Angela Merkel | Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion - Part 5
Image 01 Image 03

Angela Merkel Tag

While Arab and Muslim leaders were calling for blood on the streets with 'new Intifada' and 'days of rage', and German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other EU leaders were lining up to join the chorus to condemn President Donald Trump for daring to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, leading Indian politicians such as Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nationalist BJP party called the government follow US President's example and move the country's embassy to Jerusalem.

Two weeks ago, Angela Merkel’s attempt to form a three-way coalition came to an abrupt end after her traditional ally, pro-Business Free Democrats (FDP), unexpectedly walked out of the talks, citing irreconcilable differences over immigration and other key issues. After failing to form the government in the first round, Merkel will hold a second round of talks -- this time with the left-wing Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Berlin wants to bring back the children of German Islamic State terrorists currently being held under Iraqi detention, German newspapers report. German Foreign Office has asked the Iraqi government to grant exit permits to the children of captive Islamic State members. Many of these children hold "ISIS birth certificates," a German broadcaster reported. So far, Iraqi and Kurdish authorities have not given any assurances to the German negotiators in this regard.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's hope of securing a fourth term possibly came to an end last night after the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) unexpectedly pulled out after four weeks of coalition talks. The collapse of the three-way talks between the Christian Conservatives, the leftist Greens, and the Free Democrats could bring the Merkel era to an abrupt end after 12 years of reign.

"It's just obvious you can't have free immigration and a welfare state," Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman warned decade ago. Germany, on the brink of Angela Merkel's fourth term as country's Chancellor, is discovering the painful truth behind these words.

More than a month after the parliamentary election, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel is struggling to form a coalition government. Merkel's conservative CDU party, which won 33 percent of the vote, will need half of the seats in the German parliament to build a ruling coalition. With her previous coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), deciding to sit in the opposition after posting its worst result ever at 20 percent, Merkel is hoping to rope in the libertarian Free Democrats and ecological Green Party to reach the 50 percent mark.

It’s that time of the year here again in Germany. As winter sets in, the first Christmas decorations have started appearing on the shop fronts. Before you know it, the Christmas markets will be coming up in every town and city across the country. For Merkel's Germany, however, it is also the time of the year when radical Muslim terrorists target the Christmas markets and innocent shoppers.

It is getting lonely for Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel on the European stage as another EU member country elects an anti-establishment government. Less than a week after the stunning electoral performance by  Austria’s right-wing Freedom Party, the Czech Republic has elected the anti-EU candidate Andrej Babis and his party in yesterday’s general election. Often described by the media as ‘Czech Donald Trump,’ 63-year-old Babis, the country’s second-richest man, won 30 percent of the vote, securing him the Prime-ministership in the next coalition government. Despite an ongoing criminal investigation over his business dealings and the lingering allegations of his collaborating with the Czechoslovak communist-era secret police, many Czech voters preferred voting for Babis than other pro-EU career politicians.

France's parliament on Wednesday passed a new anti-terrorism law that gives law enforcement sweeping powers to search homes, carry out surveillance, and set up borders checks. The new law replaces the state of national emergency that came into effect after the 2015 Paris attacks, which killed 130 people. The state of emergency was extended six times and due to expire next month. Despite the unprecedented powers given to the police and the security forces, France has been hit by a series of attacks leaving 241 people dead since the imposition of the emergency.

Just two weeks after the right-wing AfD Party’s surge in the German election, Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ) is set to join the country’s next coalition government. The Freedom Party, Europe’s oldest surviving right-wing party, which ran on an anti-Islamization and anti-mass migration platform received 26 percent of the votes, party’s strongest performance in twenty years.

Not just former US President Obama, Chancellor Merkel of Germany, too, regards the nuclear deal with Iran as her greatest diplomatic accomplishment. The prominent German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung summed up the central role played by the Merkel government, writing, "Among all the parties working to bring about a negotiated deal, Germans enjoyed [Iranian regime's] special trust." Corporate Germany loved the deal too. The Bavaria Chamber of Commerce, the leading trade body in the country, told its clients ahead of the deal that the "German media landscape across the board agrees that lucrative deals worth billions are waiting to be made in Iran. As soon as the sanction are lifted, the run on the markets begins."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel promoted the architect of her open borders policy to her new chief foreign policy adviser. Merkel’s hand-picked Jan Hecker, widely regarded as the man enforcing Germany’s ill-advised refugee policy, has no foreign policy experience. Mainstream media that nitpicked President Trump on every single appointment, is apparently giving a pass to their favorite world leader on this one.

A series of strikes and protests have disrupted the economic life in Catalonia, Spain's wealthiest and most industrialized region. The protests come after Spanish police cracked down on Sunday's independence referendum held in Catalonia region, which Madrid declared as illegal. Catalan authorities say around 900 people were injured after police raided polling stations, carrying away ballot boxes, beating up voters and shooting rubber bullets. The EU and the European media, usually vocal about any perceived human rights violation in the farthest corner of the world, was uncharacteristically quiet over Spain's crack down of the Catalonia vote in its own backyard. "It is telling that these shocking images didn't even make the lead item on the BBC news and voters were described as protesters," wrote the Daily Mail columnist Katie Hopkins.

At the White House press briefing yesterday, a German reporter wanted to know why President Trump hasn’t called Chancellor Merkel to congratulate her on election victory. “We’re just working on the logistics,” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded. The White House may have been trying to gloss over the issue of frosty ties between the two world leaders, but as far as Chancellor Merkel is concerned: this isn’t much of a victory and there isn’t much to congratulate about. Merkel’s Pyrrhic victory comes at a great cost to her Christian conservative party (CDU), which registered its worst performance in nearly 70 years -- getting just above 33 percent of the vote. Merkel’s desire to extend her 12-year-old reign also pulverized her junior coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), in many of its traditional working-class bastions. At 20 percent, the SPD, Europe’s oldest socialist party, also clocked its worst performance since 1949.

Despite her party's worst showing since 1949, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has managed to secure her re-election bid. Merkel's main rival, the Social Democratic challenger Martin Schulz conceded defeat earlier this evening. Merkel was quick to stake her claim to the Chancellorship, saying, "We are the strongest party, we have the mandate to build the next government — and there cannot be a coalition government built against us." Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), along with her Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU), secured over 33 percent of the vote.

Germany's right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD)  is set to become the third largest party in this month's parliamentary election, the latest polls suggest. The anti-mass immigration party is polling around 12 percent in most polls. Chancellor Angela Merkel, still ahead of the competition, is widely tipped to form the next government. But her current junior coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), is tanking in polls with less than a week to go before the election.

In a drastic move that would further exacerbate the European Union’s east-west divide, the European Commission, the EU executive arm, has given a month’s notice to the Polish government to roll back its national judicial reform. Poland risks forfeiting its voting rights within the EU if it does not back down in the current dispute with Brussels. The EU officials oppose the legal reform undertaken by Warsaw, arguing that it weakens the judiciary and gives more power to the country’s elected government. Polish government dismissed these allegations and insists that is acting within the purview of the national constitution.