Eurojournal

European and Trans-Atlantic Topics by Michael Rass

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Europe's New Italian Problem

The euroskeptic “my country first” disease has reached the heart of the European Union. The birthplace of the EU is becoming the home of a new Italian government dedicated to ignoring pretty much all of the EU’s rules on fiscal consolidation. Its coalition partners—the left-populist Five Star Movement and the right-populist League—are miles apart in many regards, but come closer over immigration, their disdain for politics as usual, and a general dislike of the EU. The program the coalition announced last week combines the high-spending ambitions of the left with the low-tax ambitions of the right, implying a surge of public borrowing.

Not exactly great news for the Franco-German bulwark at the center trying to save the European Union from imploding. The Brexit catastrophe is in full swing, Hungary and Poland went over to the dark side, and now Italy seems poised to become a big headache.

Unlike Britain, Italy is a core member of the eurozone and any reform of the euro has just become a lot more complicated. “Unlike Greece, it’s too big to ignore or bully into submission,” writes Clive Crook on Bloomberg.com. “It has enormous unresolved economic and financial problems—depressed living standards, high unemployment, and a fragile banking system, in addition to crippling public debt—and if it encountered a new economic or financial crisis, the damage would be difficult to confine to Italy.”

And the new Italy presents a blow for morale in Brussels: for the first time, a founding member of the EU is led by populist, anti-EU forces. Europe’s biggest fear must now be that Italy plunges into the kind of economic meltdown that eventually came very close to catapulting Greece out of the single currency in 2015.

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The Stress Test of the European Union Continues

European Council President Donald Tusk recently described Britain’s departure from the EU the community's "toughest stress test." Unfortunately, it is not the only one.

Clearly, the Brexit talks are heading for the “no deal” cliff everybody was so worried about all along. Since the United Kingdom is still not willing to talk about the divorce bill in earnest, the EU is now beginning to draw up contingency plans for the possible collapse of Britain’s departure talks. The clock is ticking and a breakthrough is nowhere in sight.

Meanwhile, the chauvinism that fanned the desire of so many Britons to leave the EU is igniting other parts of Europe as well. In the Czech Republic, populist billionaire Andrej Babis won that country’s general election after campaigning on an anti-establishment and Eurosceptic platform. In Austria, conservative leader Sebastian Kurz has invited the far-right Freedom Party for talks to form a coalition government.

This weekend, some sixty thousand nationalist demonstrators marched through Warsaw to mark Poland’s independence day, carrying banners with slogans such as “white Europe of brotherly nations”. Demonstrators chanted “Pure Poland, white Poland!” and “Refugees get out!”, in what experts say was one of the biggest gathering of far-right activists in Europe in recent years. One demonstrator interviewed by Polish state television said he was on the march to “remove Jewry from power”.

This is not the Europe Robert Schuman, Helmut Kohl, and Jacques Delors had in mind.

A petty nationalism of a different kind is unfolding in Spain. Hundreds of thousands of Catalan independence supporters clogged central Barcelona on Saturday to demand the release of separatist leaders held in prison for their roles in the region's banned independence drive. When the regional parliament declared independence from Spain in October, Madrid responded by suspending the region’s autonomy and imposing direct rule.

This is a crisis the European Union really doesn’t need at the moment and Brussels cannot even do anything about it because it is an internal affair of a member state. Europe needs more unity based on shared democratic values, not more separatism based on nationalism.

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The Fading Trans-Atlantic Alliance

Rarely has a speech made in a German beer hall alarmed foreign policy observers in the United States more than this one. After her frustrating meetings with President Trump, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told a Bavarian rally that the days when Europe could rely on others was “over to a certain extent.” As a result of this new situation, she said, “We Europeans really must take our fate into our own hands.”

 She didn’t mention Trump by name but everybody understood what “others” she was talking about. Quoting former NATO ambassador Ivo Daalder, the New York Times tweeted, "This seems to be the end of an era, one in which the United States led and Europe followed."

 It is indeed troubling when a German leader questions the reliability of the United States, especially if that leader is a Christian Democrat. It is highly unusual for any member of her conservative CDU party to question the American leadership role in NATO. The Washington-led alliance has been the keystone of Germany’s defense posture in the last six decades.

 On Memorial Day, Merkel’s spokesman tried to dial it back a bit. Chancellor Merkel believes firmly in strong German–US relations and is simply being honest with the United States when she flags up policy differences with Washington, Steffen Seibert told a regular news conference in Berlin, adding: “It was a deeply convinced trans-Atlanticist who spoke.”

 If only we could say that about President Donald Trump! He has called NATO “obsolete” although he has taken that back since. On his first visit to NATO headquarters in Belgium, he didn’t offer any appreciation for the alliance or mention its article 5 which commits all members to defend any member being attacked militarily.

