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GERMANY’S CRISIS: Now anti-migrant AfD become second largest party in shock poll

Express UK — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 21:26:09 +0000

GERMANY’S anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) has overtaken the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) for the first time in a national poll to become the second-strongest party, an Insa survey.

Chancellor Angela Merkel‘s Christian Democrats (CDU) gained 2.5 percentage points to reach 32 percent and the AfD was up one percentage point to 16 percent, the weekly poll for mass-selling Bild on Monday.

The SPD fell one percentage point to 15.5 percent.

Nearly five months after the national election, Germany is still without a federal government as the SPD consults its members before embarking on a re-run of their ‘grand coalition’ with Merkel’s conservative bloc.

The election saw Alexander Gauland’s AfD party win seats in parliament for the first time – a political earthquake that followed Mrs Merkel’s 2015 decision to leave open German borders to more than 1 million migrants.

GETTY

Alexander Gauland’s AfD is now the second biggest party behind Angela Merkel’s CDU
The poll comes as the CDU starts to think about Mrs Merkel’s successor.

German Chancellor Mrs Merkel put forward close ally Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer today to take over as secretary general of her CDU, heeding calls from within the party to inject new blood and groom a successor.

Mrs Merkel, who was CDU secretary general before becoming chancellor, said Mrs Kramp-Karrenbauer, premier of the tiny western state of Saarland, would bring “a lot of weight” to the role in what she called “difficult times, uncertain times”.

A survey by pollster Emnid for Bild am Sonntag showed support for the SPD down one percentage point on the week at 19 percent, with Mrs Merkel’s CDU/CSU bloc also down one point, at 33 percent.

The AfD party was up two points at 14 percent, the Greens steady at 11 percent, the radical Left party up one point on 10 percent, and the business-friendly Free Democrats steady on nine points, the poll showed.

The Emnid poll comes come as leading SPD mayors favour joining a coalition government with Mrs Merkel’s conservatives, a poll showed on Sunday, boosting the prospects of the centre-left party backing the alliance in a ballot starting this week.

The SPD’s 464,000 members vote in a postal ballot from Tuesday on whether their party should go ahead with the coalition agreement its leaders clinched this month to renew their alliance with Mrs Merkel’s CDU/CSU bloc.

Newspaper Bild am Sonntag polled the mayors of the 35 biggest towns and cities ruled by the SPD and found that 26 of them said they would back the so-called ‘grand coalition’ – a re-run of the ruling alliance in power since 2013.

Of the other nine mayors, seven declined to give a view and two could not be reached, the newspaper reported.

Mrs Merkel turned to the SPD after her efforts to secure an alliance with the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats failed in November. She had to make painful concessions to the SPD to break months of political deadlock after an inconclusive election on September 24.

(Additional reporting by Monika Pallenberg.)

Source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/920981/Germany-poll-latest-AfD-SPD-anti-migration-Angela-Merkel

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Germany’s Angela Merkel declares Europe top priority for new govt

Agence France-Presse — Sun, 31 Dec 2017 18:40:57 +0000

Agence France-Presse

Chancellor Angela Merkel will tell Germans that European cooperation is “the decisive question of the coming years” in a New Year’s Eve broadcast Sunday, as her conservatives eye tricky coalition talks.

Merkel will say that “27 states in Europe must be persuaded more strongly than ever to hold together as a community,” according to a script of the annual televised address released by her office.

Britain is on course to leave the bloc in March 2019 after last year’s referendum vote for Brexit — leaving the European Union with 27 members.

As for Germany, its “future is bound indivisibly with the future of Europe,” the chancellor will declare, recalling that Berlin hopes to work with France’s pro-European President Emmanuel Macron to future-proof the EU.

“The question will be whether we Europeans can represent our values inwardly and outwardly, with self-confidence and with solidarity,” she will add.

Brexit and fights over upholding democratic norms and sharing responsibility for refugees are weighing on continental cooperation.

Europe must be economically strong and fair, as well as able to “protect our external borders and the security of our citizens,” according to the text.

Merkel and Macron vowed in mid-December to deliver a plan to reform the 19-nation euro single currency area.

Divisions persist among eurozone members, with wealthy northern countries such as Germany, Finland and the Netherlands loath to accept risk-sharing with states they see as less fiscally disciplined like France, Spain or Italy.

At home, Merkel is exploring a possible coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats in order to form a government after a tricky election in September.

She will promise in Sunday’s speech “to form a stable new government for Germany quickly in the new year”, backed by a majority of parliamentarians.

“The world is not waiting for us,” the chancellor will say.

