Germany prepares to split with America. European politicians doubt Donald Trump will become a mature statesman.
Merkel is preparing for the worst. The New York Times called her “the last powerful defender of Europe and the trans-Atlantic alliance.” She is the last man defending a dying vision. She stands for election a fourth time after 11 years in power. She faces a difficult election and with 1.5 million new refugees in 2015, her popularity has been damaged by terrorism.
Each terror incident does pose electoral challenges for some of Europe’s leading pillars of unity like Merkel. Terror attacks in France and Germany do provide ammunition for right-wing leaders who want to go beyond simple bans on immigration from the Middle East. The National Front and their supporters want nothing less than a dissolution of the European Union and a return to pull-up-the-drawbridge nationalism for their individual nations.
A new rival to Merkel is Edmund Stoiber. He flatly rejects that Islam is a part of Germany. What makes him an interesting candidate is he appears to walk in the footsteps of his mentor, Franz Josef Strauss. Stoiber called Strauss ‘the father of the people’s party’ and ‘the greatest political son of Bavaria.’” In the article, Stoiber wrote, “He was a Bavarian in the heart of Germany and European in vision. The modern people’s party was embodied in Franz Josef Strauss. … For me, he remains a teacher and fatherly friend” It was Strauss that wrote The Grand Design: a European solution to German unification. He led during Germany’s rise to power in Europe.
German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel called for Salafist mosques to be banned and their communities broken up. “On this question, I am for zero tolerance,” the German official told Der Spiegel in an interview, commenting on the links between the Christmas market truck attacker and a Salafist preacher.
Gabriel was referring to Salafist preacher Abu Walaa, who was arrested in November along with others for recruiting people in Germany on behalf of the terrorist group Islamic State. Truck attack suspect Anis Amri, who killed 12 people at a Berlin Christmas market, is believed to have communicated with the cleric. Salafism is growing fast in Germany, flourishing on grants and other forms of support from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf nations. Gabriel says Germany should fight radical forms of Islam on its own soil. Gabriel leads to the Social Democrats (SPD), a coalition ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU). He is expected to run for chancellor this year against his current boss.
The cost of assimilating all those refugees and the strain on public services and welfare programs are beginning to mount up. Germans are also troubled at the cultural and religious influence of so many Muslims. Vladimir Putin is deeply troubling to Eastern Europeans.
The refugees are a burden on the country. They will move into apartments that are already in short supply in some cities. They will present a challenge to teachers because children who speak no German will enter the school system. A study by the Nuremberg-based Institute for Employment Research found that 13 percent of new arrivals in 2013 had a university degree, with almost one in four having at least a high school diploma. Still, the largest group of newcomers, some 58 percent, has no occupational training whatsoever. If the country wants to avoid the mistakes made in the past, these people must quickly be given training. That will be one of the largest tasks in the coming years.
Europe has responded to the crisis with organised irresponsibility. Italy and Greece allow asylum-seekers to continue their journeys, despite the Dublin Regulation, which requires that refugees apply for asylum where they first enter the EU. It is a system that has allowed countries like Germany and France to ignore the true dimensions of the problem for years. As long as the refugees are headed to the Scandinavian countries in the North, they are not Germany’s present problem. The whole eurozone faces economic and financial collapse driven by ageing demographics and slow economic growth. Merkel has faced angry mobs calling her a traitor. Right-wing parties in Denmark are seeking to clamp down on the number of people coming in, while Hungary is pushing ahead with plans to build a 13-foot-high barbed-wire fence along its border with Serbia, despite criticism from its European Union partners.
The Czech government has defended the right of the police to detain illegal migrants. Last week, its president, Milos Zeman, responded to a revolt among migrants held in a guarded facility by saying, “No one invited you here,” and, “If you don’t like it, leave.”
The Interior Ministry in Germany recorded 202 attacks on housing for asylum-seekers, including attempts to render shelters uninhabitable through arson, attacks with stones or other vandalism. A group called Courage Against the Right cites 48 attacks on individuals, based on local police records.
I wrote in an earlier article, we are entering the age of the strongmen. We will elect the same type of men, in conditions that are very similar to the 1930’s. Brexit, Trump, the swing to the right in European politics are all a logical outcome of the failed policies of globalism and failed attempts to export democracy to the Middle East.
The move to the Right will have huge consequences. The last time the world looked to the Right to solve their problems – the choices were Franco, Tito, Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin. We have learned nothing from history, so we will repeat it.
On June 23rd 2016 the British people voted to leave the EU. Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty goes into effect for the first time ever, as the UK now has 24 months to negotiate its way out.
The Breakdown was as follows:
4th May 2016 - 39,000 turkeys killed due to avian flu in Missouri, America. Link
