And reporting of fears of Russian hacking in the several European election campaigns, as in the US. Watch out for the Dutch and Germans as well as the French ( any dirt files on Macron?)
Meanwhile in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders calls Moroccans scum, vows to close mosques, nothing new there
The new PC - populist correctness
Meanwhile in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders calls Moroccans scum, vows to close mosques, nothing new there The new PC - populistcorrectnessâ â â â â
efa
Meanwhile in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders calls Moroccans scum, vows to close mosques, nothing new there The new PC -populistPatheticcorrectnessâ â â â âefa
You missed a bit ⊠âŠ
Meanwhile in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders calls Moroccans scum, vows to close mosques, nothing new there The new PC -populistPathetic correctnessâ â â â âefa
You missed a bit ⊠âŠ
Bit more
Dutch are first up in European elections, second week in March. Interesting that, following Merkelâs comments, the Dutch Parliament has agreed to a review of the Euro after the elections. Seems there is some Dutch concern about the Impact of Euro rates on lower income earners. That might take some of the steam out of Wilders.
And in France, the French may launch an inquiry into Le Penâs fake jobs in her European Parliament allowances which help fund her party. This would be additional to the Fillon inquiry.
Don 't want to diss Merkel, but the response to the GFC pushing for budget restraint imposed on the poorer EU members has not helped stability. Some are saying that Greece can only get out of its mess by leaving the Euro, if allowed to by its paymasters.If Greece leaves the euro the drachma immediately devaluates to worthlessness and every Greek finds their life savings wonât buy a cup of olive oil.
On the other hand, if they stay in the euro, they are shackled to a currency driven by the much bigger & stronger German economy, & which canât devalue like the Greek economy needs it to. Which leads to the crisis stretching on more or less forever.
I suspect (from not a massive base of economic knowledge!) theyâd be better off out of the euro in the long run, but if they leave with their current debt levels itâd trigger a huge crisis for them which (given current global political climate) would probably end up with them run by lunatics and/or fascist blowhards. But their debt is largely held by France & Germany, and they have no desire to make it possible for Greece to leave the euro, since weak economies in the euro means the euro stays artificially low which means French & German exporters get a massive artificial boost.
Iâd like to think I have a decent economic base. Have looked a bit at Greek debt and yes, they should be out of the Euro (they should never have been admitted in the first place, but hindsight is always 20-20).
The Euro is far too high for Greek exports to be competitive in global markets. A lower Drachma would give their economy a kick start, but thereâd be a fair bit of pain in the short term.
The debt is now largely held by the European Central Bank and other EU bodies, rather than financial institutions - means thereâs a touch more stability and less risk of a Euro wide crisis coming out of Greece.
They pretty much lied through their teeth to the EU RE: their financial position to be allowed into the Euro. Would have thought that the ECB would have been a bit more diligent in their auditing.
Among that, the austerity measures put in place by the Troika have utterly failed, not only in Greece, but all of Europe in general. I follow Paul Krugman closely and heâs astonished that the Eurozone still pander this failed policy.
Don 't want to diss Merkel, but the response to the GFC pushing for budget restraint imposed on the poorer EU members has not helped stability. Some are saying that Greece can only get out of its mess by leaving the Euro, if allowed to by its paymasters.If Greece leaves the euro the drachma immediately devaluates to worthlessness and every Greek finds their life savings wonât buy a cup of olive oil.
On the other hand, if they stay in the euro, they are shackled to a currency driven by the much bigger & stronger German economy, & which canât devalue like the Greek economy needs it to. Which leads to the crisis stretching on more or less forever.
I suspect (from not a massive base of economic knowledge!) theyâd be better off out of the euro in the long run, but if they leave with their current debt levels itâd trigger a huge crisis for them which (given current global political climate) would probably end up with them run by lunatics and/or fascist blowhards. But their debt is largely held by France & Germany, and they have no desire to make it possible for Greece to leave the euro, since weak economies in the euro means the euro stays artificially low which means French & German exporters get a massive artificial boost.
