Free Republic

Following the announcement by prosecutors that they would seek to lift his immunity, German President Christian Wulff announced Friday morning he would resign as the country's head of state. The development follows weeks of reporting on allegations the president accepted favors during his tenure as governor of the state of Lower-Saxony. Chancellor Angela Merkel has expressed her "deep regret" over the resignation. German President Christian Wulff resigned from office on Friday after prosecutors stated a day earlier they would seek to have parliament lift his immunity. Prosecutors wanted his immunity revoked so they could formally investigate allegations a film producer...

No, I’m not suggesting she buy more Greek debt, I’m talking about buying the country of Greece. Buy it lock, stock and barrel, just like the Americans bought Alaska from the Russians in 1867. Russia was hurting financially from the Crimean war and Czar Nicolas needed to replenish his coffers. Alaska was a drag. Russian hunters had pretty well wiped out the fur seals and nothing would grow in the far north soils because of smelly black stuff that oozed out it. So he dumped it for $7.2 million on those gullible Americans. What would Germany and Greece get out...

German unemployment fell to its lowest rate in December since 1991, according to the German Federal Labour Agency. The adjusted jobless rate fell to 6.8% from 6.9% in November, the Federal Labour Office said.

Some of the world’s most powerful investment banks were downgraded by ratings agency Fitch as Germany’s cherished European fiscal compact appeared to be unravelling. [Snip] Credit ratings of the world’s biggest lenders have come under pressure as weak economic growth and concerns about whether European politicians have done enough to end the Eurozone debt crisis. [Snip] Meanwhile, Germany’s attempt to save the Eurozone was hanging in the balance as Hungary and the Czech Republic claimed it would be damaging and protesters in Warsaw demanded Poland stands firm against Angela Merkel. Amid fresh warnings that Europe is triggering a 1930s-style global...

The deal signed by the eurozone countries still faces huge hurdles, because of simmering tensions between the member states – and growing disenchantment within their own borders. A startling poll last night showed that only a third of French people believed that their country should stay in the euro indefinitely. The situation in Germany was scarcely better with support for staying in the single currency long-term standing at just 41 per cent. The figures were revealed in a ComRes survey for CNN last night. It shows how the leaders pressing for closer integration are dangerously out of touch with their...

Mr President, To overcome the current crisis, all necessary measures to stabilize the euro area as a whole will have to be taken. We are confident that we will succeed. We are convinced that we need to reinforce the architecture of Economic and Monetary Union going beyond the indispensable measures which are urgently needed to cope with immediate crisis resolution. Those steps need to be taken now without further delay. We consider this as a matter of necessity, credibility and confidence in the future of Economic and Monetary Union. The current crisis has uncovered the deficiencies in the construction of...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected a new push by the European Commission for bonds issued jointly by the 17 euro nations, saying Tuesday they wouldn't resolve the debt crisis and now is the wrong time to discuss them. She appeared to be joined in her resistance to immediate talk of so-called "eurobonds" by eurozone chief Jean-Claude Juncker and Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, which is made up of the 27 European Union heads of government.

Rather worryingly, Bloomberg is reporting a Handelsblatt report (due tomorrow) that Mrs. Merkel is investigating ways to enable countries to leave the Euro. Merkel's CDU Seeks to Make Euro Exits Possible (via Bloomberg)...

Chancellor Angela Merkel is looking to introduce a “market-based organised lower limit for wages” of at least €6.90 an hour—although her party has always been against a minimum wage. … The CDU said the level should be set by a commission of social partners – employers and trades unions – and that it should be oriented on the agreed wage for temporary work. This is currently €6.89 per hour in the east of the country and €7.79 in the west. The CDU is calling for a unitary hourly wage to be agreed for those workers who are not covered by...

As children across America costume themselves as ghouls, ghosts, goblins and former North African dictators Monday night, they may have missed the most spine-chilling scare of the day. According to calculations based on the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook, on All Hallows’ Eve the United States’ total debt will surpass its Gross Domestic Product for the first time since World War II. That means the average American’s share of government debt is more than an average American makes in a year. Spooky! On October 19 Bloomberg released a chart showing that per capita gross government debt would to exceed...

French growth will shrink to only one per cent of gross domestic product next year, requiring a new round of austerity measures to hit the centre-right government’s targets for bringing down rising debt levels, President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Thursday night.    In a television broadcast to the nation following the eurozone agreement on the sovereign debt crisis, Mr Sarkozy said France had to “spend less and work more” in order to achieve long-term economic stability.   He said he would also work with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany on convergence between the French and German economies in areas such as...

