Posted on 05/08/2017 7:13:25 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Germany heaved a sigh of relief after liberal candidate Emmanuel Macron won France’s presidential election comfortably on Sunday, but the two staunch allies face tough challenges over Europe’s future.
Chancellor Angela Merkel had emphatically thrown her support behind Macron against his far-right anti-EU challenger Marine Le Pen, aware that the very existence of the European Union was at stake in the vote.
Minutes after Macron’s win, her spokesman Steffen Seibert underlined the message, writing on Twitter:
“Congratulations, @EmmanuelMacron. Your victory is a victory for a strong and united Europe and for French-German friendship.”Macron shares Merkel’s commitment to the bloc, which has been deeply shaken by Britain’s decision to quit.
The president-in-waiting, who positions himself as a centrist, has also campaigned on the type of sweeping changes to the French economy that Berlin had long championed and implemented more than a decade ago. …
(Excerpt) Read more at thelocal.de ...
Of course we Germans need France to build up a strong Europe. Of course we have different interests like the US. Anglo-American Divide et Impera will not work in Europe. Not now, not in the future. Yes, we are happy that we gotten rid of the Brits, since we do not need your brake shoes in our policy-gear-box. Nevertheless we should be friendly to each other. Your millitary? If you want to leave Europe you are free to do so. We have no problem if you guys close Ramstein for example. If you want to stay you can stay as long we don not have to pay for it.
We understand the US still as a friend of Europe. We share values and history. Why should we change this?
Regards from Europe
Andreas
Sweet.
Deutschland, Deutschland über alles was the dream of a young German Poet, Hoffmann von Fallersleben in 1841, after French troops took parts of the Rhineland back then. Today it does not play a role anymore since the EU has its western boarder in the Atlantic-coast of France and not in the Maas area near the Rhine as suggested in the so called “Deutschlandlied”. The EU has gotten far bigger than the country described in Deutschland Deutschland über alles (von der Maas bis an die Memel, von dem Etsch bis an den Belt). From Sicily to the Polar circle and from eastern Poland to the Atlantic. The times are a changeing - we have no need to sing such BS anymore. :)
Regards from Europe
Andreas
How does one wax patriotic over the EU?..............The Soviets couldn’t even pull that one off..............
Ein Freich
There are many pro-european-patriots in the meantime. En marche! Forget about the old nations. The link: https://www.rbb-online.de/politik/beitrag/2017/03/pro-europa-demonstrationen-berlin-brandenburg-march-for-europe.html
Regards from Europe!
Andreas
Friendship’s a two-way street. I don’t see the EU abandoning stuff like the Charter of Fundamental Rights or the social market economy. (Of course, I don’t see US politicians doing that either, but at least it’s not in writing such as with the Treaty of Lisbon.)
At the national level, the EU does not represent you at all. Those who haven’t woken up to that fact will continue to be dragged along with a socialist agenda.
Deutschland uber Alice.
With all due respect, “pro-European patriot” is an oxymoron. There is no one European people.
Let Them eat cake! he he
Exactly: The endgame for these elites is no different than any deranged dictator who ever had dreams of world-domination, they are just approaching it differently.
This is not correct. Europe is a continent in translation. It is not defined. We already have a much better industrial base than the US i.e. but we are not able to extract all benefits from that. I am aware and understand that many Americans want ludicrous little nations that are picturesque holiday destinations with tasty specialties. Divide et impera. The asymetry between the US (China, Russia, Japan, India, Brazil etc. etc. etc) and small European countries gives the US (or those other countries) the impact to push trough everything. There is a big difference if your guys have to deal with Montenegro or with the mighty EU in Brussels.
Further some values changed in Europe. After the death of German and Austrian nationalism in postwar Europe we got a movement that wants a united Europe. No Germany, France, Austria, Poland, Italia, Spain and Benelux anymore but a bigger, more integrated and more powerful Europe. No Bundeswehr and no French Army anymore, but one big integrated Army, much cheaper and more effective compared to the existing structures. A integrated economy that nourishes all of us and provides wealth to all Europeans. A integrated foreign policy to secure our values to our people.
Therefore the Brexit is something that is welcomed by many Europeans. We got rid of the biggest Troyan horse you can think of. The Brits braked down everything. This is not the case anymore. Macron is just the beginning.
Oh, “Europe” is defined all right, especially in the context of “ever closer union” (destruction of national sovereignty), “respect for the principles of the United Nations charter” (a document that is based on the 1936 USSR constitution), and the “social market economy” versus the free market.
Your stereotypes and disparaging tone are noted.
And just what "values" would those be?
Values? A few examples: Freedom, equality, brotherhood, direct democracy, humantity (i.e. Europe rejects capital punishment in difference to the US), education, freedom of movement, freedom of establishment in Europe for Europeans, laizism, social market economy, identity.
I can imagine that it is difficult for an American to differ between political propaganda and real information if it comes to Europe and its political trends. Things might be different. Stay tuned.
It’s a good idea on paper, that’s assuming Europeans want to be “European”, and don’t let in millions who don’t want to be “European”.
I do not want to have a barbarian migration from the Middle East like Mrs. Merkel does. Born into Lutheran national socialism (her Father was a socialist priest in the former GDR), she ignores democracy and formal law. This turned out into a political disaster when it came to illegal migration. She burned her fingers when she invited muslim hordes into Europe. Her CDU broke in parts (the AfD persist completely of former CDU-voters), the EU did not participate and for the first time there is something like opposition in Germany.
Beside of that we need open boarders within Europe. Young people from Greeche or Spain must have the possibility to recived work and education in middle and northern Europe. We even need immigration from everywhere, but only those people that are suitable to us.
I don’t disagree necessarily, but the risk is, what happens to those countries where the best and brightest flee for greener pastures? What would be left? I don’t think even a “United Europe” could be like the USA, because there are distinct nationalities and cultures that still must be contended with.
No such thing happened in “Europe”. Giving away sovereignty (which is what the politicians did, not the people) is not sharing it; it is becoming a client state to the superior power. Overt lesson of history, but mankind, as Churchill noted in 1935, suffers from “unteachability”. Even worse, the trap thereof is socialistic.
Churchill only approved of a united Europe “built by the English”. He recognized two other powers capable of doing so, those being Russia and Germany, but his viewpoint was that their constructs would lead to dystopia in both cases.
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