“We have to create the conditions now for Germany to do well in the coming 10 or 15 years.”

One round of talks with the ecologist Greens and pro-business Free Democrats failed in November. That left Merkel the unappetising option of renewing a “grand coalition” between her centre-right CDU and the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Politicians and commentators expect it could be March before a new government is in place.

Source: https://www.today.ng/news/world/49702/germanys-angela-merkel-declares-europe-top-priority-govt

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Macron: Europe is too slow, blind to dangers of nationalism

Sylvie Corbet — Wed, 27 Sep 2017 23:51:49 +0000

Lebanese President Michel Aoun, left, and French President Emmanuel Macron make a toast during a dinner at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, Monday, Sept. 25, 2017. (Etienne Laurent/Pool Photo via AP)

PARIS

Calling Europe slow, weak and ineffective, French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said the EU should embrace a joint budget, shared military force and harmonized taxes to stay globally relevant.

With Brexit looming, Macron warned the rest of Europe against the dangers of anti-immigrant nationalism and fragmentation, saying it goes against the principles of a shared Europe born from the tragedy of world wars.

“We thought the past would not come back … we thought we had learned the lessons,” Macron told a crowd of European students at the Sorbonne university Tuesday.

After a far-right party entered the German parliament for the first time in 60 years, Macron said this isolationist attitude has resurfaced “because of blindness … because we forgot to defend Europe.”

“The Europe that we know is too slow, too weak, too ineffective,” he said.

To change that, he proposed a joint budget for European countries sharing the euro currency that would allow investment in European projects and help stabilize the eurozone in case of economic crisis. This budget would at some point need to come from national budgets of countries sharing the euro currency, for instance using domestic taxes on businesses.

Macron said the only way to make Europe strong in a globalized world is to reshape “a sovereign, united and democratic Europe.”

While re-elected German Chancellor Angela Merkel has signaled openness to some of Macron’s ideas, one potential ally in her new government is deeply skeptical about a eurozone budget. Macron’s office says he wants his Europe strategy to play a role in Germany’s coalition-building talks.

To reduce inequalities across the EU, Macron also suggested greater harmonization of EU tax policies — notably on corporate taxes, and taxing internet giants where they make money and not where they are registered.

Macron is also proposing that every EU country guarantee a minimum wage and payroll charges.

Macron said, “I believe deeply in this innovation economy,” but insisted that “we must have this debate” about making taxation more fair.

Macron also proposed a shared European military intervention force and defense budget. He suggested the creation of a European intelligence academy to better fight terrorism, and a joint civil protection force.

He wants to open the French military to European soldiers and proposed other EU member states do the same on a voluntary basis.

To deal with Europe’s migration flux, Macron wants a European asylum agency and standard EU identity documents.

Macron’s policies have met resistance at home, and riot police held back a few dozen protesters outside the Sorbonne.

Macron doesn’t want to wait for Britain to leave the EU in 2019 to tie European economies closer together.

He’s well-placed to kickstart those efforts: at just 39, he came of age under the EU, and won a strong electoral mandate this year. And he’s already held one-on-one meetings with 22 of the union’s 27 other leaders to market his EU strategy.

Macron recalled he won the presidential election on a pro-European platform, against anti-European, anti-immigration far-right candidate Marine Le Pen.

His biggest challenge may be the German political calendar. The outgoing government there goes into caretaker status in a few weeks and is not going to be taking any major decisions on the future of Europe, and it may take months for Merkel to form a viable coalition.

The pro-business Free Democrats, a key potential partner for Merkel, is against a joint budget because the party says that would result in automatic, uncontrolled money transfers from Germany to struggling eurozone partners.

Answering a question about Germany’s potential reluctance to a joint budget, Macron said he is open to discussion and insisted this budget would not be based on an automatic, uncontrolled transfer of money, but rather on common projects that would be democratically approved and financed.

Merkel herself said Monday she wouldn’t rule anything out and that she is in touch with Macron about his plans. “What is important to me above all is that we could use more Europe, but that must lead to more competitiveness, more jobs, simply more clout for the European Union,” she told reporters in Berlin.

Macron plans to discuss his proposals with all leaders of EU member states that are interested in the integration process by the end of the year.

He then wants “transparent, free” debates involving all citizens to be organized in all EU countries early next year, with the aim of combating euroskepticism by giving a voice to Europeans, instead of imposing decisions.

He said EU leaders should be ready to propose a detailed, agreed roadmap to reform Europe by 2019, when elections for the European parliament are to be held.

Source: https://japantoday.com/category/world/macron-seeks-to-kick-start-stalled-europe-brexit-or-no

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