There has been much controversy of late about the British Conservative Party’s decision to join the newly formed European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the EU parliament. Most of the excitement has focused on the Polish MEP Michal Kaminski, who was named chair of the ECR group. Kaminski, a member of Poland’s Law and Justice [...]
Earlier this month, German central banker Thilo Sarrazin was relieved of part of his duties at the German Bundesbank after disparaging comments he made about Turkish and Arab immigrants in Berlin sparked controversy and charges of racism. But what exactly did Sarrazin say? For a discussion and extensive translated excerpts, see my new article on [...]
The following translated from an article in yesterday’s edition (23 October) of the Italian daily Corriere della Sera: An early winter in the Alps. Temperatures fell this week and there are those who are thinking of starting the ski season early. At Cortina, the snow “cannons” are in operation on the peaks and in the [...]
In an interview that appeared in the Monday edition of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), the prominent German member of the European Parliament, Elmar Brok, expressed his categorical opposition to Turkish membership in the European Union and even suggested that further EU expansion could lead to the Union’s “downfall” [Niedergang]. Asked whether it was “not [...]
Back in the day, the mainstream news media used to revel in the political misfortunes of the European leaders that had supported George W. Bush and “his” Iraq war. Oddly enough, however, when the leading lights of the Franco-German opposition to the war went down to electoral defeat or bowed out without a fight, this [...]
The customary “left/right” political divide in the American sense has little to do with contemporary Germany, where parties from all across the ostensible political spectrum excoriate free markets and chat up the supposedly “protective” powers of the state. In case any further evidence was needed for this proposition, consider the speech given by German President [...]
A Monday report from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) contains high praise for the role being played by Germany’s foreign intelligence service, the BND, in the ongoing negotiations for the release of the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Praise from Hamas, that is. FAZ correspondent Hans-Christian Rößler writes: Hamas has much praise for the agents [...]
Angela Merkel’s decisive victory over Social Democratic rival Frank-Walter Steinmeier in last Sunday’s German elections is bad news for Tehran and the Mullah regime’s nuclear aspirations. Consider, for instance, the controversy that erupted at the February 2006 edition of the annual Munich Security Conference, when one of the featured speakers at the conference not-so-subtly compared [...]