 Instead of presenting himself as the new leader of NATO, he stood out as the only member refusing to endorse the key concept of the alliance. While NATO partners didn’t get to hear what they needed to hear, they got something they didn’t want to hear. Trump harangued them about not paying their dues. His manners were perceived as uncouth when he shoved aside the prime minister of Montenegro and later described Germans as “very bad,” apparently because they sell too many BMWs in America.

 It got worse at the G-7 meeting in Italy when he was the odd man out on climate change. Bizarrely, Trump tweeted that he would make a decision on this issue later; his refusal to support a global climate deal signed by 195 countries must be an important reason behind Merkel’s remarks. Why in the world Trump could not make up his mind on the Paris Agreement before his Europe visit is anybody’s guess.

 While President George W. Bush’s former speechwriter David Frum described Trump’s trip as a “catastrophe for U.S.-Europe relations,” Trump himself was quite happy with it. “Trip was a great success for America,” he tweeted.  “Hard work but big results!”

 So far, the big result of this fiasco seems to be the additional degrading of an alliance that has kept Western Europe and the United States safe since World War II.

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Darling Buds of May

The Great European Divorce is off to a good start—not! According to a report in the German Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper, European Union chief Jean-Claude Juncker and Britain’s prime minister Theresa May are not only on different planets when it comes to the Brexit negotiations, they live in different galaxies.

It’s been a little over a month since Mrs May pulled the Brexit trigger and the acrimonious bickering over the separation is in full swing, it seems. Mrs May thinks leaving the EU will be a big success (for Britain anyway) and that the pesky question about what will happen to all those EU citizens living in the UK (and the British retirees living in Spain) can be resolved lickety-split in a matter of weeks.   

Not so fast, say the remaining 27 EU nations: first, show us the money. There are reports suggesting the EU is going to demand a payment of up to €100 billion ($ 109 billion) now, up from a previously estimated € 60 billion that London ‘owes’ the EU. The remaining 27 want Britain to agree on a settlement that covers all previous EU budget commitments, which means paying contributions “up to and including 2023.”

It’s not a “Brexit bill” insists EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier. There was no desire to punish the UK but "its accounts must be settled." Or as Juncker reportedly told Mrs May: "The EU is not a golf club."

The EU tab will be a problem, as many British Conservatives argue that the UK doesn’t owe Brussels a penny and certainly not a €100 billion. Just give us that great trade deal already! A recent report by a House of Lords committee argued the UK was not legally obliged to pay anything but a refusal to do so would certainly jeopardize that splendid post-Brexit trade deal with the EU.

It’s all too familiar. Like Maggie Thatcher of yore, Theresa May intends to show those people in Brussels that she can be a “bloody difficult woman” as her frustration levels ramp up ahead of the election she herself suddenly called for June 8.

Britain didn’t join the euro or the Schengen Area and negotiated a rebate that has reduced the UK's contribution to the EU budget since the 1980s. The country has balked at deeper integration for decades. Why would it become more amenable now that it’s leaving?

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The European Union at Sixty

The Treaty of Rome was signed on March 25, 1957 by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Germany and came into force on New Year’s Day 1958.

The founding treaty of what was to grow into the European Union was signed in the Palazzo dei Conservatori on the Capitoline Hill of the Città Eterna.

Six decades later the Union has grown from six to twenty-eight member states but only twenty-seven were represented at the diamond jubilee celebration in Rome.

In a few days, Britain will invoke article fifty of a different European treaty to get out. The move will initiate the next stage of the tragedy that has been unfolding since the LEAVE vote in the Brexit referendum of June 2016.

At the celebration in Rome, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni described Britain’s decision to leave the EU as “closed nationalism” that belongs in the past.

Gentiloni and his twenty-six colleague signed a declaration exhorting peace and unity, and emphasizing the importance of maintaining the Union. “European unity started as the dream of a few, it became the hope of the many. Today, we are united and stronger: hundreds of millions of people across Europe benefit from living in an enlarged union that has overcome the old divides.”

Unfortunately “united and stronger” is mostly wishful thinking. Brexit has thrown the European Project into a deep crisis and all indications are that the British divorce will be acrimonious. A “Nexit” of the Netherlands—a founding member—seems to have been avoided for now but the political climate in France remains volatile a month from the presidential election there. It looks like Marine Le Pen of the extreme right Front National will make it to the second round at least and she favors a French exit from the European Union.

Many observers do not expect her to become president but a majority of experts did not see Brexit coming, either, or the Trump presidency in the United States for that matter. A “Frexit” would certainly spell the end of the EU as we know it.

Even if the Le Pen catastrophe can be avoided—which seems likely—Poland appears poised to take over the UK’s annoying role as the brake van or caboose of the European train. It’s hard to believe that it has been less than five years that the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its contribution to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.

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Another tough year ahead for Europe

2016 wasn’t exactly a great year for the European project but it looks like 2017 will be even worse.

