Euro zone

The Shen Wu textile factory in Prato, Italy.The historical capital of Italy’s textile business, Prato, near Milan, has attracted the largest concentration of Chinese-run industry in Europe. (Photo: Stefano Rellandini/Reuters)

By Carolyn Yeager

THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS HAS, LIKE EVERY OTHER crisis faced by the European Union, exposed the competitor-conflict-mentality that remains always just below the surface of the proclaimed union of the  New Europe. Europe is made up of Germanic-Scandinavian, Mediterannean and Slavic racial national entities, with long histories of independent cultural development. Their main similarity is that they're all “White Indo-European” origin and share the continent named “Europe."

Wolfgang Froelich appears to be leaving prison in this photo credited to Bild: Kein Anbieter/Daniel Schreiner. It looks like he is holding a bag (with his belongings) in his left hand, while friends and family await him on the other side of the door. Congratulations Wolfgang!

By Carolyn Yeager

EMMANUEL MACRON IS AT IT AGAIN—trying to lead Europe into a bright new globalist-friendly, German-funded future.

Macron's new “idea” includes more protection against hate speech. Deutsch Welle wrote approvingly: “Among his wide-ranging suggestions were enhanced protection against hate speech, greater control of EU borders and immigration, and a nationally adjusted European minimum wage –  ideas that went down well with most German politicians.” All except for AfD's Alexander Gauland, that is. Gauland is quoted as saying:

Norbert Hofer and H-C Strache enter the press conference room on Tuesday, May 24. Hofer made clear he would not run for Chancellor himself but would support Strache's bid "with all his personality."

In a news conference today, presidential candidate Norbert Hofer and FPÖ party leader Heinz-Christian Strache made statements and took questions. They offered that there would be no protest of the close election result, but Strache said they had received a lot of letters [of complaints] and would follow up on them. “Only then can you tell if there is some truth” about irregularities so many are reporting.

Strache also called for a new electoral system with a restriction on the absentee ballot.

But Hofer said he could see no trace of “politics” interfering anywhere in the country and requested that Austrians respect the election results. Despite the outcome, he didn't regret his candidacy in any way and called the election campaign an "incredibly positive experience."

Norbert Hofer, presidential candidate of the "right-wing populist" FPÖ [Austrian Freedom Party led by Heinz-Christian Strache] has won over 36 percent of the vote in a five-way contest that included the major parties!

Exit polls show that the two candidates nominated by the ruling parties failed to even make it to the runoff to be held May 22. This is the first time since 1945 that Austria's president will not come from the Social Democrats (SPOe) or the center-right People's Party (OeVP). Both party's candidates won only around 11 percent.

Independent Green candidate Alexander Van der Bellen, 72 (pictured right) did manage to advance to the second and final round with 21 percent of the vote. The independent candidate from the bourgeois NEOS Irmgard Griss got 18.5 percent of the vote.

It is a turning point in Austrian politics, with the best-ever performance for the Freedom Party at the federal level since its creation after World War II.

The "Birthplace of Democracy" theme has become a political trap.

By Carolyn Yeager

Everything is political … as I have recognized and repeatedly said for a while now.

The Greek euro crisis and collapse was inevitable since it was an impossible union to begin with. Greece was allowed into the Euro Group in 2001 for political reasons, when the economic data was screaming against it.

The director of an American-based 'think tank' has expressed this in her own words on a recent radio program. Heather Conley, director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Euro currency project “was a structually flawed project” from the start because it was designed POLITICALLY with the purpose of uniting Europe.

"They were warned about it. This was an economic project designed politically to make Europe more united. But instead it’s pulling Europe apart.”

"We are Europe's bankrupt child and as a child, Europe has been supporting us for five years and told us what we needed to do to get out of this situation. We did nothing and now we are paying the consequences."

... Yannis Theodosis, a 35-year-old civil engineer

A Greek "Evzones" presidential guard stands to attention in front of the parliament during a demonstration against austerity measures in central Athens on July 12, 2015 (AFP Photo/Angelos Tzortzinis)

By Carolyn Yeager

Modern Greece is a fairly new experiment in independence, and as such has never actually functioned totally independently. The world expects too much from Greeks, confusing them with the ancient Athenian democracy that we learn about in school. The Greeks are also confused about this, since they encourage this comparison with those great Greek citizens of old … a comparison they cannot live up to.

First Greece was incorporated into the Roman Empire, followed by the Byzantine, and then for 300 years Greeks were subsumed into the Ottoman Empire ruled by Muslim Turks. Their modern state was formed only in 1830 with the help of the European Powers who helped the Greeks win their war of independence.

Democracy wins!

The childish Greeks who are cheering "victory for democracy" in Athen's Syntagma square tonight don't yet realize that Greece has lost ... or is lost. Greece came into the Eurogroup in 2001 in a weakened state and has been on the receiving end ever since. Yet they are portraying themselves as victims of a system that they forced their way into, thinking only of the benefits to be gained at the outset. When the time inevitably comes to stand up as a responsible partner, Greeks are not up to that and they turn to the communist promises every time. I am very happy, though, about the "No" vote. It's a prayer answered.

The news is still breaking but following are some of the first comments made by responsible Eurozone members and EU national leaders:

German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, leader of Merkel's centre-left Social Democratic junior coalition partner, said it was hard to conceive of fresh negotiations on lending more billions to Athens after Greeks voted against more austerity.

From Business Insider: Mike Bird got this photo of the inside of one of Syriza's offices in Athens, in Exarcheia. Apparently quite recently.

That's Lenin, Engels, and Che Guevara on the wall. 

Is that Marxist enough for you? Naturally they love to make Germany the fall-guy.

It's disgusting to watch Angela Merkel cooing and comforting Greece's  momma's boy Alexis Tsipris, the communist Prime Minister who thinks he can get his country out from under its self-made financial crisis by piling on the charm for the lady Chancellor of the Eurozone's most influential member nation.

Merkel continues to have private conversations with the young communist PM, seemingly at his request, just so it doesn't appear that her warm, womanly German heart is cold to the plight of the Greeks.  They, after all, suffered so much under the now despised regime of Adolf Hitler, whose government from 75 years ago German politicians like Merkel must continue to apologize and pay reparations for.

Thank God there are at least some men in her government who have enough sense to talk straight and true, acting more like some Germans of old. It would be better in my book if Wolfgang Schäuble could take over as Chancellor and let the overly sympathetic Merkel go back to civilian life. Her useful days seem to be over. Everything with her is give, give, give.