[IsraelTimes] With the West divided by Brexit and Trump’s presidency, German leader urges Europe to ’take its fate into its own hands.
| And so they have been, with Barack Obama's loud approval. |
Europe "must take its fate into its own hands" faced with a Western alliance divided by Brexit and Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
’s presidency, German Chancellor Angela Merkel
...current chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom ...
said Sunday.
| During the campaign season, ya gotta sell voters on the sizzle, not the steak. |
"The times in which we could completely depend on others are on the way out. I’ve experienced that in the last few days," Merkel told a crowd at an election rally in Munich, southern Germany.
| Translation: They insist on doing what is good for themselves, refusing to give us what we say we want. |
"We Europeans truly have to take our fate into our own hands," she added.
While Germany and Europe would strive to remain on good terms with America and Britannia, "we have to fight for our own destiny," Merkel went on.
Special emphasis was needed on warm relations between Berlin and newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron, she said.
The chancellor had just returned from a G7 summit which wound up Saturday without a deal between the US and the other six major advanced nations on upholding the 2015 Gay Paree climate accords.
| This cannot possibly be a surprise. |
Merkel on Saturday labeled the result of the "six against one" discussion "very difficult, not to say very unsatisfactory."
Trump offered a more positive assessment on Twitter Sunday, writing: "Just returned from Europe. Trip was a great success for America. Hard work but big results!"
| Negotiating is what he does for a living. And no doubt the food was exquisite. |
The US president had earlier tweeted that he would reveal whether or not the US would stick to the global emissions deal -- which he pledged to jettison on the campaign trail -- only next week.
On a previous leg of his first trip abroad as president, Trump had repeated past criticism of NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions...
allies for failing to meet the defensive alliance’s military spending commitment of two percent of GDP.
Observers noted that he neglected to publicly endorse the pact’s Article Five, which guarantees that member countries will aid the others they are attacked. The omission was especially striking as he unveiled a memorial to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the US, the only time the mutual defense clause has been triggered.
Trump also reportedly described German trade practices as "bad, very bad," in Brussels talks last week, complaining that Europe’s largest economy sells too many cars to the US.
Betcha he doesn't actually do anything after this verbal brushback, though. | But it got everyone thinking, and changed the subject from the endless global warming yammer. |
Polls show the chancellor, in power since 2005, on course to be re-elected for a fourth term. |