German chancellor Angela Merkel faces a serious new threat in her bid to stay chancellor of Germany for a fourth term.
European parliament president Martin Schulz announced today that he would stand down.
This unexpected announcement sets up a return to German politics and a potential run for chancellor as candidate of SPD.
The Financial Times reports EU Parliament Chief to Quit, Setting Stage for Merkel Challenge.
Martin Schulz, president of the European Parliament, is to stand down from one of the EU’s most powerful posts and run for parliament in Germany in a move that could lead to a run against Angela Merkel for the chancellorship in elections next year.
In a decision that has shaken the political world in Brussels and Berlin, the long-serving parliament chief will stand as an MP for the Social Democratic party in North Rhine-Westphalia and potentially position himself to lead the SPD in next autumn’s parliamentary elections as its chancellor candidate.
Mr Schulz is believed to be considering challenging Sigmar Gabriel, the SPD leader and Ms Merkel’s deputy in the coalition government, who has struggled to post gains against the chancellor’s Christian Democrats in his seven years as party boss.
Mr Gabriel has long been in pole position. But with SPD support down from 25.7 per cent in the 2013 election to about 20-22 per cent in opinion polls, he is under pressure from his party to galvanise voters or stand aside.
As the chancellor’s coalition partner, Mr Gabriel shares responsibility for her refugee policies, which have split the public and pushed some voters, including SPD supporters, into the arms of the populist anti-immigration Alternative for Germany. Some SPD politicians think that somebody from outside the government, such as Mr Schulz, would give the party a better chance.
“All the SPD rank and file will now be hoping that Schulz will run for chancellor,” said one SPD backbencher. “His big advantage is that he’s not part of the government and wasn’t involved in the policies of the last three years.”
Under German practice, the foreign ministry will remain with the SPD if Mr Steinmeier, also a social democrat, moves out, so Mr Schulz’s possible appointment is in Mr Gabriel’s hands.
Mr Schulz helped inflict a serious defeat in 2014 on Ms Merkel, when he and Jean-Claude Juncker, former Luxembourg prime minister, secured public backing to share two top EU posts, with Mr Juncker becoming European Commission president and Mr Schulz heading the parliament. Ms Merkel wanted member states to control the appointments and to block Mr Juncker’s ascent.
Wheels in Motion
SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel, Merkel’s junior coalition partner is highly likely to appoint Schulz as head of Germany’s foreign ministry.
Schulz would replace Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who in turn will take over as German president from Joachim Gauck who is retiring at the end of his five-year presidential term.
I commented about the German presidency on November 14 in Another Merkel Setback: Rival Social Democrat Selected as German President.
Merkel Surrounded
On September 2, Sigmar Gabriel laid into Ms Merkel’s refugee policy and at the same time blasted the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, the controversial planned EU-US free-trade agreement.
Sigmar Gabriel, leader of the left-leaning Social Democrats and Ms Merkel’s junior coalition partner, called for a cap on the number of migrants entering Germany, saying the government had “underestimated the challenge” of integrating the 1m refugees who arrived in 2015.
His remarks show how battle lines are being drawn between Germany’s main parties ahead of next year’s election. They coincided with a poll showing that one in two Germans did not want Ms Merkel, who has been chancellor since 2005, to remain in the post after next year’s elections.
Merkel is surrounded by people seeking to remove her and are increasingly vocal about it. The alleged “grand coalition” no longer looks so grand, from Merkel’s perspective.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
None of these are different. Faces change, outlook the same.
Merkel may even be best of the bunch.
I was going to say much the same thing, but add they all look scary, in the way of a stranger who would say to a kid ‘Want some candy?’
Who are the millions of muslim moochers going to vote for?
In Germany muslims usually vote for Greens or Angela Merkels party CDU.
Angela Merkel is so crazy and incompetent that german social democrats and german left are to the right of Angela Merkel in immigration and asylum seeker policies.
Merkel party is Christian democratic and liberal-conservative…
This talk about a cap in the number of refugees is stupid.