Iâd like to think I have a decent economic base. Have looked a bit at Greek debt and yes, they should be out of the Euro (they should never have been admitted in the first place, but hindsight is always 20-20).
The Euro is far too high for Greek exports to be competitive in global markets. A lower Drachma would give their economy a kick start, but thereâd be a fair bit of pain in the short term.
The debt is now largely held by the European Central Bank and other EU bodies, rather than financial institutions - means thereâs a touch more stability and less risk of a Euro wide crisis coming out of Greece.
They pretty much lied through their teeth to the EU RE: their financial position to be allowed into the Euro. Would have thought that the ECB would have been a bit more diligent in their auditing.
Among that, the austerity measures put in place by the Troika have utterly failed, not only in Greece, but all of Europe in general. I follow Paul Krugman closely and heâs astonished that the Eurozone still pander this failed policy.
They lied through their teeth, but everyone knew they were lying at the time and found it convenient to turn a blind eye.
It would have been terribly politically embarrassing if the EU called Greece out and said âstop lying to us, youâre broke as â â â â â when everyone in Europe was supposed to be a joyful unified brotherhood looking towards a bright future, after all. The rest of the EU chose to bring a ticking timebomb into the fold rather than cause a kerfluffle, Greece went on merrily as they always had, and this is the result.
And in France, Macron is securing endorsement after endorsement as folks realize Le Penâs threat. Problem is this is exactly what happened here in the US with normally conservative outlets endorsing Hillary. Counterpoint is that unlike Hillary, Macron is a youthful almost-outsider.
=================
Macron Extends Lead Over Fillon, Nears Le Pen in French Race
by Mark Deen
February 26, 2017, 5:01 PM PST February 27, 2017, 9:08 AM PST
Independent candidate chalks up four endorsements in week
Socialist Caresche, Cohn-Bendit back Macron on Le Pen risk
Independent French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron opened up his biggest lead yet over Republican Francois Fillon and began narrowing the gap with National Front leader Marine Le Pen, helped by endorsements and his rivalsâ legal troubles.
Two polls published Sunday gave Macron the support of 25 percent of the French electorate going into the first round of the presidential election, two points behind Le Pen. Francois Fillon has 20 percent support according to a Kantar Sofres poll and 19 percent in an Oxoda Dentsu survey. Both surveys show Le Pen losing to either man in the second round. Both Ifop and OpinionWay daily polls Monday showed Macron the only one of the top three candidates gaining.
The 39-year-old Macron won his third and fourth endorsements in less than a week Sunday as Socialist lawmaker Christophe Caresche said that he will abandon his partyâs nominee in favor of the independent and former European lawmaker Daniel Cohn-Bendit officially declared he will vote for Macron. That follows announcements of support last week from former ecology party lawmaker Francois de Rugy and Francois Bayrou, a centrist politician who ran for president in the past three elections.
âThe Bayrou announcement was decisive,â Emmanuel Riviere, director of polling at Kantar Public France, said in an interview. âHe is a personality with significant weight and he has generated momentum for Macron.â
The support has helped Macron recover from gaffes related to Franceâs colonial past and gay marriage that set back his campaign. Macron now has a six-point lead over Fillon according to the Odoxa poll â greater than he has had at any point in the campaign.
âThatâs a spectacular increase,â Odoxa pollster Gael Sliman said on France 2 television. âIs it sustainable? It remains to be seen. Many things can still happen,â he said.
Like Bayrou, Caresche said that Macronâs ability to defeat Le Pen was crucial to his decision. He also mentioned Socialist candidate Benoit Hamonâs choices on nuclear power as well as environmental and constitutional issues. Cohn-Bendit, a former leader in the green party, said that while he likes some of Hamonâs environmental policies, Macron would be the best way to block the anti-euro, anti-immigrant Le Pen.