The implementation of the catastrophic Brexit referendum looms for the European Union while the entire planet awaits the inauguration of Donald J. Trump as US President with enormous trepidation. The unhealthy uncertainty about what kind of post-Brexit relationship the UK will have with the rest of Europe continues. At the same time, Trump-style nationalism is spreading east of the Atlantic as well.

The next challenge to European stability is expected for March in the Netherlands where Dutch Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders would like nothing better than pushing the Brexit-damaged EU over the edge.

Despite being convicted of inciting discrimination, Wilders is leading in the polls and could win over 30 seats in the 150-seat parliament at The Hague. This would give his anti-immigrant, anti-Islam, anti-EU party the support of 20-25 percent of the electorate.

In April, it will be crunch time in France where the leader of the National Front, Marine Le Pen, is expected to make it into the second round of the presidential election. She is not expected to win but neither was Donald Trump, remember? Le Pen is every bit as anti-immigrant, anti-Islam, and anti-EU as Wilders, so a strong showing for either of them would be very bad news for the European Union.

Especially frightening is that many millennials are now embracing the National Front despite the fact that its founder has been fined repeatedly for racism and anti-Semitism. It is no longer just a forum for old chauvinists. Like elsewhere, young people in France are worried about terrorist attacks and high unemployment and it’s easy to blame migrants and ethnic minorities for both.

The simplistic answer of all the populist movements: shut the gate and keep immigrants out, Muslims in particular. Unfortunately, that agenda is diametrically opposed to the ideals of the European movement which are ever deeper integration and free movement within a prosperous and peaceful Union.

Also opposed to those ideals is Germany’s AfD. The right-wing Alternative für Deutschland has been steadily gaining ground in a country that has mostly shunned nationalist politics since World War II.

Germany will go to the polls in September and Chancellor Angela Merkel—recently elevated by various pundits to “last defender of liberal democracy” in the West—will face a strong challenge from the AfD. The recent truck attack on a Berlin Christmas market by a Tunisian terrorist has only emboldened Germany’s nationalists who view it as evidence for Merkel’s ineptitude to keep the nation safe and to prevent the Islamization of Europe.

To the east, Poland already has a Trumpesque Law and Justice government which believes the European Union should “benefit Poland and not the other way around.” Otherwise, the right-wing party of Prime Minister Beata Szydl is cracking down on reproductive rights and has suggested that homosexuals should not be school teachers.

In the south, Italy will have to deal with the aftermath of former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's referendum defeat and otherwise ward off a serious banking crisis. And Italy will once again be the focal point of the continuing refugee crisis in 2017.

All in all, it looks like the EU will be stumbling from crisis to crisis again in 2017. The big winner of a weakening EU and an extremely pro-Russian US under Trump will be Vladimir Putin. Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its illegal operations in eastern Ukraine will continue to be ignored and Putin’s intervention in Syria in the absence of any kind of western determination will reinforce Moscow’s ambitions and its willingness to replace diplomacy with demonstrations of military force.

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Another nationalist triumph in a German state election

Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party suffered a devastating defeat in the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern election on Sunday, with her CDU coming in third behind the Social Democrats and the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland or AfD (Alternative for Germany).

An op-ed in the Süddeutsche Zeitung called it a chainsaw massacre. Founded a mere three years ago, the AfD was able to get over 20 percent of the vote while Merkel’s CDU sank to an embarrassing 19 percent.

The rise of the AfD is fueled by its strong anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim posture. Three years ago the main goal of the new party was to lead Germany out of the European Union. Then came the European refugee crisis.

Millions of people tried to escape war-torn Syria, Afghanistan, and African countries. Many of them headed for Germany. Chancellor Merkel famously stated: “We can do it” and gave shelter to over a million asylum seekers in 2015 alone.

The first wave of refugees was welcomed with flowers and blankets by throngs of Germans. By 2016 the mood had dramatically changed, though. Various EU countries shut down the overland escape route through the Balkans, the EU security Operation Triton in the Mediterranean is supposed to intercept refugee boats coming from Libya, and the EU cut a deal with Turkey to stop the flow of migrants into Greece.

Merkel’s welcoming attitude in Germany has cost her dearly. After a wave of terrorist attacks in Europe, Muslim migrants in particular are now seen as a danger. All the usual prejudices are rampant: “They come to Germany to take advantage of our generous handouts while refusing to adopt a western lifestyle. And they bring terrorists with them.”

The result of that kind of simplistic thinking: “Let’s shut the borders, abandon the free movement idea of the Schengen treaty and ban burkinis at the swimming pool.”

The politics of fear seem to appeal to roughly one fifth of German voters now, judging from recent state elections and the mainstream parties will disregard these concerns at their peril. The Bavarian sister party of the CDU, the CSU, is already questioning whether Chancellor Merkel should run again in the federal election next year. And it’s calling for tougher measures to stem the flow of refugees.