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There should be NO “asylum seekers” in Germany because ALL asylum seekers came to Germany through EU countries such as Greece and Italy first and according to EU dublin-treaty every person MUST seek asylum in the first EU country they reach and the countries are supposed to register and fingerprint EVERYONE.
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Greece and Italy created this massive crush of people by pushing everybody to the north like Greece or pushing most to the north like Italy so when word spread that one can get from 0 euros a month and sleep in the streets if you dont work Greece and Italy to 1000 euros a month and free apartment and bringing your whole family on welfare through family re-unification once you have got asylum based on a story full of lies and fairytales which can not be confirmed because there is no proof but which is still accepted because stupid EU-directives related to asylum processing, family re-unification etc. and swedish designed EASO modules which make one generic story of lies like have been spread around facebook in groups of iraqis, afganistanis and somalis tick all the boxes so bureaucrat trained in EASO training (from Sweden) gives ASylum with just a story full of lies western europe including Germany then obviously millions came.
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The sad part of this incompetence by Germany and every western european country is that Dublin returns are usually made based on fingerprints (if the asylum seeker gets a hit in EU-fingerprint database he is returned to Italy) but the hundreds of thousands Italy did not register and instead pushed them north could still be returned because according to dublin treaty returns of asylum seekers can be made with circumstantial evidence so because most of “asylum seekers” came with phones or have facebook profiles many of the asylum seekers in germany and western europe could be returned to Italy based on the data on their mobile phone or available through their facebook profiles since facebook records your location when you post something.
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Incompetent politicians and this includes also the whole leadership of AfD (Alternative for Deutschland) are instead talking about caps in numbers and wasting time on that instead of demanding that everybody is returned according to Dublin treaty to the first country they came through.
Italy and Greece give 0 euros and once you have received asylum you sleep in the streets unless you find work and pay yourself an apartment unless you get accommodation through charities with 4-6 guys in one room.
Those who received asylum in Italy and Greece usually live in shared apartments about 4 guys an apartment so one needs to earn just 150-200 euros a month working in a job in manual labor or selling counterfeit sunglasses, watches,handbags or african art to tourists to get his own room from the private market together with 4 friends when they rent an apartment together.’
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IF asylum seekers would ALL be stopped in Greece and Italy and could get only 0 euros and sleep in the streets if they do not work after getting asylum NOBODY would come.
Millions would not come and even hundreds of thousands would not come.
The flow would be some tens of thousands per year so no big problem and majority of these could be sent back home once they see the reality of life in Greece and Italy through voluntary return programs paying 1000-2000 euros once the asylum seeker has returned back home.
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The other insanity that AfD and other alternative and populist parties in Europe have not taken as an issue is that according to international treaties and geneva convention fleeing war is not a reason to get asylum.
One should only get asylum based on personal persecution which can be proved with actual PROOF not just some vague story.
Whole of political establisment is politically correct so they have let human rights organizations broaden the scope of who is entitled to asylum to everybody fleeing war and media has helped this broadening the scope of treaties by how they are interpreted and used by painting everybody saying anything critical as racist.
They even tried to classify things such that people fleeing “climate change” would be given asylums so if that had become reality every person living in drought stricken areas of africa and middle east would have been entitled to free life in western europe if they get here.
EU has made this situation worse with inane and stupid EU-directives and especially with EASO (European Asylum Support Office) whose modules and training to make asylum decisions have been spread to most of western europe and this monstrosity and stupidity was originally developed in Sweden (the country with the most stupidest and lax and loose asylum policy in the world).
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On top of that those parts of internal treaties regarding internal flight were NOT followed. According to treaties if it is possible to flee inside your home country to a peaceful area you are not entitled to protection and asylum. However practically all iraqis, practically all somalis, practically all afganistanis were given asylums in western europe because parts of iraq, parts of afganistan and small parts of Somalia were dangerous.
This lured people to come and the processing was becoming looser and looser all the time.
Especially I must mention eritreans who all get asylum in western europe if they flee their army service of 18 months and get to europe because people fleeing the army are punished in Eritrea.
