The reality is that the poor are always hit hardest. People on fixed pensions, people on benefits, low wage earners with limited chance to negotiate a better deal - their incomes never keep up with inflation. Also, price raises will take up a much higher percentage of their income.
The rich are not bothered by inflation. They can move their money abroad, or they own property which will appreciate in value.
So if you want to ruin the lives of the poor while the rich are unaffected, go ahead, argue for higher inflation.
European stock markets climbed to multiyear highs, as weak growth reports from the euro zone raised hopes the European Central Bank would consider more measures to help boost the sluggish economy.
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Markets further got a lift Wednesday afternoon, on the back of upbeat U.S. home-builder data, underlining a pickup in the world's largest economy.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index gained 0.8%, to 308.06, closing at its highest level since June 2008.
The move also marked the sixth advance in the past seven sessions, as monetary easing from global central banks have offset worries over weak growth in the euro zone. Just over the past two weeks, the European Central Bank, Australia, Poland and South Korea have cut interest rates, sending the total number of rate cuts since 2007 above 500.
Britain is on the cusp of recovery. Do you agree?
A cake designed in a Union Flag is seen at a street party to celebrate the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in Lavenham, Suffolk
A mixed picture of UK data today has not dampened economist's views that the economy is on the cusp of a sustained recovery, but they caution it is still dependent on global factors.
Il Pil transalpino con il segno meno
per il secondo trimestre consecutivo
Il presidente: «Ma la crisi è meno
profonda di quella del 2008-2009»
La mancata fuoriuscita dalla recessione dell’area euro riflette dinamiche deboli in tutte le sue economia più Grandi. E se la Francia è ufficialmente ricaduta in contrazione, con un meno 0,2 per cento del Pil che segna il secondo trimestre consecutivo di calo congiunturale, e un meno 0,4 per cento su base annua, la Germania ha messo a segnato un asfittico più 0,1 per cento, a sua volta inferiore alle attese dopo il meno 0,7 per cento di fine 2012.
Labour shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander claimed the vote was "a further devastating blow to the prime minister's authority."
He said:
It demonstrates that David Cameron has managed to turn a Europe issue into a leadership issue. This is a prime minister who has lost control of the agenda and tonight lost control of his party.
David Cameron's backbenchers have shown they simply won't give up until he gives in.
The real risk is that he spends the coming month trying to get his party back in line, instead of focusing on getting our economy back on track.
Conservative criticism of the EU is rising following the advance of the UK Independence Party at the recent local elections. Tories including ministers have said they would now vote to leave the union.
Among the MPs who backed the amendment was Richard Drax, who told the Commons that Britain should accept that the EU is “dead” and could even cause civil war.
He said: “It's finished. Look around. Wake up. Greece is a disaster. Spain is on the brink of - what? Potentially civil war. 53 per cent of youth are unemployed there. Around on the streets the police are bashing their own youngsters over the head. This is the Europe that we are now facing.”
The Commons vote was the biggest show of Conservative unease over Europe since 2011, when 81 Tories defied Mr Cameron's orders to demand a referendum.
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