"A nominal haircut of 50 percent has been agreed. On the basis of this, we will have a new programme for Greece with a value of 100 billion euros." She said the public sector would make a further 30 billion euro contribution towards private sector participation.

Forty-one years ago on Sesame Street, Kermit the frog sang a plaintive song, “It’s not easy being green.” In a gesture of solidarity, perhaps he should fax the lyrics to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose government is suddenly discovering the costs of weaning itself off nuclear energy. In the wake of Fukushima, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced on 30 May that Germany, the world's fourth-largest economy and Europe's biggest, would become the first industrialized nation to shut down all of its 17 nuclear power plants (NPPs) between 2015 and 2022, an extraordinary commitment, given that Germany’s 17 NPPS Germany produce...

Germany's top court averted potential disaster for the eurozone Tuesday by clearing rescue packages for struggling economies, as lawmakers in three of Europe's major capitals voted on key finance reforms. Share prices soared across Europe in the wake of the ruling, with German stocks at one point rising by more than three percent. The markets were also keeping a close eye on events in the French, Italian and Spanish parliaments where governments are trying to force through austerity packages in the face of widespread opposition. In its ruling, the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, western Germany, said MPs should have a...

We told you so. But notice the masthead above. Some bits from the Bloomberg piece: Ministers meeting in Berlin today backed a reworked European Financial Stability Facility including sovereign bond- buying powers, raising Germany’s share of EFSF loan guarantees to 211 billion euros ($305 billion) from 123 billion euros. The measures were agreed on by European leaders at a July 21 summit. The way is being paved for Eurobonds, as we told you.Peter Grottian, a politics professor at Berlin’s Free University, said by phone yesterday. “What’s more painful: risking the collapse of the government and a devastating economic backlash, or...

25 Signs That The Financial World Is About To Hit The Big Red Panic ButtonAugust 30, 2011 Most of the worst financial panics in history have happened in the fall. Just recall what happened in 1929, 1987 and 2008. Well, September 2011 is about to begin and there are all kinds of signs that the financial world is about to hit the big red panic button. Wave after wave of bad economic news has come out of the United States recently, and Europe is embroiled in an absolutely unprecedented debt crisis. At this point there is a very real possibility...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Serbian President Boris Tadic On August 23 German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Belgrade. The first leg of her trip was Zagreb where she met with Croatian leaders. In Belgrade she met with Serbian leaders including a one-on-one session with President Tadic. The upshot was her blunt dictate that Serbia must meet the following demands in order to qualify for consideration of EU membership: progress in the Belgrade-Pristina dialog, normalization of relations including abandonment of parallel structures in Kosovo; administrative and legal reforms, and satisfying the 1995 Copenhagen criteria. Merkel pointed out that Germany would like...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel no longer has enough coalition votes in the Bundestag to secure backing for Europe's revamped rescue machinery, threatening a consitutional crisis in Germany and a fresh eruption of the euro debt saga. Mrs Merkel has cancelled a high-profile trip to Russia on September 7, the crucial day when the package goes to the Bundestag and the country's constitutional court rules on the legality of the EU's bail-out machinery. If the court rules that the €440bn rescue fund (EFSF) breaches Treaty law or undermines German fiscal sovereignty, it risks setting off an instant brushfire across monetary union....

Mrs Merkel has cancelled a high-profile trip to Russia on September 7, the crucial day when the package goes to the Bundestag and the country's constitutional court rules on the legality of the EU's bail-out machinery. If the court rules that the €440bn rescue fund (EFSF) breaches Treaty law or undermines German fiscal sovereignty, it risks setting off an instant brushfire across monetary union. The seething discontent in Germany over Europe's debt crisis has spread to all the key institutions of the state. "Hysteria is sweeping Germany " said Klaus Regling, the EFSF's director. German media reported that the latest...

World leaders made emergency conference calls Sunday, seeking solutions to the US debt and eurozone crises ahead of a feared disastrous reopening of markets on Monday. In a possible bellwether, Israel's market fell seven percent. World leaders searched Sunday for answers to a global debt crisis, hoping to head off a massacre on markets spooked by an unprecedented US rating downgrade and Europe's swelling malaise. France and Germany called for full implementation of measures agreed at a eurozone summit in July to safeguard the single currency as markets braced for fresh turmoil this week. "President (Nicolas) Sarkozy and Chancellor (Angela)...

