Free Republic

Germany’s representative on the European Union’s executive is facing criticism for appearing to make a derogatory reference to Chinese people and mock gay marriage. Guenther Oettinger, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party, referred to “slanty eyes” in a speech that surfaced on YouTube over the weekend. He also said “the German agenda doesn’t in any way do justice to my expectations of German responsibility,” listing alongside actual initiatives “obligatory gay marriage.” …

Germany’s EU Commissioner Günther Öttinger said in a newspaper interview Monday that Spain and Portugal should be fined by Brussels for missing their 2015 deficit targets. “Neither country met the budget commitments that they had both set themselves,” Öttinger told the mass-circulation daily Bild. “I believe that if the EU Commission is to maintain its credibility regarding the budget rules, then we will have to impose sanctions on Spain and Portugal,” he continued. […] On Friday, another EU Commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, had suggested that Brussels could freeze the structural funding for the two countries. …

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