This is Germany, after all.
It’s all about attitude, people.
Germany updates: Economy shrinks more than expected – Europe’s largest economy has shrunk, with industrial production and construction weaker than first thought. Meanwhile, Berlin is being urged to recognize a Palestinian state.
It’s easy, Germany. You can do it too.
The best part is that there are never any consequences… Right? Even when spending the money you don’t have is never actually spent.
Germany’s borrowing spree plans face a reality check – Investors would be wrong to overstate concerns about a debt surge by the country.
Germany has had an abrupt awakening on the need to increase defence spending. The country enjoyed an oversized peace dividend for years: before the Berlin Wall fell, west Germany spent almost 3 per cent of GDP on defence. In the three decades after 1993 that ratio dropped to around 1.2 per cent annually. Military capabilities fell commensurately.
Since Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the election of a US president given to venting misgivings about European allies, a hectic scramble has ensued to make up for lost time. As chancellor, Olaf Scholz declared a “Zeitenwende” (or historical turning point) and parliament approved a €100bn debt-financed special fund for defence spending…
Nevertheless, markets would be wrong to overstate the German debt surge. The government’s ambition will probably be thwarted when the plans get in contact with reality. Appropriating borrowing permission is much easier than actually spending it. Scholz’s military special fund is a case in point. Up to April, halfway through its life, only around a quarter of the money has been disbursed.
But we’re just stretched too thin at the moment for the past forty years.
Germany likely too stretched to provide troops for Ukraine, foreign minister says – Johann Wadephul’s comments come as the U.S. and European nations discuss security guarantees for Kyiv as a core element of any potential peace deal.
And it’s happening all over.
Country by country. There must be a good reason for this. Why are European voters voting for parties that promise to get European migrant madness under control? What’s wrong with them?
Far-right AfD tops German popularity ranking in bombshell new survey – Between Alternative for Germany and France’s National Rally, populists continue to rise in Europe’s most powerful countries.
That means staging, enactment, orchestration.
This Gaza photographer stages Hamas propaganda – Emaciated children, desperate mothers, and people begging for food with empty pots: these photos from Gaza circulate around the world. They are moving millions of people and influencing politics worldwide.
However, research by the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper now calls these images into question: Are some of the pictures from Gaza deliberately staged—and part of a propaganda strategy by Hamas terrorists?
The hunger is (almost always) real – but the images are often not entirely so. For example, a widely circulated photo recently showed desperate people in front of a food distribution point on a truck. Opposite them: photographer Anas Zayed Fteiha, a freelance “journalist” working on behalf of the Turkish news agency Anadolu.
Possible problem: The scene, also captured by other photographers, shows mainly adult men waiting for food—and getting it.
That means to have the greater leverage, to have the upper hand.
Trump triumphs over the EU: Why the Americans have always had the upper hand over Brussels – The “deal” between the two economic superpowers is a clear victory for the US. The Europeans lacked the potential to threaten.
If only he had used a little more imagination and drawn one of these instead.
He’d be in the clear.
German politician steps down over swastika on ballot – The German state of Baden-Württemberg’s deputy speaker stepped down after admitting he drew a swastika on a ballot beside an AfD lawmaker’s name. Daniel Born said he had made a “serious mistake” during a vote.
That means shadow or underground economy.
It’s a Volkssport (national pastime) here. Over-taxed Germans get even with the government any and every chance they get. See Schwarzarbeit.
German shadow economy booms amid high taxes and state aid – While Germany’s economy falters, the country is experiencing a rise in undeclared work. What role do taxes and generous state aid for the poor play in the surge?
Its political competetors demand.
Gee, I wonder why? German voters seem to be much less concerned.
Poll: Germans largely reject ban on far-right AfD – Germans reject a ban on the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) by a majority of 52% to 27% in favour, according to a new representative survey published by the Allensbach Institute polling organization on Saturday.
The proportion opposed to a ban rises to 65% in the east of the country, according to the poll published by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily newspaper, while it falls to 49% in the western states. The AfD enjoys widespread support in the formerly communist eastern states.
That means freeloader.
Or free rider, if you prefer.
Germany’s Merz tells BBC Europe was free-riding on US – German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has accepted US accusations that Europe was doing too little to fund its own defence and security, but now believes they are on the same page.
“We know we have to do more on our own and we have been free-riders in the past,” he told the BBC’s Today Programme, “they’re asking us to do more and we are doing more.”
Observing Hermann 