Europe's leaders have finally run out of time. If they fail to agree on some form of debt pooling and shared fiscal destiny at Thursday's emergency summit, they risk a full-fledged run on South Europe's bond markets and a disorderly collapse of monetary union. "We are heading towards fiscal union or break-up," said David Bloom, currency chief at HSBC. "Talk is no longer enough as the fire threatens to leap over the firebreak into Spain and Italy. "What the market is worried about is Germany's long-term committment to the euro project. If we see unreserved and absolute backing from the...

Anybody out there still think Germany is running Europe — or for that matter can or will dominate it in time? The question fits the moment after the German refusal to vote in favor of allied military intervention in Libya, the government’s pullout from nuclear energy largely for reasons of emotion and domestic political calculation, and its willingness last week to put off possibly decisive steps to end Greece’s debt misery. Over a period of just about three months, that is a lot of unpredictability and policy pirouettes for allies who might have thought German leadership, on the upside, would...

At a European Union summit in Brussels, the Prime Minister won a fight with Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, to keep Britain out of any new rescue package. Germany had wanted to use money from the European Financial Stability Mechanism to bail out Greece. Britain is a contributor and has no veto on how its €11.85billion (£10.5billion) funds are used. But Herman Van Rompuy, the EU president, said that the EFSM would "not be part of the package". Britain's benchmark FTSE 100 index opened up more than 1pc as Greece secured the backing of European leaders late last night for...

The London-based Al-Sharq al-Awsat reported Friday that Hamas's military wing vetoed a 'good deal' offered by Israel. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Friday for the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. Schalit has been held by Hamas for five years without visits from international bodies such as the Red Cross. Sources from Merkel's office said a draft of a final agreement for Shalit's release prompted the joint statement. German mediators in the Shalit deal reportedly visited Gaza two months ago. According to the sources a thousand Palestinian prisoners would be handed over in exchange for...

German Security in charge of protecting Angela Merkel should be prepared to protect her from an Al Qaeda 'Swarm Attack' similar in tactics to the Mumbai hotel hlaughter.

According to a new CNN poll, more than 80 percent of Americans believe that the US economy is in poor shape after two and a half years of President Barack Obama's leadership and 50 percent say that another Great Depression is likely to occur in the next year. The latest economic indicators (most importantly unemployment and manufacturing reports) and the largest point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in almost a year seem to back up those opinions. But President Obama, not content to simply endanger the US economy with his obscene levels of government spending, is trying to...

President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel worked to minimize differences concerning military action in Libya, with both leaders saying they want Col. Moammar Gadhafi gone, and Germany pledging assistance to a post-Gadhafi Libya. Some tension grew between the allies when Germany abstained from the United Nations vote that authorized force to protect civilians from what Mr. Obama said promised to be a mass slaughter. At a joint news conference, the leaders also agreed that the European debt crisis must be brought under control, with Mr. Obama predicting "disastrous" results if there is an "uncontrolled spiral and default in...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) shares a toast with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during a luncheon held in Merkel's honor at the State Department in Washington June 7, 2011. German Chancellor Angela Merkel looks over at U.S. President Barack Obama as they watch the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps parade past during an official State Arrival ceremony for Merkel on the South Lawn at the White House in Washington June 7, 2011. German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks to U.S. President Barack Obama during a private dinner at the 1789 restaurant in Washington June 6, 2011. U.S. President...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nearly 17 years after the last dinner for a leader from Germany, the White House was readying an elaborate, red-carpet welcome Tuesday for Chancellor Angela Merkel. Her visit will literally begin with a bang - a 19-gun salute on the White House South Lawn to herald the arrival of someone President Barack Obama says is a "trusted global partner." It will end with the most elegant evening the U.S. puts on for a foreign leader, a black-tie dinner.

BERLIN (AP) — Europe's economic powerhouse, Germany, announced plans Monday to abandon nuclear energy over the next 11 years, outlining an ambitious strategy in the wake of Japan's Fukushima disaster to replace atomic power with renewable energy sources. Chancellor Angela Merkel said she hopes the transformation to more solar, wind and hydroelectric power serves as a roadmap for other countries. "We believe that we can show those countries who decide to abandon nuclear power — or not to start using it — how it is possible to achieve growth, creating jobs and economic prosperity while shifting the energy supply toward...

Chancellor Merkel is pinning her hopes on an expansion of wind power Germany's dramatic rethink over nuclear power has thrown up new problems, as the consequences of a retreat from atomic technology emerge. Just after Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster in March, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a review of energy policy and ordered Germany's oldest reactors to be shut down immediately, and perhaps permanently. Only a few months earlier, she had decided to keep the reactors running past their original shutdown dates. But only now comes the hard bit. Power companies have warned of higher prices because of the shutdown; Germany...