The state election on Sunday can be seen as a bellwether: Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has been governed by a “grand coalition” between the Social Democrats and the CDU for the past decade, mirroring Merkel’s federal coalition in Berlin. The coalition in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern will be able to continue with a clear majority but that doesn’t mean Merkel can rest easy and ignore this latest triumph of chauvinism.

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The Brexit nightmare unfolds

We told you so somehow doesn’t quite do it justice, does it? Most of the experts had warned of financial turmoil should the United Kingdom decide to leave the European Union and now the British pound is sinking faster than the Argentine peso, hitting 30-year lows against the US dollar. Major international companies are considering to move their European headquarters to different EU locations, so there won’t be any disadvantages for them once Britain actually leaves.

Businesses across the UK are implementing hiring and investment freezes because of the economic uncertainty. The staid Economist magazine summarized the situation with the headline Anarchy in the UK.

They were not only referring to the economy, either. Brexit shockwaves have sent both major political parties into disarray. First, Prime Minister Cameron resigned unexpectedly after the referendum gamble blew up in his face. The days of turmoil that followed his announcement to step down before October have already devoured the very people that brought about his downfall: former London Mayor Boris Johnson and Justice Secretary Michael Gove.

The task of taking Britain out of the EU will now fall to Home Secretary Theresa May or Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom, it seems. There won’t be too much interference from the opposition Labour Party which is mostly occupied with its own post-Brexit power struggle.

Another frightening aspect of the whole fiasco is how the Leave vote has released an ugly torrent of racism into the streets of England. EU nationals living in the UK, previously confident that European citizenship gave them the same rights as UK nationals are not so certain anymore. Especially East Europeans feel less than welcome in Britain these days.

So, what’s ahead then? Over 40 years of integration will take a while to undo. Leave supporters had naively hoped they could just get rid of all those pesky EU regulations and the unwanted “ever closer” political union, return to their imaginary land of hope and glory, and all will be fine. No hard feelings, right? They got another thing coming.

Disengaging Britain from the European Union after four decades will be far from easy. Being part of a single market with 27 other nations has numerous advantages–that is the whole point of membership after all. Just take a look at the German Zollverein of the 19th century.

There will be economic contagion for the rest of the EU, of course. As the Greek bailout crisis has shown, if one link melts down it will affect the entire chain. So, here we have another severe crisis for the European Union caused by the reckless behavior of a member state. The difference is that Greeks by and large understand the value of EU membership, despite all the anger over the “diktat from Brussels.”

After the foolish self-mutilation, the next British prime minister will probably have to impose severe austerity measures to reboot her country’s economy but there will be no bailout money from Brussels, that’s for sure.

The whole European Project will require a reboot as well. The Greek crisis is festering on–off camera. The migrant crisis is still unresolved, there are serious terrorist threats and the economic fallout from the British exit are just beginning to emerge.

These are all tough challenges that will require skillful leadership and genuine cooperation. And maybe, just maybe, the British folly will make the rest of the EU remember what a great fortune the Union really is. It’s a good sign that anti-EU parties in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands are declining in the polls after there had been fears that the vote in Britain could entice other EU member states to stage similar referendums.

Maybe, with the British slowpokes off the brake the remaining EU partners can make the best of a bad situation and push European unification forward a little bit.

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An uncertain future for the European Union

This is going to be a really tough year for the European Union. Not that 2015 was exactly great.

The EU barely survived the Greek financial crisis without Greece having to leave the eurozone.

The Schengen agreement abolishing passport and other border controls seems moribund, having fallen victim to terrorist attacks and the flood of refugees streaming toward the safety of the Union.

And now the “Brexit” looms large. In June we will find out whether the EU will have to continue without the United Kingdom. Even if Britain remains in the EU, we are looking at yet another demoralizing opt-out for London. Once again, the UK would like to keep the trade advantages and a seat at the table where decisions are made without taking on most of the burdens and responsibilities the EU might present.

While Britain’s European partners grudgingly agreed to Prime Minister Cameron’s “reform” deal because they know that the EU can hardly afford a British exit, they have also been further antagonized by the UK shenanigans.

Despite annoying everyone else in the EU, for some prominent members of of Cameron’s own Conservative Party, the deal doesn’t go far enough. London mayor Boris Johnson promptly announced that he will support the campaign to take Britain out of the EU.

Johnson is worried about the “supranational element” of the Union, he says, the very element the EU needs so desperately now to deal with the economic problems, the migrant crisis, and the security threats.

On Thursday, Greece recalled its ambassador from Vienna because Austria hosted a meeting on the migrant influx with Serbia and Macedonia. Greece was not invited and called the move an “unfriendly act.”