All eritreans should be returned to Eritrea after making a deal with the government that no punishment is given to army deserters so the army desertion epidemic lured by free life in western europe would stop.
All iraqis, somalis and afganistanis should be returned to their countries peaceful areas.
Those fleeing war like syrians should be given TEMPORARY protection instead of asylum and returned home once the war is over.
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The rush of syrians to europe was actually started by Sweden who in 2013 declared that it is their government policy that 100% of Syrians are given asylum and quick family re-unification and the asylum is PERMANENT.
Germany later started a similar policy and what followed was a huge rush of people all of whom were already completely safe and out of harms way once they had reached Turkey but who were lured to try crossing to Greece and many drowning because Greece pushed everybody to the north starting early 2015 just like leftist-communist Alexis Tsipras and Syriza had promised in their election manifesto (to end detention and only registering people voluntarily and give quick rides to mainland Greece from the islands near Turkeys coast and stop controlling borders) and Germany and Sweden had 100% acceptance rates so of course GUARANTEED FREE LIFE for the rest of their lives for the syrian asylum seekers and their soon to be family re-unified families was impossible to resist for millions.
Some background on how EU made Greece the most desirable country to enter European Union:
In 2011 when the leftists in Greece were not in power and government and bureaucrats in Greece still tried to follow EU rules of registering everybody and not letting people through there was a case in European Human Rights court regarding an asylum seeker who was registered in Greece and kept in detention while his application was decided who had escaped detention and traveled to western europe because he knew that in Greece he would get 0 euros and be forced to live on the streets unless he worked and earned money to pay himself an apartment after getting asylum and who also knew there was no hope of getting his family re-unified to Greece because Greece demands that he earns enough money by working to provide for his family before family re-unification is considered whereas in western europe family re-unifications are made straight to welfare, welfare money is abundant and there is NO requirements to work to get a family re-unification.
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Actually in many western european countries family re-unifications straight to welfare are given without any effort to even learn the language of the country one is in before family re-unification is provided.
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So the man in question escaped detention in greece and made his way to western europe and applied for asylum there.
Upon hearing that he would be returned to Greece and not get the FREE EVERYTHING he had heard from his countrymen who had made it to western europe without registration of their fingerprints in Greece or Italy the man cried how inhumane and horrible the greek detention facilities are and claiming that a greek guard had punched him.
The local human rights organizations funded by generous government grants started to work and made a court case on behalf of this man that he must not be returned to Greece like Dublin-treaty and EU-regulations demand and they first went through the local courts and eventually in 2011 reached the highest court in EU with their appeals.
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THis EU-court decided that based on the conditions claimed by the man in greek detention facilities the man must not be returned like agreed and he must be allowed to stay and his asylum application must be decided in the western european country he reached.
After this decision EU-commission decided that no returns of asylum seekers to greece will be made after this so everybody who is registered in greece can apply for asylum in a western european country if they reach welfare europe.
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Of course this meant that more people started coming.
So the reputation of Greece was built by EU commission insanity already in 2011 and when Alexis Tsipras stopped border control and detention completely and gave everybody quick ferry rides from the Greek islands near Turkey to mainland Greece where it was a walk through few open borders to reach western europe with greek officials doing nothing starting in early 2015 then of course millions came.
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If EU-commission had any sense it would have kept asylum seeker returns to Greece in place in 2011 and just ordered that the asylum seeker centres are made more nice.
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EU-directives allow up to 18 months detention while the asylum application is processed but western europe does not use detention and greece did so it is much nicer to wait for an asylum in western europe where one gets lots of money already while waiting and there are no curfews so for example in Finland asylum seekers have been hanging around in Helsinki city parks in the middle of night and raping young women returning from bars after drinking with their asylum seeker money finnish goverment gives in finnish bars.
Bars which refuse asylum seekers as customers are fined and heavily penalized so asylum seekers can spend thier waiting time getting drunk.
