Western European News Digest
Berlin Youth Teach German Finance Minister Some Economics
German Finance Minister Hans Eichel received an unexpected reception from members of the LaRouche Youth Movement in Germany March 29, following a speech which could be summed up as a fantastical marriage of economic growth with tight austerity. In the question-and-answer session, four LYM representatives were able to test Eichel's mettle.
Daniel greeted Eichel: "Hello, my name is 'Hjalmar Schacht,' and I totally agree with your austerity measures." He noted how much hethat is, Schachtagreed with Eichel's Bruening-like austerity policy, to set the stage for a Hitler-style dictatorship. Some in the audience started laughing. Eichel refused to respond.
Tina demanded, "Could you please start telling the truth!" She told him about the debt in Argentina, Germany, and the USA, which we would never be able to pay, and brought up the BIS report and LaRouche's forecasts.
"You don't want to call me a liar, do you?" retorted Eichel, who continued: "It is Argentina's fault. They should never have allowed their 'elites' to take all the money out of the country." Stefan intervened, saying people don't like the German government's preparing for fascism, and asked if Eichel would learn from that and listen to Lyndon LaRouche?
As Elsebeth began to speak, but was cut off as soon as she said the "L" word. After the meeting, people came up to discuss or to take leaflets. The woman who introduced Eichel, who is a member of the Bundestag, came up to us and said: "Let's meet. I want to know how you guys think."
Top German Warns Markets Headed for 'Mass Panic'
The financial markets are headed into "mass panic," warned banker Roland Leuschel in an interview with the German newsweekly Spiegel dated April 14. Leuschel noted that we are experiencing the biggest speculative bubble of all time. The recent stock-market crash, starting in March 2000, has already eliminated $15 trillion in financial asset value, marking "the biggest financial asset destruction ever." But that's not the end of the story. There will be another crash, including on the stock market. The person to blame is Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, because he turned markets into liquidity addicts. Therefore, "imbalances in the world economy are growing by the day. Once the second bubble burst, we could see a mass panic." The trigger this time might come from the East, he said. "Once the Chinese and Japanese stop buying more dollars, and thereby stop financing the U.S. economy, the whole structure will fall apart."
EU Commissioner Prodi Calls for UN Mandate in Iraq
In an interview with the March 27-28 weekend edition of Italy's Corriere della Sera, EU Commission President (and former Italian Prime Minister) Romano Prodi was presented as the potential head of a post-Berlusconi Italian government. Following the mid-June election for European Parliament, Prodi may quit his Brussels post to head an anti-Berlusconi alliance in early Italian elections.
Prodi said that the war in Iraq (and implicitly, the deployment of Italian troops there) was illegitimate, based on false assumptions, such as the WMD issue, but that an immediate pullout of foreign troops from postwar Iraq would cause chaos. Instead, foreign troops should be deployed under a UN mandate, he argued, with a clear timetable for returning sovereignty to Iraq, and for the withdrawal of foreign troops.
European Elections: It's the Economy, Stupid!
Anti-war sentiments played a role in the recent fall of the Spanish and Polish governments, but the main trigger for their fall was the broad outrage of the electorate over the bad economic and social situation. Unlike the pro-Aznar media in Spain, the opposition leftist media reported, long before the March 14 elections, a tendency toward bigger vote shifts away from Aznar, because of the economic situation.
The economic crisis also contributed to the fall of the Socialist Greek government in elections March 7, in spite of the Socialists' opposition to the Iraq war.
The conservative government of French President Jacques Chirac, another staunch opponent of the Iraq war, suffered a big blow in regional elections March 21 and 28, mostly on the basis of broad discontent with the economy. Chirac is paying for the discontent with a Cabinet reshuffle.
The German government, the core opponent to the Iraq war in the European Union, is under dual siege, as well: The neo-con Christian Democrats are suffering due to their even louder calls for harsher austerity, while the Social Democrats' left wing and the labor movement want a change of policy away from several aspects of the austerity, but without having an alternative plan.
The threat to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder lies in the internal opposition that is deserting him, rather than openly challenging him, so that the government might fall because of its own erosion in a war of nerves. Were national elections held now, Schroeder would suffer a crushing defeat, similar to the one suffered by his predecessor in office, Christian Democratic Chancellor Helmut Kohl, in September 1998. Whether Schroeder will be able to muddle through until the next elections in September 2006, is rather doubtful.
The April 3 nationwide labor protests in Berlin were not expected to challenge Schroeder directly, because the labor union leaders do not want to attack the government's Agenda 2010 policy as such, but only want to call for modifications. The labor movement membership and leftwing sections of the Social Democrats do want to attack Agenda 2010 as such, but this they can do only through protests outside of the official labor union campaign. The fact that dissident labor and SPD members do not have a policy alternative, is paralyzing the protest potential to a large extent. Outside the LaRouche movement, there is no serious programmatic alternative worth mentioning, at the moment, and everything else will only lead to destabilization.
New Prime Minister Named as Poland Enters EU
Since Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller, who headed the ruling SLD-led minority government, announced his resignation effective May 2, a power vacuum is emerging. The ruling Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), Poland's post-communist party, ran a minority government under tough economic conditions, and faced a majority who understandably oppose the country's entry into the European Union, because they fear wealthier EU firms will buy up Poland's companies on the cheap. Both the SLD and Miller's popularity rate have sunk to 8-10%. The former coalition partner, the Peasant Party (PSL), is also losing support.
The new PSL chairman, Janusz Wojciechowski, issued a statement over the weekend, that if there were to be another SLD/PSL coalition in government, the PSL would not accept the reform and budget cuts of Finance Minister Jerzy Hausner.
Polish President Aleksandr Kwasniewski has named former Finance Minister Marek Belka, Poland's leading representative serving in Iraq, as his choice to succeed Miller. Belka's appointment would have to be approved by the Sejm (Parliament). If no agreement can be reached in the next weeks, there will be new elections. This would open another big vacuum, in which the radical rightwing populist Andrzej Lepper (who speaks the language of the street, as people say) could gain significant support. Lepper heads a candidates' slate for the European Parliament electionsa slate which is very much against both Poland's joining the EU and its troop deployment to Iraq.
In this politically charged atmosphere, there is great concern that Poland will become a target for terrorist attacks. These concerns were enough that the location for an International Economics Conference, planned to take place in Warsaw after Easter, was changed for security reasons. Similarly, in Kattowice, a rock concert was cancelled because of bomb threats.
Swiss Daily Highlights U.S. Report on 'Mini-Nukes'
The U.S. Defense Science Board recommendations for mini-nukes was prominently covered in the leading Swiss daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung April 1. The expert group called for nuclear weapons that cause less "collateral damage," are more precise, and produce less radiation; furthermore, ICBMs should be equipped with conventional warheads, in order to have more options for active use available. The number of nuclear warheads that are available now, should be reduced from their present number, 6,000, in favor of developing more non-nuclear special weapons, and submarine-launched missiles with a range of 2,500 kilometers, and only 15 minutes of launching time, the experts say. Also, guidance sensors should be developed that can detect small and mobile targets.
They also recommend replacing the general defense against WMDs by efficient systems of defense against terrorists and rogue states, including the targetted assassination of terror groups.
Soros Was Up to No Good on Ukraine Tour
Megaspeculator and pro-drug advocate George Soros recently toured Ukraine in conjunction with a several-day seminar of his Renaissance Foundation the March 29-31. Meetings were scheduled for Soros and Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma as well as other government ministers. The aim of the visit was to discuss in depth his "open society" concept, but the highlight of the trip occurred when protesters assaulted Soros with mayonnaise.
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