All posts tagged: Adolf Hitler

5 things to watch as EU Parliament gears up for midterm reshuffle – POLITICO

5 things to watch as EU Parliament gears up for midterm reshuffle – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

The push would put Metsola and the EPP on a collision course with the Socialists and Democrats, the Parliament’s second-biggest group, which claims it should get the presidency as part of a power-sharing arrangement signed at the beginning of the term. But the EPP has remained vague about whether they committed to any such deal. The S&D hasn’t yet pushed a candidate to replace Metsola — a fact that hasn’t escaped some of the party’s own allies. One Green lawmaker, when asked whether they would support the Socialists, said “I will think about it when they have a candidate, I cannot support a vague claim for a post.” All the infighting between the EPP and S&D has opened the door for Renew Europe, the third member of the centrist coalition, to start thinking about suggesting a compromise candidate, two Renew lawmakers said. Will far right secure leadership positions? The reshuffle will again test the so-called cordon sanitaire, an informal arrangement among centrist forces to keep the far right out of decision-making. In practice, that rule no …

Germany’s far right bangs at the gates to get into the Munich Security Conference – POLITICO

Germany’s far right bangs at the gates to get into the Munich Security Conference – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

But since that time, the AfD has come under the increasing scrutiny of national and state domestic intelligence agencies tasked with monitoring groups deemed anti-constitutional, culminating last year in the party’s federal classification as a right-wing extremist organization. Ischinger’s successor, career diplomat Christoph Heusgen, refused to invite AfD leaders for the past three conferences, arguing that a party deemed at that point to have been at least partly right-wing extremist by intelligence authorities had no place at the event. After all, he argued, the conference was founded after World War II by Ewald von Kleist, one of the aristocratic Wehrmacht officers now revered in Germany for having partaken in the failed 1944 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. “I can well imagine that Ewald von Kleist would have supported my decision against the AfD,” Heusgen told German newspaper Tagesspiegel. Wolfgang Ischinger speaking at the 2023 Munich Security Conference in Munich. He denied that conference organizers invited the AfD this year due to a pressure campaign. | Johannes Simon/EPA Heusgen stepped aside after last year’s conference, and this year Ischinger …

EU concedes Trump is not on its side – POLITICO

EU concedes Trump is not on its side – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Limited relief Trump’s speech at Davos, during which he called Denmark’s self-governing island “our territory,” did nothing to dial down the temperature 24 hours before the leaders’ hastily arranged gathering in the Belgian capital to discuss their next response to the disintegrating postwar order. While Trump ruled out the use of military force to seize Greenland, EU governments didn’t regard this as a climbdown because of the harshness of his language about Europe in general and clear confirmation of his intentions, according to two EU diplomats. Trump did eventually walk back his threat of issuing tariffs on the eight European countries which he considered to be standing in his way on Greenland, but by that point, things were already too far gone. “Our American Dream is dead,” said an EU diplomat from a country that has been among the bloc’s transatlantic champions. “Donald Trump murdered it.” | Mandel Ngan/Getty Images “After the back and forth of the last few days, we should now wait and see what substantive agreements are reached between [NATO Secretary-General] Mr. …

Holocaust survivor warns the West not to “sleepwalk into control” | UK | News

Holocaust survivor warns the West not to “sleepwalk into control” | UK | News

Published by Sam Flores

Erika Fabian (Image: Erika Fabian) A woman who survived both Hitler and Stalin says the warning signs of totalitarianism are flashing in the West once again. Erika Fabian was four years old when the Nazis came for her family in Budapest. Eight decades on, the Holocaust survivor and author says she recognises the early stages of authoritarianism – and fears Western democracies are repeating the mistakes Europe once paid for in blood. “I feel like a canary in the coal mine,” she said. “What my latest book, Liars’ Paradise, describes is the slow occupation of entire nations and deprivation of freedom, including America today.” Ms Fabian says her warning is grounded in lived experience – of how fear spreads, how people stop speaking up, and how democracies hollow out long before they collapse. It is a message shaped by a lifetime under tyranny – and one she believes Britain should take seriously. Ms Fabian is the mother of world-renowned eye surgeon Professor Dan Reinstein, whose London practice has treated figures including former Prime Minister Boris …