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There was even a brutal gang-rape in the middle of Helsinki near the main Helsinki train station by three iraqis and one syrian who raped a young finnish girl and still the finnish politically correct politicians do nothing to fix things.
Politicians had a committee study the policy issues but they decided that since Sweden is even more loose, lax and insane with their policies and gives even more money to asylum seekers it means there is nothing to fix in finnish policies despite 32,000 iraqis, afganistanis and somalis rushing to Finland in 2015 after Sweden got so incapacitated that they had no place to house asylum seekers with the almost 200,000 asylum seekers sweden lured with their lax, loose and crazy policies in 2015.
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Sweden currently has most rapes in Europe and swedish criminal statistics agency Brå has hidden the nationality of rapists and other criminals already since the 1990’s so as not to cause racism and the groupthink in Sweden is even more crazy than Finland with media hiding all crimes committed by asylum seekers and immigrants if possible.
Only those which are spread widely in social media are reported a little bit on.
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To all tourists:
Avoid Sweden.
If you visit Finland avoid Helsinki center after early evening if you are a woman.
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Police in Finland has been beaten badly in severel asylum seeker centres by asylum seekers so they now go with at least two cars and in Helsinki city streets police are afraid to leave their cars.
In Sweden rocks are thrown at police and firemen and ambulance workers in Swedens immigrant ghettoes ringing Stockholm and Malmö and Göthenburg and Swedish police have started using specially re-inforced police cars and only going to certain immigrant ghettoes with two cars and a helicopter with a light hovering around them.
Firemen and ambulances wait outside of swedens ghettoes until they get a police escort because firemen and ambulance workers refuse to go without police escort because they are being assaulted and stoned when entering.
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Sweden has been the insanest of the insane for a long time and in 2015 Angela Merkel made Germany Sweden by inviting asylum seekers to come and giving lots of government goodies just based on a story and now Sweden and Germany want all the other EU countries to start acting totally crazy like Sweden and Germany act and EU-commission tries to cram forced and permanent and automatic burden sharing down everyones throat.
In addition to Germany and Sweden this EU insanity is supported by other guilty countries that caused this namely Greece and Italy which pushed everybody to the north.
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In Finland the insanity is such that iraqis have repeatedly marched in demonstrations usually ending in front of city halls or police stations to tell that finnish food is bad and they want the same kind of food as in Iraq in the asylum seeker centres and finnish government and the interior minister from national coalition party and prime minister from center party gave in and now there is iraqi style food served in asylum seeker centres with specifically trained chefs and satellite channels to watch and free internet to surf while iraqis wait months upon months doing nothing but getting drunk on the money finnish government gives them.
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Europe has collectively LOST their mind and it started from Sweden and Löfven and was increased by Germany and Merkel and spread around europe by EU-commission headed by Claude “when its serious you have to lie” Juncker.
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Pretty much sums up how clueless and useless the EU establishment has become, and that is just one area.
Another example: China demanded that the foreign companies transfer know-how to their subsidiaries. That well seems to have run dry. Now, they are on a free buying spree in the EU for companies and know-how.
Of course, an indoctrinated true believer cannot admit that his whole life, he believed in a myth.
Incompetence? You don’t think it’s all the part of the Hegelian dialectic?
Problem – Migrants flowing through porous southern borders
Reaction – Terror and outrage throughout Europe
Solution – Strong central European government with teeth
Nobody saw it coming/s
Schulz is more for open borders than Sigmar Gabriel so if Schulz becomes the Social Democrat party leader then democrats will lose even more voters to AfD.
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Schulz and Farage have had many exhanges in European parliament so go to youtube if you want to see democracy despising Schulz in action.
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The problem for AfD is that instead of knowing facts and concentrating on issues, like Germanys high acceptance rate of asylum seekers based even on the flimsiest of stories compared to some other EU countries which are much more stricter and follow EU-directives more to the letter, AfD has been speaking about a cap and many in the AfD have been talking populistic nonsense without a clue in addition to that.