ANDECHS, Germany (AFP) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Saturday that 2022 was "a good time" for Germany to end nuclear power, backing a proposal by the Bavarian wing of her party. ... Following the earthquake and tsunami which wrecked the Japanese nuclear plant of Fukushima in March, Merkel ordered the closure for three months of Germany's seven oldest reactors. She also announced a moratorium for the same period of an earlier decision by her government to extend the lifetime of Germany's 17 reactors by an average of 12 years.

Judge charges German Chancellor Angela Merkel with “rewarding and sanctioning a criminal act” because she said she was happy that U.S. forces killed Bin Laden. California Dept. Of Transportation bans American flag near highway because it is merely “personal expression.” At first glance, these two news items seem unrelated. But what a leftist judge does in Germany to embarrass a conservative chancellor is related to what bumbling bureaucrats do in California to carry out the decisions of leftist judges. Both events are examples of the leftist push to dismantle Western civilization and substitute a “progressive” regime. Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed...

Hamburg judge Heinz Uthmann wants Angela Merkel to shut up and play the dhimmi, as he does. "Judge Files Complaint against Merkel over Bin Laden Comments," from Spiegel, May 6 (thanks to Awake): A Hamburg judge has filed a criminal complaint against Chancellor Angela Merkel for "endorsing a crime" after she stated she was "glad" that Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces. Meanwhile a new poll reveals that a majority of Germans do not see the terrorist's death as a reason to celebrate. Schadenfreude, the enjoyment of others' suffering, may be a famously German concept, but it is...

Judge Files Complaint against Merkel over Bin Laden Comments A Hamburg judge has filed a criminal complaint against Chancellor Angela Merkel for "endorsing a crime" after she stated she was "glad" that Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces. Meanwhile a new poll reveals that a majority of Germans do not see the terrorist's death as a reason to celebrate. Schadenfreude, the enjoyment of others' suffering, may be a famously German concept, but it is apparently not a feeling that many Germans aspire to. The political and public fallout following Chancellor Angela Merkel's statement on Monday that she was...

In the name of saving the euro Europe is undermining it. Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl almost single-handedly created the political environment that brought the euro into existence. It would be a travesty to have another German chancellor, Angela Merkel, unwittingly destroy it. The debt woes of Portugal, Spain, Ireland and others should in no way threaten the existence of the euro, any more than the state of Illinois' wayward ways should threaten the dollar's existence. Chancellor Merkel and other EU pooh-bahs are making two fundamental mistakes. One is forcing the European Central Bank (ECB) to be a bailout facility...

Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives lost power in their German heartland after nearly six decades, initial poll results showed Sunday, with the Greens likely to lead their first state government. Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) have ruled Baden-Wuerttemberg since 1953, but anger over her nuclear policy in light of the Japan crisis as well as decisions on Libya and the euro drove away voters in the run-up to the poll. The anti-nuclear Greens claimed about 24 percent of the vote -- about 12 point higher than five years ago -- and were likely to form a coalition with the Social Democrats, who...

The British prime minister was the first world leader to propose the establishment of a no-fly zone to protect the rebels, and has been at the forefront of diplomatic efforts to halt the Gaddafi regime's brutal repression of its people. He has even succeeded in joining forces with French President Nicolas Sarkozy to pressure EU leaders to impose a no-fly zone which, given France's historic tendency to do the opposite of anything Britain wants, must be something of a first. .... But despite the considerable effort the Anglo-French initiative has invested in trying to rally international support for a robust...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said President Hosni Mubarak's resignation marked "a day of great joy" for Egypt, adding that she hoped a smooth transition and free elections will follow soon. "I wish the people a government free of corruption and censorship," Merkel said. She said the military's stewardship of the country should lead to free elections and that a new government should support Israel's security. "We expect from a future Egyptian government that peace in the Middle East will be sought, that treaties with Israel will be honored and that Israel's security will be guaranteed."

