Tag Archives: EU

Time to say goodbye?

September 21, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

“Lieber ein Ende mit Schrecken als ein Schrecken ohne Ende.”

“Better to have an end with fright than fright without end.”

Migrants say Germany’s ‘welcome culture’ has soured as far-right parties rise – On Sunday, voters in the eastern German state of Brandenburg will vote for a new regional parliament. The anti-migrant far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, could win the most votes. On 1 September the AfD won a major German election for the first time, coming first in the eastern state of Thuringia. In Brandenburg polls show the AfD leading with 28%.

To undermine support for the AfD, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s left wing-led government on Monday introduced checks for migrants on all of Germany’s borders. He also wants to increase deportations of people whose application for asylum is unsuccessful. Opposition conservatives meanwhile want the borders closed to asylum seekers altogether.

German of the day: Stichproben

September 18, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means spot checks or spot controls.

German police reintroduce spot controls at all borders – Germany is reintroducing border checks at all its borders for at least six months. The aim is to help restrict migration.

Checks are being temporarily reintroduced at Germany’s borders with France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Denmark. They are due to run until March 15, 2025. Such controls have already become part of daily life at the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland.

Temporarily? We’ll see about that.

Help me Rwanda

September 5, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Help, help me Rwanda.

Help me Rwanda yeah. It’s time for them to depart!

Germany: Migration commissioner proposes Rwanda deportations – Joachim Stamp accused Russia and Belarus of encouraging migration to the EU as part of their “hybrid warfare.” These migrants should be sent to a third country such as Rwanda, he suggested.

Not so quiet on the Western Front

August 21, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The Chip War Western Front.

EU approves German state aid for $11 billion TSMC chip plant – Taiwan’s TSMC (2330.TW), opens new tab on Tuesday launched a major new computer chip plant in Dresden, Germany, expected to be a key supplier to European industry and carmakers after the EU Commission approved 5 billion euros ($5.5 billion) worth of state aid.

The large aid award for the project, which will cost 10 billion in all, is the biggest approved so far under the EU Chips Act, and the first in Germany.

It is also the first project in Europe under TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, and is expected to improve Europe’s resiliency if a chip shortage of the type experienced during the COVID pandemic happens again.

No illegal aliens here

July 27, 2024 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The Germans call them “irregular migrants.”

But even the wacky German left is starting figure out that “irregular migration” is maybe sort of not such a good thing. Not that they’ll ever actually do anything about it. But still.

Germany: Scholz says irregular migration must ‘come down’ – First-time claims for asylum in Germany fell by a fifth in the first six months of the year. The chancellor said border checks will continue, to further limit the number of migrants entering through the land borders.

“In general, we intend to continue strictly controlling the German borders,” Scholz told the regional paper. “We want to limit irregular migration, as I have announced. The numbers have to come down.”

Heart-shaped box, OK

July 23, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

But Germany-shaped void?

That tune will never be a hit.

The Germany-shaped void at Europe’s heart – Olaf Scholz’s government is punching below its weight in Brussels.

Last month Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron entered an eu summit with a plan. The German and French leaders agreed that a “strategic agenda” document, drawn up to set the eu’s priorities for the next five years, was inadequate. The passages on climate and migration were weak, and what about defence? But their extensive rewrites, drawn up just before the meeting, sparked a revolt among the other leaders, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni among them. Voices were raised, fingers jabbed, and the pair retreated in humiliation…

“To our surprise,”

July 7, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

You didn’t want me to lecture you in person.

So I’ll just have to lecture from here at home.

Diplomatic tensions are escalating between Germany and Hungary after Budapest canceled a meeting between Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, that had been planned for Monday in Budapest.

The unusual last-minute cancellation — tantamount to a diplomatic éclat — comes after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other EU leaders strongly criticized a trip by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to Moscow, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

Baerbock had planned to raise the issue of Orbán’s meeting with Putin during her visit to Budapest on Monday. But “to our surprise, the Hungarian side canceled” the appointment with Szijjártó “at short notice,” a German foreign ministry official told reporters late Friday.

I’d be upset too, Poland

June 18, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Germany opened up the floodgates (Angela Merkel, 2015).

Let the Germans take care of the huddled masses yearning to be… to get a free lunch.

Poland upset after Germans return Afghan migrants – German police returned an Afghan family that had illegally departed Poland. Warsaw decried the move as a violation of law, German police say Polish counterparts left them waiting for hours.

“The transfer of foreigners to Poland by the German police was carried out in violation of the principles of cooperation between the two services and against the transfer law. The German authorities must not make such a decision arbitrarily.”

We’ll start checking our border crossings for once…

June 17, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

And jackpot! 1,400 unauthorized entries and 173 arrest warrants issued in one week.

Maybe we should do this more often. Like, for always and forever. And not just for Euro 2024.

Germany detects 1,400 unauthorised entries ahead of Euros, Bild says – Border authorities in Germany, host nation of Euro 2024, detected 1,400 unauthorised entries and issued 173 arrest warrants in the week preceding the soccer tournament, according to German newspaper Bild.

Expanded border controls introduced temporarily for the championships prevented 900 people from entering the country between June 7 and June 13, the Sunday paper said.

Never mix Afghans and soccer

June 16, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

And knives.

Particularly that knife part. Afghans and knives: Nicht gut. Damn. This guy must have been a real Scotland fan.

German police shoot to death an Afghan man who killed a compatriot, then attacked soccer fans – German police shot to death an Afghan man after he fatally attacked a compatriot and later wounded three people watching the televised opening game of the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in eastern Germany, police said Saturday.