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The solution is NOT a cap, the solution is RETURNING everyone who came to Germany through another EU-country so that instead of getting 1000 euros a month and free apartment and family re-unification to welfare in Germany once getting asylum the asylum seekers would get 0 euros in Greece and Italy once getting an asylum and decide to return home after that when getting some voluntary return stipend.
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There should be NO cap but EVERYBODY coming to Germanys borders should be turned back humanely and those who sneaked to Germany should be dublin-treaty returned to either Greece and Italy based on circumstantial evidence on their phone or their facebook profile if their fingerprints were not taken.
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It is a sad day when the alternative to Merkel is clueless and chasing stupid ideas like a cap instead of demanding that the EU-directives and treaties are followed to the letter.
AfD has been after Merkel but has let the german immigration authorities give away asylums much more easily and loosely than many other EU countries.
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When there would be no way to get further than Italy and Greece NOBODY would come because they are not looking for safety they are in 99.9% of cases looking for european welfare and the most lax, loose, lazy and stupid immigration officials possible with the highest acceptance rates in a welfare paying country.
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Once Greece and Italy would know that they will keep everyone coming they would be lobbying EU-commission for an australian style returning of boats to peaceful areas outside of Europe and granting of asylums outside of Europe instead of lobbying like they do now for permanent, forced and automatic burden sharing system with insane Sweden and Germany who think everybody should take as much “asylum seekers” as they have taken in their stupidity, political correctness and moral posing as moral superheroes of the world.
“Greece and Italy created this massive crush of people”
Not so. These are not wildly breeding Greeks and Italians moving north. The problem was created by the NATO countries of the EU and the USA with their Libyan and Syrian actions adding onto the USA-UK Iraq invasions. That is the real cause-and-effect here. Italy and Greece are just leaky pipes that could not contain large flows of people created by the War Mongers, Hillary, Sarkozy et al. when they set out to destroy Libya and Syria. Until you grasp the true primary source of the problem, the problem is unsolvable.
Italy and Greece are doing the right thing by their people. Italy First and Greece First is no different than Trump’s America First. Even an EU invasion army taking over Greece and Italy would be powerless to stop the flow. Hillary and Sarkozy’s France may have gloated over the decapitation and sodomizing of the Libyan leader, and now the EU is reaping the consequences of their own barbarism. Perhaps the EU leaders wanted it this way, figuring they could Islamize Europe for whatever crazy reasons, or use the chaos to consolidate or expand their power. In any case, making Italy and Greece into scapegoats for the actions of the Neo-barbarians is not a productive path, as it leads nowhere.
People came BECAUSE Greece was pushing EVERYBODY north and BECAUSE Italy was pushing MOST to the north.
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In 2015 Greece stopped detentions, stopped registering fingerprints, stopped border control, released everybody previously put in detention, gave ferry rides from the Greek islands near Turkeys coast to Greek mainland and “let people go where they want to go” with greek officials just watching just like leftist-communist Alexis Tsipras and Syriza party PROMISED in their election campaign.
So syrians. iraqis, afganistanis, somalis and eritreans and palestinians etc. came to Greece through Turkey to get from Greece to Welfare europe
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IF Greece wouldn’t have pushed people to northern welfare europe people would NOT have come because one gets the same support in Turkey as one gets in Greece and Turkeys job market is better than Greece and the culture is familiar in to syrians and other muslims in Turkey and EVERYBODY WAS ALREADY SAFE IN TURKEY.
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Italy had started pushing people to the north in 2014 under leftist Matteo Renzi as prime minister and in 2014 Italy already “lost” (aka did NOT register and pushed to the north) over 100,000 asylum seekers crossing mediterranean sea out of 170,000 crossing mediterranean sea that came to Italy.
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Renzi made this policy because Italy had started stupid policy of picking people from near the Libyan coast which had increased the amount of people coming in 2013 and italian people were furious and demanded Renzi to do something so he started pushing people to the north.
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Italy started the sea-taxi service making people smugglers job easier in response to the people smugglers drowning a boat with several hundred people where people were locked inside the boat near the italian coast in 2013.