More than 100,000 migrants have entered the EU illegally this year alone and nearly all of them first arrived in Greece. The renewed surge combined with the absence of an agreed, EU-wide response is now threatening the survival of the European Union.

In January, Sweden started to enforce a new law that requires travellers to show a photo ID at the border with Denmark—for the first time in half a century. This includes the border crossing on the Öresund bridge which had been a proud monument of integration across national borders.

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Refugee crisis takes Germany to the breaking point

It’s not a quiet Sunday in Germany. The federal authorities, the state government of Bavaria and the mayor of Munich have all been busy dealing with the continuing, massive influx of refugees.

For weeks they have been trying to make it to Germany via Greece, Serbia, Hungary, and Austria. After Lampedusa in Italy, the Greek islands of Kos and Lesbos, the French port of Calais, the Keleti station in Budapest, Munich is currently at the center of the European migrant crisis.

On Saturday alone, Munich had to deal with the arrival of approximately 13,000 migrants.

On Sunday, the Bavarian capital couldn’t cope any longer and the German government decided to reinstate border controls normally not required between countries participating in the Schengen agreement.

That means passport checks and other measures at the border with Austria. At the same time, all trains to and from Austria have been stopped. Meanwhile, the authorities have commandeered a regular intercity train in Germany for the first time, to take at least some of the many arriving refugees to other places in Germany. Passengers with tickets have been asked to use other trains.

It’s almost like first responders reacting to a natural disaster. Only this one was not caused by wildfires or earthquakes. It’s people fleeing horrific conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Eritrea, Pakistan and other nations. Ironically, western countries, including Germany, have tried for many years to stabilize Afghanistan and Iraq. Despite those efforts, or maybe because of them, they now witness large numbers of refugees from those very countries trying to make their way to Europe and a better future.

Europe hasn’t seen a displacement of people of this magnitude since the end of World War II and it’s rapidly becoming the largest, most expensive aid operation of modern times.

To make things worse, there is no consensus in the European Union about how to deal with the many desperate people arriving at the shores of Italy and Greece or walking toward Germany through the Balkans.

While Germany has been a shining example of late, taking in the largest number of migrants with Germans welcoming new arrivals with food and clothes, others have been strangely reluctant to help with spreading the burden.

Or worse: The Czech police, apparently unconcerned about the potential for horrifying associations to be made wrote numbers on the refugees’ forearms with felt-tip pens! Both the Czech Republic and Slovakia are in the grip of anti-refugee hysteria and refugees are regularly depicted as a dangerous, threatening, foreign force that will destroy central European countries.

This sentiment is not unknown in Germany, either, where PEGIDA supporters have been making the same point and some conservative politicians have seen enough migrants for now.

In April, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Europe had a “moral duty” to act on behalf of the refugees but a unified EU approach to the crisis could be tough to achieve with members mostly defending what they regard as their own interests.

So, there’s likely to be bickering among the EU member countries and also heated discussions within EU states about what to do now: build a border fence as in Hungary or welcome the refugees with shelters and compassion.

After just getting the Greek financial crisis under control, this will be another tough test for the European Project.

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How Germany struggles to deal with the enormous influx of refugees trying to find shelter in the EU

Ugly scenes from Germany again: First, the far-right National Democratic Party (NPD) called for an anti-refugee demonstration on Friday in the small Saxonian town of Heidenau. The alcohol-fueled slogans of “Germany for Germans” and “Foreigners Out!” were bad enough but then the even more radical contingent started building barricades around a facility to house refugees.

When the police moved in, clashes broke out with some protesters pelting police with rocks, bottles and firecrackers. Police used tear gas in an effort to bring the situation under control, and a number of arrests were made.

More violent protests followed on Saturday in which two police officers were injured. Then left-wing activists started staging counter-demonstrations and clashed with the right-wing protesters.

All of this in a small town the size of Sharon, Massachusetts and over desperate people who are trying to escape violence and hatred. Sadly, there have been quite a number of attacks on shelters for asylum seekers in recent months and German government officials have repeatedly spoken out against such actions.

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas issued a statement in which he condemned the violence and tweeted:

"We must never tolerate people in our country being threatened or attacked. We must pursue this with the full force of the rule of law."

There has been a fair amount of criticism that German Chancellor Angela Merkel did not herself immediately condemn the violence. On Monday, her spokesman said it was "abhorrent how right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis attempt to spread their idiotic message of hatred around an asylum shelter".

Attacks on asylum seeker accommodation are rising but the neo-Nazis throwing bottles and fireworks in Heidenau belong to a despised minority.

A recent poll revealed 67 percent of Germans were "very worried" by attacks on refugee homes. In another survey 93 percent said it was right to give asylum to those fleeing conflict. And all over the country people have been donating second-hand clothes, toys, and supplies for the refugees.

And the flood of refugees streaming into the European Union shows no sign of abating. On Saturday some 4,400 migrants were rescued from boats off the coast of Libya in a single day.

