All posts tagged: Merkel

Merkel Receives The First European Order Of Merit Award, Repeats Call For Crackdown On Free Speech

Merkel Receives The First European Order Of Merit Award, Repeats Call For Crackdown On Free Speech

Authored by Jonathan Turley, The European Union recently announced the first recipients of its new European Order of Merit, the organization’s highest award. The headliner was Angela Merkel, former Federal Chancellor of Germany, who indeed personifies the European Union for both her fans and her critics. For many years, some of us have criticized Merkel as one of the leading forces behind European censorship efforts that have eviscerated the “Indispensable Right.”  Not surprisingly, Merkel called for more censorship and attacks on free speech to a thrilled audience of EU bureaucrats and globalists. In one of the most ironic moments, Merkel declared, “Europe was not handed to us. It was built treaty by treaty, crisis by crisis and by people who chose solidarity over division and cooperation over self-interest.” Indeed, it was not handed to them. As I discuss in my new book, “Rage and the Republic, the EU was formed by design to incrementally get citizens in Europe to give up their national identities and rights: The EEC worked to remove barriers to trade and coordinate national regulations to achieve …

Why Germany’s conservatives can’t get over Angela Merkel – POLITICO

Why Germany’s conservatives can’t get over Angela Merkel – POLITICO

Jens Spahn, now leader of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group and once Merkel’s health minister, struck a similar tone. “A party congress is a moment of positioning, but it’s also a family celebration,” he said. “And Angela Merkel is part of the family.” Volker Kauder, Merkel’s longtime parliamentary floor leader, put it bluntly: “The party wants unity, not dispute.” And Saxony’s state premier, Michael Kretschmer, visibly recoiled at the suggestion of a break with Merkel: “Not at all!” ‘Merzel’ A former federal minister, granted anonymity to speak candidly, offered a more strategic reading: For Merkel, the visit was a “win-win;” it signaled that she still cares about the party. For Merz, regardless of personal antipathies, there was little choice but to strike a conciliatory tone. There may also have been an electoral calculation, the former minister said. In Baden-Württemberg, where CDU state leader Manuel Hagel is seeking to beat the Greens’ Cem Özdemir in a March 8 regional election, photographs with Merkel may appeal to center-left voters more effectively than images with Merz. In the end, the CDU cares most about being able to …