The news from England is unexpected, but its cause was predicted decades ago. First, lets look at the newsmaker, then we’ll examine his little-noticed prophet. There is a lesson to be learned here… British Prime Minister David Cameron recently stunned the politically-correct wing of punditry by stating plainly what could not be more obvious: England’s multi-cultural experiment is an abysmal failure. This comes on the heels of a similar pronouncement from German Chancellor Angela Merkel in October. (Did they flip a coin to see who would go first?) Cameron’s comments, while courageous, pale in comparison to Enoch Powell’s though, for...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticised on Thursday the sentencing of former Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky to six additional years in prison, saying the ruling appeared to be politically motivated. "The impression remains that political motivations played a role in this trial," Merkel said in Berlin. "This contradicts Russia's frequently repeated intention to pursue full adoption of the rule of law." The sentencing of Khodorkovsky by a Russian judge on charges of multi-billion dollar theft and money-laundering means he will serve a total of 14 years in prison and not be freed until 2017.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday talked down the chances of a Russia-EU free trade zone, citing Russian tariffs and Moscow's trade relations with Kazakhstan and Belarus. "Of course we support the idea of a free trade zone between the EU and Russia but I have to pour a bit of cold water on it," she said. "The steps that Russia has taken recently do not point in that direction." Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday outlined a vision of a new era of closer economic cooperation between Russia and the European Union, including the creation of free trade zones....

Market sticks out in Plante's mind, coming as it did shortly after the botched attempt to rescue American hostages in the embassy in Tehran. Reagan would go on to win the presidency with the reporters who covered the campaign trail following him into the White House. Obama is the fifth president whom Plante has covered. When Obama enters the briefing room, it is clear he sees himself (as does his audience ) as another link in a long chain that is the American presidency and the nation which he swore to defend, and not as some unique phenomenon. After Carter,...

Seoul - US President Barack Obama seemed tired and irritable on Thursday as he met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Seoul. For her own part, Merkel appeared tense - the summit is the first time the two have found themselves on opposing sides, though relations between Berlin and Washington have been under strain for some time. This was not aided by Merkel's swift rejection on the summit's first day of a US idea to limit the size of a country's trade deficit or surplus.

BERLIN—German police are investigating a bomb from Greece that was delivered Tuesday to the office of Chancellor Angela Merkel, hours after additional package bombs exploded outside foreign embassies in Athens. Also Tuesday, a cargo plane from Athens carrying a suspicious parcel addressed to Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi made an emergency landing in Italy. German police defused the small bomb, and nobody was injured in any of the incidents Tuesday. Ms. Merkel wasn't in Berlin at the time. . Greek police intercept and destroy three mail bombs including one addressed to French President Sarkozy. Video courtesy of Reuters. .German authorities say...

Following the explosives sent from Yemen over the weekend, a package with explosives has been sent to the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel. Luckily, the Chancellor is not in Berlin and did not come in contact with the package. It is being reported that no one was injured, but that German police confirmed that there were indeed explosives inside the package. Communist guerrillas plagued Germany through the 1970s and 1980s, but by the early 1990s these attacks ceased. With what is known from the packages sent during the weekend, this is most likely the work of terrorists outside of the country.

The 2012 presidential election is fast approaching. The five Republican candidates are participating in a nationally televised debate. One of the questions read by the moderator is selected from among dozens submitted by audience members. The question reads: “I am a young immigrant who recently moved to the United States. What are two things I can do to become a success in America?” Four candidates give responses so vague the audience can hardly discern their meaning. Then the fifth candidate gives her answer, which would soon dominate newspaper headlines across America: “Learn English and adopt Christian values.” It’s tough to...

German unemployment fell slightly in October, dropping to its lowest level in 18 years as the impact of persistently strong growth in Europe's top economy continued to filter through to the jobs market. The number of jobless fell by 3,000 to a seasonally adjusted 3.153 million, figures from the Labor Office showed on Thursday, while the headline level dipped to 2.945 million, confirming figures announced a day earlier.

Angela Merkel does not make the covers of Dutch newspapers very often. But the German chancellor's assertion last week that "multiculturalism has absolutely failed" in her country was headline news in the Netherlands. As far as the Dutch are concerned, the Germans - whom they consider to sometimes be politically behind the times - have finally woken up. The Netherlands' dream of a happy, harmonious multicultural society burst on a grey autumn morning six years ago in Amsterdam. On November 2, 2004, an Islamic extremist gunned down Dutch filmmaker and Islam critic Theo van Gogh in the street, then slit...

Multiculturalism has completely failed. That’s the assessment of Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany, in a recent speech before the youth wing of her conservative political party, the Christian Democratic Union. The idea that disparate peoples can “simply live side by side and live happily with each other” has failed, she said. “Utterly failed.” Merkel insisted that Germany still welcomes immigrants, particularly those whose high-tech skills make them valuable workers. But she conditioned that welcome upon a warning: “We feel bound to the Christian image of humanity — that is what defines us. Those who do not accept this are in...