Deepening splits between Angela Merkel and François Hollande erupted into the open on Friday as the German chancellor attacked Paris for allowing the French economy to stall.
Mrs Merkel warned the policies of the new Socialist president could destroy the eurozone by bringing the sovereign debt crisis to France itself.
The bleak assessment came on the eve of an important weekend that will see elections in Greece and France and a key G20 meeting of world leaders in Mexico.
"Europe must discuss the growing differences in economic strength between France and Germany," she said.
Tensions are running so high that Jean-Marc Ayrault, the French prime minister, was forced to deny that Paris had broken off the Franco-German partnership, following Berlin anger at a Franco-Italian summit in Rome on Thursday.
There was a growing sense of crisis in European capitals after David Cameron, the Prime Minister, took part in a tense conference call with Mrs Merkel, Mr Hollande and Mario Monti, the Italian prime minister.
G20 leaders meet in Los Cabos on Monday afternoon for talks dominated by the deepening eurozone crisis and the result of close elections that could put Greece on course to leave the EU's single currency.
Eurozone finance ministers are on standby for an emergency telephone conference on Sunday night, if Greek exit polls put the radical Left Syriza coalition in the lead, to trigger contingency plans, including possible capital controls in the event of a run on banks in Greece, Portugal or Spain
#1
The Germans are very irritated that France lowered its retirement age to 60, while they retire at 67. They don't want to bail them out.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
06/16/2012 1:38 Comments ||
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#2
Sounds like post-French and Greek elections against austerity, the Germans may have decided: "screw it"
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/16/2012 9:48 Comments ||
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#3
I wonder how well an "EU" comprised of the following countries would do: Germany, Poland, Austria, The Czec Republic, Denmark, the Baltic States, Finland, and Norway? Possibly Slovenia and Croatia as well.
No Romania, Slovakia, or any other economic third stringers or hanger ons, either. Just economically productive countries whose populations have an established work ethic.
#4
Electing the socialists in France is probably the most idiotic move in history. I really do not understand how the French people could possibly have been so stupid. Europe's problems are BECAUSE of socialist policies, more of them are not going to solve the problem.
How the heck did this guy get elected? I mean, the French must have at least HALF a brain.
[An Nahar] Segi, an outlawed youth group linked with the armed Basque separatist organization ETA, said Friday it had disbanded.
Segi, which was declared a terrorist group by Spain's Supreme Court in 2007 over its suspected ties to ETA, said it "has ended its course", in a statement published in pro-independence Basque newspaper Gara.
"With its mistakes and successes, it has already accomplished what it set out to do. We have always known how to adapt and we have made the right choice. Segi has ended but we are not going home," it added.
The Spanish government had accused Segi of being a "recruiting ground" for ETA, blamed for the deaths of over 800 people in more than 40 years of bombing and shooting for an independent Basque homeland in northern Spain and southern La Belle France.
Segi members have in the past thrown Molotov cocktails at symbols of Spain such as post offices, banks and political party offices.
ETA itself announced what it said was the "definitive" end to its campaign of violence in October 2011.
Segi's announcement comes just two days after Askatasuna, an outlawed group championing the rights of prisoners including ETA orcs, said it was dissolving the movement.
Askatasuna, created in 2001 from a fusion of a pro-amnesty association and a support group for Basque political prisoners, was banned by Spain in 2002.
[Al Ahram] A Bosnian court on Friday convicted four former elite soldiers of crimes against humanity for executing some 800 Bosnian Muslims during the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and sentenced them to up to 43 years. The men, three Bosnian Serbs and a Slovene, were members of an elite Bosnian Serb unit who took part in a notorious six-hour execution at the Branjevo military farm, were acquitted of genocide charges as the court ruled it was not proven they had the "genocidal intent" needed for such a conviction.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
06/16/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Nothing "elite" or soldierly here, just your common, garden variety, Euro mass murderers. Not certain how they escaped "genocidal intent".
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