The numbers are stunning: last week, Germany’s interior minister Thomas de Maiziere unveiled a revised estimate of asylum seekers this year. The government had assumed 450,000 would apply in Germany in 2015, more than twice the number last year. It now expects 800,000, almost four times last year’s total.

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The German movie star who wants to help refugees

Til Schweiger is one of Germany's most successful filmmakers. The actor and director has even appeared in a few American productions such as Quention Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.

Now he’s made headlines in his homeland because he wants to establish a home for refugees in a small town in the Harz mountains. Schweiger told the Sunday paper "Bild am Sonntag" that he and a group of friends bought the former barracks in Osterode, Lower Saxony last year.

Schweiger doesn’t just want to build a home for migrants, he wants it to be an exemplary sanctuary with fun activities for children and sports facilities. In other words, quite different from the ‘jungle’ camp in Calais, France which has been in the headlines a lot.

Clearly, Schweiger also wants to show that most Germans are very different from the foreigner-hating PEGIDA types who have been marching in Dresden to prevent the ‘Islamization of Germany’.

Some radicals do more than just march, too. There have been a number of arson attacks on refugee facilities in Germany, creating the distinct impression that they are not welcome to stay. And because of the current refugee crisis in the European Union, facilities in Germany have been somewhat overwhelmed by the influx. 

Schweiger wants to counteract that with his kind of activism and he doesn’t want to wait for approval of the authorities, either. In his own words, he wants to do something “socially relevant” and not just “rent his face out for money” as an actor.

Certainly, his star power could sway a few skeptical Germans who otherwise wouldn’t want a bunch of migrants move in next door.  People in Osterode (pop 22,000) hope that the popular star will be a regular in town from now on and maybe attract a few additional tourists as well. 

The Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) has been less than euphoric so far. “Herr Schweiger should fully cooperate with the relevant agencies. His facility should include a BAMF office as well,” the department’s chief Manfred Schmidt told the newspaper Die Welt. “Just setting up a shelter and hoping it will work is just too simple.”

Or is it? Sounds better than La Jungle in Calais already.

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Greece and the ugly German

Er Ist Wieder Da (English: Look Who’s Back) is the title of a 2012 satirical novel by Timur Vermes. Its main character is the ugliest of all Germans, Adolf Hitler, who in the book inexplicably reappears in Berlin in the year 2011. Although everyone recognizes him, nobody believes that he is actually Hitler; instead, people think he is either a comedian, or a brilliant method actor. Obviously, it takes only a few pages before the Führer ends up in show business.

Back to reality: This week, in the year 2015, the ugly German seems to be back in more general terms and it’s all the fault of Greece.

In the Washington Post we read that “the standard-bearer of global pacifism, a hotbed of youth culture and the tree-hugging Lorax of nations in the fight against climate change” has disappeared in a flash and “just like that, the image of the “cruel German” is back.”

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (Yes, that’s his real name) informs the obviously well educated readers of the British Telegraph about the “villenage of Greece” and the “Carthaginian settlement imposed on (Greek prime minister) Alexis Tsipras.” (Go ahead and look up what that means!)

The journalists at Le Monde don’t lack a sense of history, either, comparing the situation to the Greek bankruptcy crisis of 1898 - another favorite comparison is the 1919 Versailles Treaty imposed on Germany by the victorious allies after WWI.

Germany’s leftist elite is just as appalled as the international press: Jürgen Habermas, the famous philosopher and sociologist accused Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel of “gambling away the efforts of previous generations to rebuild the country’s post-war reputation by carrying out an “act of punishment” against the left-wing Syriza government in Athens.

This is by no stretch of the imagination the view of the majority of the “ugly” Germans, though. Many of them cannot believe, Germany is being asked to finance yet another bailout for Greece which has promised to implement serious reforms before to get out of this mess. And they clearly don’t appreciate all the Nazi name-calling just because they want their money back.

The main bogeyman for the Greeks is finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble whose grim visage adorned posters for the Oxi (No) campaign in the Greek referendum earlier this month. It doesn’t help that Schäuble is Swabian, Germany's equivalent of the parsimonious Scot and he really wants Germany’s money back, even at the price of a ‘Grexit’ from the eurozone. 

Germans are especially upset to get this kind of attitude from the Greeks themselves who were expected to be grateful for the bailout money (and all the German tourist euros). Thomas Strobl, the deputy chairman of Merkel’s own CDU (and finance minister Schäuble’s son-in-law to boot) recently made waves when he told reporters, “the Greeks have been annoying us long enough.” There was an immediate outcry about the tone of Strobl’s statement, considered more appropriate for a Bierkeller but it was symptomatic of the mood amongst Germany’s conservatives.