So after people smugglers drowned people the response of Italy (and cheered on and demanded also by EU) was to make smugglers work easier and make business great for them because more people wanted to come when they heard Italy was picking boats near the Syrian coast and since crappy boats could be used and packed with even more people because the needed trip was shorter the prices smugglers were asking dropped because the profits were so great with the help of Italian navys “humanitarian” work in picking people up near libyan coast so amount of people coming increased.
So somalis and eritreans and ethiopians, nigerians and other africans came to Italy through Libya to get from Italy to welfare europe
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Renzi was just reacting and not thinking.
Obciously when word spread what Italy was doing even more people came in 2015 so that France was forced to close the french-italian border in june 2015 and leftist Hollande demanded that border police in france stop asylum seekers from coming through Italy at the french border and those that sneaked past and were caught were thrown back into Italy.
This action by france slowed the flow towards Italy and some who had rached Italy actually went from Italy on ferries to Greece to walk to welfare europe through Greece and the balkan route.
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IF coming to seek asylum in Europe would mean 0 euros in Greece and Italy and NO free apartment and NO free money and NO family re-unifications to welfare without need to work (all goodies offered by welfare paying western europe but not offered by Greece and Italy) and NO chance to get to welfare europe NOBODY would come.
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99.9% of the people coming are not coming to seek safety but they are lured by free goodies and generous welfare and family re-unifications to welfare and free apartments provided by western european welfare countries based on just a story asylum seekers tell and most stories are accepted with NO PROOF.
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For syrians the acceptance is GUARANTEED to be 100% by Sweden and Germany so of course people living in refugee camps in Syrias neighboring countries and already in complete safety are lured by european consumer lifestyle and EVERYTHING for FREE for life paid by western european welfare states.
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Asylum seekers reaching western european countries live better than tens of millions of americans living in poverty.
The western european policy is complete insanity that is demanded and cheered by Sweden, Germany and EU-commission.
It’s not the responsibility of Greek taxpayers to protect German borders. If Germany wants NO refugees, Germany should close their borders. Not demand others take the hit, and hassle, for them.
According to Dublin treaty Greece and Italy should have registered everybody coming through them and stopped them and processed their asylum claims.
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This whole mess started because Greece got a communist-leftist prime minister Alexis Tsipras and totally incompetent leftist-communist party Syriza running the country and opened the gates completely in early 2015.
Before that people had been coming through Greece after the stupid EU court decision in 2011 and the stupid EU-commission decision to not make dublin returns to greece if asylum seekers managed to escape detention and get to western european welfare countries but still greeks stopped most of the people coming so the flow was kept manageable.
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Syriza and Alexis Tsipras opened the gates just like they had promised in their communist-leftist election manifesto and Greece was the main reason for the nightmare of 2015 together with Sweden and Germany who promised publicly 100% acceptance for syrians and Merkels total insanity inviting everybody when Hungary tried to follow EU-rules and stop the rush that originally should have been stopped by Greece if they had followed the rules.
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Italy is also quilty for pushing people north and in there also a leftist Matteo Renzi and his party is guilty since he was posing as a humanitarian and italy started picking people from libyas waters to stop drownings so even more people were sent by smugglers and in even worse boats because italy was proving sea taxi service.
This caused more people to come so Renzi panicked and instead of fixing the problem he tried to make it disappear from Italy by pushing over 100,000 people north already in 2014 and this caused more and more people to come.
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Matteo Renzi and Alexis Tsipras are responsible for every crime caused by asylum seekers in Italy and Greece and also for the mass rapes in Germany and Sweden together with stupid morally posing politically correct swedish and german politicians and if there was justice in the world italians would vote Renzi out and Greeks would vote Tsipras out and Germans would vote Merkel out and swedes would vote Löfven out and boo them for the rest of their lives where ever they went.
Rest of western european welfare states have to also stop giving free lives forever and start returning EVERYBODY coming to the first EU country so NOBODY will want to come to europe since route to welfare countries is blocked.
