EU-Parliamentarians: It’s Time to Vote ‘No’!
It’s time the European Parliamentarians finally take a stand against their national leaders. This was the advice of Helmut Schmidt, otherwise no fan of commotion and coups d’état, to the social democratic MEPs in Brussels in early December, in a moving appearance with Jacques Delors. If the members could vote down the miserly EU-budget, [...]
Eclipse of British Reason
When placed under too much strain, chains tend to break at the weakest link. Figuratively speaking, the same applies to the European Union. So most assumed that any process of EU disintegration would start in the crisis-ridden European south (Greece first and foremost). But, as British Prime Minister David Cameron has now demonstrated, the European [...]
The Flapping of Wings: Eurofighter Uproar Puts Strategy at Risk
Scarcely anyone is talking any more about the referendum on mandatory military service that is to take place in January. For both coalition partners, the debate on possible bribes by Eurofighter manufacturer EADS (European Aeronautic Defence Space Company) is coming at the wrong time – as, in fact, the reminder that Economics Minister Reinhold Mitterlehner was [...]
World Champions at Getting in the Way
Austria is glowing under the spell of famous Austrian expatriates. When Arnold Schwarzenegger visits his Styrian homeland, dignitaries and photographers go wild. When Frank Stronach founds a party in Vienna, a shock wave goes through the country. Ridiculous? No. It’s a show of intellectual arrogance to make fun of the Styrian-American speach, appearance and world [...]
The ‘System Haider’ Implodes
The ‘System Haider’ Implodes by Charles Ritterband Heads are rolling in Carinthia. The local head of the Austrian People’s Party, Josef Martinz, as well as the head of the Carinthian governing party FPK (Freiheitliche in Kärnten), Uwe Scheuch, were forced to resign in quick succession as a consequence of recently unveiled party donation scandals worth [...]
A Letter to Our German Friends
by Christian Ultsch Dear Germans, Maybe the news hasn’t gotten all the way up to Usedom, but suddenly we like you. Just imagine: Half of us wouldn’t even mind if you won the European Cup. And most of us think that the moussaka you made in the quarterfinals out of that Greek concrete wall Özil, [...]
The ‘Truth’ About the Jews
Anti-Semitism warning! Günter Grass is no isolated case. The world always reacts with outrage when Israel has the audacity to step out of its historically assigned role of victim. And once again the reversal of the classic Perpetrator-Victim relationship, this time from Grass. In his poem “What Must be Said”, the Nobel Prize laureate alleges that [...]
Günter Grass: What Must Be Said
Why have I been silent, been silent too long, about what obviously is and has been practised in a simulated game, at whose end, we will as survivors, in any case, only be [...]
Victory Over the Liberals
The European Central Bank will now place an unlimited amount of money at the disposal of struggling member states. However, this artificial money supply will not deliver the solution to economic problems it promises. As an older colleague used to say, in life, being right is little more than a consolation prize. At a conference [...]
OpinionOctober 11, 2012No CommentRead More