Justin's Political Corner
The German right appears more open to expanding gay rights, with several leaders of the governing Christian Democratic Union (German: Christlich Demokratische Union) (CDU) speaking in weekend interviews of bridging the gap between same sex and heterosexual couples.
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble told the weekly news magazine Focus the government was examining the effects of a ruling Tuesday by the country’s highest court that gays in a civil partnership can adopt their partners’ adopted children.
In the ruling, “couples of the same sex were not excluded from the concept of a ‘family’ formulated in the basic law,” Schäuble said in the Focus interview to appear Sunday.
And Volker Kauder, who heads the German parliament’s conservative faction, told the weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung: “It’s clear that the Constitutional Court’s recent ruling must and will be implemented.”
“We will look into whether this will have fiscal implications,” he added.
Germany introduced registered partnerships of same sex couples in 2001, granting them similar rights to those of married couples, excluding tax matters and adoption.
At their party congress in December, the CDU rejected a motion to put gay couples on the same tax footing as married ones, following a heated debate.
h/t: The Raw Story
Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) president Michael Farris, who last year warned that children who wear glasses may be placed under the control of the United Nations, is now wondering if President Obama will ban homeschooling with an executive order.
Farris yesterday spoke to Jim Schneider of VCY America on Crosstalk about the legal dispute between his HSLDA and the Justice Department in the case of German citizen Uwe Romeike. Romeike is seeking asylum in the U.S. in order to homeschool his children as it is banned in Germany.
HSLDA claims that the German government is suppressing a particular social group — homeschoolers — while the DOJ argues against granting asylum because the country’s law is neither “selectively enforced” nor “metes out disproportionate punishment” against people of a particular religion.
Farris asserts that the Justice Department’s stance in the case is proof that President Obama may soon issue an executive order banning homeschooling.
h/t: Brian Tashman at RWW
Three protesters have been killed in front of the US embassy in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, after being run over by police vehicles, according to Al Jazeera.
A spokesperson for the US embassy says all protesters have been expelled from inside the compound.
More than 5,000 demonstrators have gathered in front of the embassy, setting fires on a square nearby. Many of the demonstrators were bussed to the location from the UK and German embassies, according to Reuters.
Local witnesses reported on Twitter that a mob of an estimated ten to 15 thousand people are torching the building.
Gunfire has been heard outside the building, according to a reporter for Reuters.
It comes after police fired tear gas on demonstrators after they stormed the German embassy, pulling down its emblem and raising an Islamic flag in its place.
The German Foreign Minister has confirmed the attack, and says the building is partially in flames.
Protesters also set nearby cars and trash cans on fire as police fired tear gas, according to AP.
Demonstrators smashed windows of the building and started a fire in front of the main gate, a witness told Reuters.
The German Foreign Minister says the embassy was vacated before the protest began, and that all employees are safe.
The British Foreign Office has confirmed ongoing demonstrations outside the UK embassy in Khartoum. Sudanese police are currently at the scene.
h/t: RT.com
The poll of more than 12,000 people across Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan and China was prepared for the YouGov-Cambridge forum this week at which the Guardian is a media partner.
The results are a sign that affection for Barack Obama has diminished little since his 2008 speech in Berlin in which he promised to restore America’s reputation on the world stage, even though, four years on, Guantánamo remains open and the US is still engaged in military action in Afghanistan.
But while Europeans had a strongly negative reaction to Romney, the prospect of him winning the White House was greeted with less dismay in Pakistan, where about 13% of respondents said it would make them more favourable to the US, compared to just 9% who said it would make them less favourable.
This is possibly a reflection of the anger towards the Obama administration over drone attacks which have led to civilian deaths and are viewed as an infringement of Pakistani sovereignty.
There was less antipathy, too, in the Middle East and north Africa, where only 8% said they felt a Romney presidency would make them feel less favourable towards the US.
Again, the reason for this may be more to do with negative feelings about the current administration, in particular its failure to mount a serious attempt to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, than warmth for Romney.
But the most striking finding was the level of antipathy towards the Republican in Europe. Although he is still largely an unknown quantity outside the US, he alienated many during an ill-fated overseas trip in the summer, particularly in Britain, where he appeared to publicly criticise Olympic planning and the level of enthusiasm for the London games.
Forty-seven percent of UK respondents said a Romney victory would make them feel less favourable towards the US, and only 3% would make them feel more favourable.
That sentiment was mirrored in Germany and France, where only 4% and 5% respectively said that he would make them feel more favourable towards the US. In Germany, 48% said it would make them feel less favourable and in France 38%.
It was not just in Britain that Romney’s overseas trip went down badly.
French daily Le Figaro, normally staunch conservative, ran a blog with the headline: ‘Is Mitt Romney a loser?’ In Poland, he was criticised by the Solidarity movement for being anti-unions.
(via truth-has-a-liberal-bias)
Angela Merkel is poised to allow the eurozone’s €750bn bailout fund to buy up the bonds of crisis-hit governments in a desperate effort to drive down borrowing costs for Spain and Italy and prevent the single currency from imploding.
Germany has long opposed allowing the eurozone’s rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, to lend directly to troubled eurozone countries, fearing that Berlin would end up paying the bill, and the beneficiaries would escape the strict conditions imposed on Greece, Portugal and Ireland.
But Merkel has come under intense pressure as financial markets have pushed up borrowing costs for Spain to levels that many analysts see as unsustainable.
Analysts are likely to see the decision as the first step towards sharing the burden of troubled countries’ debts across the single currency’s 17 members, though it falls short of the “eurobonds” proposed by the European commission president José Manuel Barroso.