Merkel repeatedly invited in the demographic weapons of mass destruction. Her evil delusions are a danger to Germany and all of Europe.
I do not dispute any of your facts. Just saying that before France, Hillary and NATO bombed Libya back to the Stone Age, the Libyan leader that they dismembered and sodomized in barbaric fashion had checked the immigrant flow. The Libyan war crimes of the EU et al. are now coming back to haunt them, as they broke the dam checking refuge flow when they chopped the Libyan leader into small pieces. EU Barbarian Union is reaping what it sowed, and if angry refugees are returning the favors visited upon their countries, that is simple cause and effect. NATO abuse heaped elsewhere is blowing back, indeed was invited back with open borders.
Good reason Merkel did not enforce Dublin Treaty: she cannot do it. No one can do it. It would be like Treaty of Versailles, if they tried too hard. Then it would not only be angry refugees taking revenge, but Italians and Greeks acting as commandos and taking revenge on northern Europe. Italy and Greece do not want to be dumping ground forever for the Barbarian scourge the USA and EU have visited on North Africa. Dublin Treaty is crap, not worth the photons, paper and ink. Even Merkel is smart enough to know that.
People only come to Greece and Italy because they heard that one can get through Greece and Italy to welfare-Europe giving free money and free apartments and family re-unifications to welfare.
IF there was NO way north from Italy and Greece NOBODY WOULD COME.
Yes and No. If the EU simply ended these benefits, then nobody would come for the benefits. Simple as that. It is the EU’s fault, not Italy’s or Greece’s. North Africa migrations were kept low by a stable Libya whose leader lived in a tent and kept people from going to Italy and Greece. Then the stupid EU via NATO, and with Hillary’s help, bombed the Libyan dam that blocked immigration to Europe. Before the EU’s barbaric destruction of Libya and dismemberment of its leader, they had the North African immigrant stream blocked downstream before it could reach Italy and Greece. No problem, until the EU created the problem. Won’t even try to disentangle the mercenary army mess that the EU, USA, Arabs, Israel, et al. have used to wreck Syria, Iraq, Yemen, et al.
If angry refugees whose country you destroyed come to your country and do bad things, it is reaping what you sow. Simple cause and effect. If their countries wrecked your country, and you had to flee to their country penniless…
A lot of things will happen between now and the next German election – the December votes that will likely put Renzi out of power in Italy and maybe put the Austrian Freedom Party in power, Trump taking office, Brexit or Bremain forever, recession, bankruptcies. Things are looking good from the perspective those who want to see change.
“Change” has traditionally been a liberal democrat mantra. But the pendulum has swung to such an extreme that now the hardcore conservatives are demanding it. Just goes to show how far out of whack things have gone.
The German people had better get on board and follow the lead of the Brexit and Trump supporters. Otherwise their culture is good as toast.
Oh, and Schultz does not represent change. Schultz is more of the same. Don’t go for the head fake.
That would be as stupid as considering Hillary a change from Obama.
Thank you Mish for this important development. It has been so long in coming.
Hi Mish,
there is one important point to add (I am writing from Germany and all the German media missed it as well).
– Schulz stepping down was 100% expected. He has to give up his seat as his agreed tenure is over. He is a social democrat. Now at half term it is turn for the conservatives to take the president. Both groupings agreed to take turns many years ago!
– Wikipedia says: “The president is elected by the members of Parliament for a two-and-a-half-year term, meaning two elections per parliamentary term, hence two presidents may serve during any one Parliamentary term. Since the European People’s Party and Party of European Socialists began co-operating in the 1980s, they have had a tradition of splitting the two posts between them. In practice this means, in 2004–2009 for example, that the People’s Party supported the Socialist candidate for president and, when his term expired in 2007, the Socialists supported the People’s Party candidate for president.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_of_the_European_Parliament
– What can be said however that
a) the move was perfectly timed for him personally – he can take over Steinmeier’s position as German Foreign minister when Steinmeier becomes President
(SPD candidate Steinmeier has full support of Merkel’s CDU – so all nicely prearranged, so this election as President is guaranteed. As the SPD has the slot for foreign minister – it can select Schulz.)
b) it was communicated well – none of the journalists picked up that this is just moving the deck chairs as fully agreed between Christian and Social Democrats.