On Friday, the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament voted in favor of starting negotiations about the third bailout for Greece but a sizable number of members of Merkel’s own party voted against the deal supposedly so favorable for the “paymaster of Europe”. Kind of like Greece where many members of Tsipras’ Syriza party voted against the agreement because it is supposedly a coup.

All of this does not bode well for the European Union: Germany might well be a cruel taskmaster in this case but the country is one of its main pillars of the EU, both financially and politically. If the Germans collectively get as tired of the European project as the British seem to be already and not just annoyed with the Greeks, the debt crisis will have done its ultimate damage.

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How the Greek debt crisis turned from tragedy to farce to cataclysm

So, what was it all about Mr Tsipras? Why the pointless referendum? Did you really believe a no vote would strengthen Greece’s negotiating stance in Brussels?

One week after the referendum, in which more than 60 percent of Greek voters rejected the previous bailout deal offer as too harsh and unfair, Greece is now looking at a total, humiliating capitulation. Athens will be forced to swallow much harsher economic reforms and austerity measures imposed by eurozone members or get kicked out of the eurozone. Both options will entail a brutal cure for the Greek economy.

This is the tragedy of the useless referendum: it only caused a delay and while the banks remained closed, the debt mountain got higher still and many more Greeks turned into paupers. Greek banks have been closed for two weeks and a €60 ($ 66) daily limit on ATM withdrawals, imposed in June, remains in force for Greek citizens.

Only days after urging voters to say no to the bailout offer, Tsipras said yes to the very bailout he could not accept before but it was too late.

Many EU leaders are now so seriously annoyed with the Greek shenanigans that they are demanding drastic confidence building signals from Athens. This would be the third bailout after all and many eurozone leaders have had it with Tsipras and his Syriza party.

The proposal now on the table would force Greece to vote through sweeping changes by Wednesday night or it would be offered a ‘temporary Grexit’.

The Guardian’s Ian Traynor tweeted that “#greece merkel/holland session with tsipras said to resemble 'extensive mental waterboarding' - top official”

The Greek government is being asked in no uncertain terms to carry out "ambitious" reforms to pensions and labor markets, "significantly" scale up its privatization program as well as "strengthen the financial sector".

The new bailout could cost €86 billion ($95.5 bn), far exceeding the €53.5 billion ($59.5 bn) Greece is seeking to cover its debts until 2018. Accepting the conditions is likely to tear the ruling Syriza party apart, while rejecting another bailout offer will probably send the Greek economy into total meltdown. 

Was that really worth the grandstanding, Mr Tsipras?

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Why the future of the EU is on the line in the Greek referendum

It’s Judgment Day in Greece this Sunday. Greek voters will get their chance to say ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ to the international bailout terms.

Predicting the outcome of the referendum seems difficult, to say the least. A poll published in Ethnos newspaper on Friday gives the ‘yes’ vote 44.8 percent and the ‘no’ camp 43.4 percent. At the same time, the poll showed 74 percent in favor of staying in the eurozone, with just 15 percent looking for a return to a Greek national currency.

This is not simply a vote about bailout conditions, though. Greece’s membership of the eurozone and even of the European Union seem to hang in the balance and a ‘no’ vote could also turn into a serious challenge for the EU project as a whole.

No country has ever left the eurozone after joining it, and certainly no member state has ever left the European Union. “The EU is in deep crisis,” Belgium’s deputy prime minister Kris Peters said Thursday. “For the first time in its history, it’s in danger of becoming a less-close union.”

And as Stephen Fidler points out in the Wall Street Journal, “the European idea has been eroded elsewhere. The British have attacked the concept of “ever-closer union” enshrined in the EU treaties and have sought a renegotiation to take powers back to London.”

After the recent election triumph, the Conservative government of David Cameron has reaffirmed the promise to hold its own referendum by 2017 on British EU membership and, of course, the UK never joined the euro in the first place. A ‘no’ vote in Greece will certainly not discourage the eurosceptics in Britain.

It seems doubtful that the European Union could easily survive a Grexit and a Brexit within two years. The sad thing is that, different from many Britons, most Greeks don’t really want to leave the EU or even the eurozone, they just don’t want to suffer more austerity measures imposed for the country’s financial sins of the past.

There is a clear sense of panic that the dreaded Grexit might actually happen now and there are desperate appeals to vote ‘yes’ by former Greek leaders. 

Breaking years of self-imposed public silence, former conservative leader Costas Karamanlis implored his fellow citizens to stay with the European family. The EU may have made “serious mistakes” in the crisis, he said, but it was vital that Greece remained at Europe’s core.

Former Conservative premiers Antonis Samaras and Constantine Mitsotakis made similar appeals while current Socialist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has urged a ‘no’ vote in the referendum he suddenly announced on June 27. On Friday, he told Greeks that their country’s “presence in the EU was not at stake.”

Earlier in the week Tsipras tweeted:  “Come Monday, the Greek government will be at the negotiating table after the #referendum w/better terms for the Greek people.”