The proposal was discussed on the margins of the two-day G20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, which has been dominated by the depressing impact of the eurozone crisis on the world economy.
G20 officials believe an announcement could be made by the leaders of the eurozone in the next few days, but stressed they remained unclear as to timing and precise content.
It would be the first time the EU bailout funds have been used directly to purchase Spanish debt. It is understood the money would come from both the €500m European Stability Mechanism and its predecessor, the €250m European Financial Stability Facility.
Britain does not contribute to either fund.
Last week EU leaders had agreed a line of credit to Spanish banks through the Spanish government, a move that failed to reduce Spanish bond yields.
Madrid was granted a €100bn bailout from its European partners earlier this month to shore up its financial sector. But news that the full extent of the shortfall of the banks will not be known until the autumn underlined the sense of chaos.
There was speculation that the full total required could end up being far more than €100bn. Madrid was forced to pay a record 5.7% at a debt auction on Tuesday morning to borrow €2.4bn for just 12 months, prompting analysts to say Spain is edging perilously close to needing a full-blown rescue.
The political and economic dynamics threatening the European monetary union are complicated enough on their own. But there’s tremendous uncertainty about which choices European voters and leaders will make, and each hypothetical outcome there prefigures even more difficult-to-forecast consequences in the United States.
Still, economists and analysts have examined a range of scenarios — from ongoing recession in Europe, to a disorderly dissolution of the Euro and ensuing depression. And even the least bad of likely outcomes across the Atlantic will continue to put downward pressure on already-sluggish U.S. economic growth.
Late last year, Reuters looked at the consequences for the U.S. of a mild European recession, a protracted Euro recession, and a full-on meltdown. The upshot is that the American recovery can weather the Euro crisis even if leaders there insist on muddling through instead of taking the sorts of politically difficult actions experts say would be required to fix the problems there.
That was November 2011. Since then the U.S. economy has cooled down. But the same basic threat assessment holds up today, according to Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
“Such turbulence in Europe, with the massive wealth destruction, bankruptcies and a collapse in confidence in European integration and cooperation, would most likely result in a deep depression in both the exiting and remaining euro area countries, as well as in the world economy,” the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said last year.
Big U.S. financial institutions have taken steps to protect themselves from direct exposure to a European financial collapse. But the falloff in demand, and a worldwide financial flight-to-safety, would likely lead to a significant decline in U.S. GDP, which would be exacerbated if European countries and the United States didn’t quickly abandon the austerity programs baked into their current budgets.
“The spillover effects, the chain of consequences are very difficult to assess,” said International Monetary Fund President Christine Lagarde last month. “We can certainly assume that it would be quite messy.”
h/t: Brian Beutler at TPM
BERLIN — Eurozone countries extended Sunday a hand of compromise to Greece after the victory of parties supporting the country’s international bailout, signalling some flexibility on the painful reforms.
“There can’t be substantial changes in the engagements” undertaken by Greece in the bailout deal. “But I can imagine we discuss again a delay” in achieving the targets, he said on Germany’s ARD public television.
The job, spending and wage cuts required under the 130 billion euro ($165 billion) bailout were a key issue among voters in Sunday’s Greek parliamentary election, with all parties calling for a relaxation of the terms if not outright cancellation of the deal.
Germany has been one of the most hardline eurozone nations and insisted that Greeks have to implement the agreed deal if they want the bailout funds needed to keep the country from going bankrupt and possibly exiting the euro.
French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said eurozone finance ministers would soon release a statement on how they will approach the situation in Greece.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble called the results a “decision by Greek voters to forge ahead with the implementation of far-reaching economic and fiscal reforms in the country.”
But Belgium’s Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said that there is “room for maneouvre” on the time Greece needs to deliver on bailout commitments.
New Democracy party won the election and will be able to form a pro-bailout majority with the socialist PASOK party.
But even New Democracy chief Antonis Samaras has called for the terms of the bailout deal to be revised.
Revising the deal doesn’t come without risks to the eurozone however. Too much flexibility risks calling the Eurozone’s credibility on seeing painful but necessary reforms being carried through.
Too much flexibility also risks provoking calls for leniency from Ireland and Portugal, which are struggling to implement austerity policies.
The anti-austerity leftist Syriza party, which placed second, had vowed to tear up he European Union and the International Monetary Fund bailout deal that has given Greece a credit lifeline in exchange for harsh spending cuts.
“There is no other road but reforms,” said Westerwelle.
However there appears to be greater appreciation of the austerity fatigue among Greeks, who are now suffering through a fifth year of recession.
H/T: The Raw Story
Bild has published more than 5,000 pictures of naked women on page one since 1984.
Under a headline “Bild abolishes Page 1 Girl”, Friday’s final subject, Eva from Poland, says: “I am the last”.
The decision to abandon the tradition was taken at an editorial meeting on Thursday - International Women’s Day.
The paper said: “It is perhaps a small step for women but a big step for Bild and for men.”
Bild reprinted a cutting from 13 May 1970 which carried the headline: “Women have less in the head than men”.
It said on Friday: “This old headline is now completely embarrassing for us”.
Loud debate
The BBC’s Stephen Evans, in Berlin, says that although pictures of nude women will continue inside the paper, there does appear to be a change of image, perhaps in the light of falling circulation.
Our correspondent says there is a real debate in Germany over the role of women, as they make up a far smaller proportion of the boards of companies than in either Britain or the United States.
h/t: BBC.co.uk