(even the conservatives play along to claim a fake victory in due course and now demand “we as the largest fraction in the European parliament demand to have the president” – when it is in fact clear that it will be a conservative in any case…)
So in summary: the political establishment is moving around posts, do not expect any impact.
Personally I doubt that Schulz running for chancellor will make much of a difference. While Merkel’s CDU is weakened from the right (voters moving to vote for AfD), support for CDU is still expected to be 30-35% while the SPD stands at only 20-25%. So most likely both parties will form a “grand coalition” once again – with Merkel as chancellor. (Who else?)
Is Angela Merkel or Martin Schulz the bigger …eh…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuzicGGIhl4
Really, really hard to decide.
Merkel repeatedly invited in the demographic weapons of mass destruction. Her evil delusions are a danger to Germany and all of Europe.
There are the same players begging for war especially when there is no money to be made through more peaceful means. The entire western world (and Japan) are below replacement birthrate. None of these countries can afford the large death tolls from war when there are no future generations to replace those deaths. No matter how threatened Europeans and Russians feel toward each other it pales in comparison to the invasion from high birthrate African and muslim countries whose populations will both replace and pull down all the pillars and foundations of democracy, republics and socialist nations. These invaders only care about social welfare payments not assimilation. As a result, all pro-immigrant elites will be replaced with anti-immigrant nationalists. Don’t expect the transition to nationalisms to be peaceful either. Radical islam has been terrorizing Europe and Russia for decades and they wont hesitate to engage in full civil war if faced with expulsion or reduction in social welfare payments. To further complicate matters, don’t look for the US to finance NATO either. The US will be very busy with China, North Korea and the Middle East. Plus the utopian hubris of the Europeans freeloading off US paying for NATO is why the EU cannot even manage the most basic responsibilities of sovereignty (national borders and immigration). If the EU cannot manage its borders and its immigrant population then it certainly cannot protect itself from Russia or any other developed nation with advanced weaponry. Expect Greece to be more nationalistic and militaristic to repel its invaders. Civilians will demand a return to normalcy with or without the EU blessing. Renzi will be gone. Italians will reject the liberal hubris of the EU and return to the mafia and nationalism to expel the migrants. Italians will not follow Greece. Italians wont go to civil war. Its not Italian against Italian. Its Italian against migrant and the migrants will be murdered or expelled or disappear thru the mafia. Spain and Portugal will do things their own way. They wont follow the Italians but they will expel migrants. France and Germany will likely go to civil war. MERKEL WILL BE TOTALLY REJECTED AND HER LOSS WILL BE DEVASTATING TO THE GERMAN ELITE FOR THIS WILL BE A CLEAN SWEEP GERMANY HAS NOT SEEN SINCE BEFORE WWII. Sweden and Netherlands and Belgium are already gone and will need outside forces to free them from islam. Britain turned the corner with Brexit but it remains to be seen how the Brits will free their cities from Islam.
GERMANS CAN BE FIERCE! GERMANS ARE VERY CLOSE TO CROSSING THAT LINE AND WHEN THE MAJORITY OF GERMANS CROSS THAT LINE THEN THE LEFTIST APOLOGISTS WILL FEEL THE BOOT OF THE GERMAN NATIONALISTS. CONTRARY TO THE WORRY’S OF THE LEFT…A RETURN TO NATIONALISM WONT BE ANTI-GAY…BUT IT WILL BE ANTI-AUSLANDER. IF YOUR AN AUSLANDER WHO HAS BEEN IN GERMANY AND NOT WORKED, NOT LEARNED THE LANGUAGE, NOT ASSIMILATED TO GERMAN HISTORY CULTURE TRADITIONS THEN YOUR DAYS WILL BE NUMBERED