The Greek people don’t seem convinced: many Greeks have been trying to take whatever funds they can get out of their bank accounts and neither EU nor IMF are likely to extend new loans after a ‘no’ vote.

It should be an interesting month for Greece and the European Union.

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European solidarity vanishes as Grexit looms

Everyday Greece is moving a step closer to the abyss, it seems. Greek shares fell sharply on Monday after yet another round of debt talks with EU officials broke off without a solution in sight to the Greek tragedy unfolding before our eyes.

By now, large numbers of Germans would be more than happy to see the Greeks leave the eurozone if not the European Union altogether. “Even Merkel makes plans for the Grexit now!” rejoiced Germany’s main tabloid, Bild Zeitung. It doesn’t help when Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras graciously indicates that his government will wait patiently for international creditors to “turn to realism." The reply from Berlin indicated that time and patience are finally running out there: "The Greek government is playing with fire," said Angela Merkel’s Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel.

In Athens, it’s mostly money that’s running out: Without a cash-for-reforms debt deal with the EU and IMF, Greece is expected to default on a $1.7billion debt repayment to the IMF due by the end of the month. The Athens government's bailout deal with the EU also runs out on June 30 and Tsipras has been trying to unlock the final €7.2 billion ($ 8.2 billion) instalment.

Interestingly, only about a quarter of Germans expect strong economic repercussions from a Greek departure, the financial markets seem a bit more jittery about that scenario. The FTSE 100 in London was down 1.1% while Germany’s Dax lost almost 2 % on Monday, US and Asian markets started nervously into the week as well.

European solidarity is suffering even more than the markets. The BBC’s Robert Peston writes:

“What is very striking - and important - about the agonised talks between Greece and its creditors is that no European leader has tried to bind the feuding sides together with a call to European solidarity, or with any emotive rhetoric about how this great monetary project is all about prosperity and peace for all eurozone citizens.”

Matt O’Brien summed it up in the Washington Post the other day:

“It's cold out there between Greece and Europe. [...] Greece is tired of being told what to do, and Europe is tired of giving money to a country that won't do as it's told.”

Eurozone finance ministers will meet again on Thursday. That gathering is regarded as Greece's final final chance to strike a deal.

For some, it’s already too late: analysts at Fanthom Consulting think a missed Greek payment to its creditors is now inevitable and the only question: against whom will Greece default first?

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Pierre Brice: a German hero from France

He was a household name in Germany but virtually unknown in his land of birth. French actor Pierre Brice died on Saturday near Paris after suffering complications of pneumonia. He was 86.

The obituary in Süddeutsche Zeitung sumed it up: “A Life as Winnetou”.

Winnetou is a fictional chief of the Apaches and Native American hero of several novels by 19th century author Karl May. Not well known outside of Germany, May is one of the best selling German writers of all time and Winnetou one of his most celebrated fictional heroes.

In fact, so popular for so many decades that even the Nazis didn’t dare ban May’s books despite their heroic treatment of “non-Aryans”.

Many young people, especially boys, devoured the Winnetou stories and in the 1960s they were turned into Euro Westerns. The role of the “noble red man” was given to a French nobleman: Pierre Brice, born in 1929 as Pierre Louis Baron Le Bris.

Brice initially struggled with the role as he was as unfamiliar with the Winnetou saga as with its inventor Karl May and his oeuvre. Pierre wasn’t much of an equestrian, either.

But it didn’t matter, German audiences went for the Apache chief in a big way. More than ten million people went to the movies in 1962 to see “Der Schatz im Silbersee” (The Treasure of the Silver Lake) and hearts were broken all over Germany in 1965 when Winnetou died a dramatic hero’s death in the last installment of the Winnetou series.

The Apache died to save his blood brother Old Shatterhand, portrayed in most of the Karl May movies by US actor Lex Barker although Old Shatterhand is supposed to be a German immigrant in the American West.

The first person narration of the books suggests that Old Shatterhand is Karl May himself who only visited the United States many years after the publication of the Winnetou books.

The Karl May films were a truly international endeavor. The trappers and Indians were French, American, German and Yugoslavian, most of their voices had to be dubbed into German. The “Western” landscape was mostly a mountainous karst area in the Plitvice National Park of Croatia, which was part of Yugoslavia at the time.  

The movies brought Pierre Brice fame and adoration which he was unable to escape after. “Winnetou ruined my career,” he complained in 2009. After the movies, Brice also played Winnetou in live performances at the annual Karl May Festivals in Bad Segeberg and Elspe, which are kind of German Disneylands for Karl May aficionados.

In later years, Brice became a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, campaigned for stray dogs and brown bears in Romania, and in 1995 he daringly lead an aid convoy into war-torn Bosnia.

For many Germans he will live on as the valiant Winnetou.