âThis wasnât an easy decision, I owe everything to the Socialist Party starting with my political career,â Caresche said in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche. âFor a man of the left, Emmanuel Macron is the only way to effectively counter Marine Le Pen in the second round of the presidential election. The promises of Benoit Hamon are incompatible with a large union of French people against Le Pen. Thatâs a risk that personally I donât want to take.â
Macron would defeat Le Pen by a margin of 61 percent to 39 percent in the run-off ballot, compared with 57.5 percent to 42.5 percent for Fillon, according to the Odoxa poll.
âIn these elections there is one issue, the risk of electing Marine Le Pen,â Cohn-Bendit said Monday on Europe 1 radio. âToday the best rampart against Marine Le Pen is Emmanuel Macron. There are many things I disagree with in Macronâs program,â but âin the end what counts and itâs who will beat Marine Le Pen.â
Merkel Meeting
Macron scored another victory this weekend with the announcement that he will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in mid March. He sought to meet with Jean-Louis Borloo, a former environment minister under Fillon, in the quest for another endorsement. The meeting didnât happen, RTL radio reported, citing Borloo.
Fillon, meanwhile, is struggling to put to rest a scandal about the employment of his wife and children as parliamentary aides over the course of more than three decades in politics.
French prosecutors extended the probe of Fillon, saying further investigation is needed and pushing any conclusion until after the election. Prosecutors said Friday that after the police conducted inquiries they decided to put an investigative judge in charge the preliminary probe âgiven the longstanding nature of some of the events concerned.â
While the latest twist in Fillonâs case gives opponents a continued line of attack with just two months to go until the election, the decision also suggests charges wonât be brought before voters decide who should be Franceâs next president.
The Republican isnât alone in facing legal issues. Le Pen refused to be interviewed by police last week for an investigation into her use of a European parliamentary allowance to pay for party work in France, said her lawyer, Rodolphe Bosselut. Bosselut urged prosecutors to back off until after the election to avoid interfering with the democratic process.
âWe are seeing a sudden rush in the procedure which relates to an old complaint,â Bosselut said in a telephone interview. âYou have to ask why everything is accelerating and madame has been summoned two months before a major election date.â
Dutch are first up in European elections, second week in March. Interesting that, following Merkel's comments, the Dutch Parliament has agreed to a review of the Euro after the elections. Seems there is some Dutch concern about the Impact of Euro rates on lower income earners. That might take some of the steam out of Wilders. And in France, the French may launch an inquiry into Le Pen's fake jobs in her European Parliament allowances which help fund her party. This would be additional to the Fillon inquiry.
March 15. First domino? Hope not. Yikes!
Re French Presidential elections, interesting article in
www.theweek.cim
Article by Gobry , - is Macron the anti-Le Pen?
Apparently Geert Wilders is 50/50 in the Dutch presidential race with the current president.
I used to think that nobody with a hairdo like that could ever possibly be elected.
But then Trump got electedâŠ
Appears that sanity has prevailed in Holland. Current ruling party has won the most seats and can now work on building a coalition. Phew!
3 Likes
Looks like they had a massive turnout of >80%
1 Like
The UK will go to the polls (again) on the 8th of June.
Meanwhile polls in France are super tight. Macron and Le Pen still looks like most likely outcome, but there is a very real chance that Fillon or MĂ©lenchon make the runoff.
A Le Pen v MĂ©lenchon runoff would be catastrophic for the EU.
2 Likes
Incredibly worried about the French elections. Seeing all the same signs that I saw in the US with the French pundits laughing off Le Pen.
Europe is farked. Theyâve got nothing to lose because theyâve already lost it all. You can make a decent wage in Scandanavia, but they didnât sell their soul to the devil.
Thatâs a lot of 'onâs
Thereâs also Hamon
Hamon Iberico is pretty goodâŠvery expensive though.