La prima grande sorpresa consiste nel fatto che alle parole di globalizzazione corrisponde una inattesa provincialità dell’ambiente. Assenti per svariati motivi, scuse sarebbe più aderente alla realtà, Mr Trump, Mr Xi, Mrs May, Mr Macron, di capi di stato potenti in opere e parole ne restano pochini, e quasi tutti ininfluenti. Non sono, molti di essi sono anatre zoppe: formalmente ancora in carica, ma politicamente di ben scarso valore. Cercare di parlare di globalizzazione senza la presenza di coloro che avrebbero dovuto darle seguito sfiora il ridicolo.
Lo scorso anno, 2018, a nessuno è sfuggito l’intervento di Frau Merkel:
La seconda grande sorpresa è la assenza di Mr Soros. Lo scorso anno Mr Soros era stato prodigo di consigli elargiti con lo stile dell’ordine militare di marcia.
Se si resta sorpresi dell’assenza, si resta ancor più sorpresi a rileggersi questi interventi, nessuna previsione espressa nei quali si è realizzata. L’agiografia corrente aveva insegnato che presso Mr Soros volere fosse equivalso a potere, ma questa volta qualcosa non ha funzionato.
La terza grande sorpresa è la quasi totale scomparsa del tema del ‘clima’. Il Paginone del Financial Times è eloquente. L’unico riferimento fatto è quello all’intervento del principe Williams, persona degnissima, ma non certo da annoverarsi tra i potenti in opere e parole.
La quarta grande sorpresa è costituita da Frau Merkel.
«Rolling coverage of the second day of the World Economic Forum, as Shinzo Abe, Angela Merkel and Wang Qishan all speak, and Prince William discusses mental health
Mr Trump was the star turn last year but this January finds him tied up with fighting Congress over the money for his Mexican border wall and tired of even trying to pretend he is a globalist. Mr Trump has instructed his Cabinet members not to go either and a five-strong delegation headed by Steve Mnuchin»
Il 19 gennaio, si è svolto l’Atto X dei Gilets Jaunes, che sono scesi in piazza in oltre 84,000 Cittadini Contribuenti.
«Una mobilitazione ordinata, strutturata e pacifica, con qualche raro episodio di violenza inscenato a fine giornata da sparuti gruppi di casseurs: questo, in sostanza, il bilancio del decimo atto delle proteste dei gilet gialli, a due mesi dall’inizio del movimento il 17 novembre scorso»
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«Secondo i dati diffusi in serata dal ministero dell’Interno, oggi sono stati 84.000 i manifestanti al livello nazionale, di cui 7.000 a Parigi, dati pressoché invariati rispetto alla settimana scorsa»
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«Secondo il primo conteggio realizzato dai gilet gialli, che da ieri hanno una specifica app ‘GJ-France’, i partecipanti sono stati pochi di più, 86.110»
* * * * * * *
Il coro generale è:
«Macron: vattene!»
La rivolta, che era iniziata per protestare con l’aumento delle tasse sui carburanti ed altri provvedimenti analoghi, si è trasformata nel tempo, molto rapidamente, in una generalizzata protesta con il regime di Mr Macron, che ha dovuto rimangiarsi tutti i provvedimenti presi ed indire degli stati generali.
Ma adesso i Gilets Jaunes esprimono un’istanza politica: vogliono le dimissioni di Mr Macron e del suo Governo. La piazza lo ha sfiduciato, e con lui ha sfiduciato gli ambienti socio – politici – economici che lo hanno fatto eleggere.
*
Dopo dieci settimane durante le quali i media liberal socialisti hanno fatto di tutto per screditare questo movimento, adesso hanno adottato la tattica di cessarne ogni menzione: il silenzio stampa è calato, come se fosse stato emanato un ordine a livello mondiale.
Solo France 24 e Time hanno pubblicato degli articoli.
Eppure una rivolta che porta in piazza decine di migliaia di Patrioti e che lo fa per la decima settimana consecutiva costituisce una seria remora al proseguimento del regine di Mr Macron.
«Around 84,000 “Yellow Vest” demonstrators marched all around France on Saturday, marking a 10th straight weekend of anti-government protests, defying attempts by President Emmanuel Macron to channel their anger into a series of town hall debates. ….
over 80,000 people demonstrated nationwide against inequality, the privileges enjoyed by senior public servants and the governing style of a president accused of arrogance. ….
Last week’s turnout confirmed that, after a lull at the end of the year, the protesters behind the biggest crisis in Macron’s presidency remain fully mobilised. ….
One of the yellow vests’ top demands is that ordinary citizens be given a greater say in policy-making ….
But many yellow vests have announced plans to boycott the discussions scheduled in dozens of towns and villages, seeing them as an attempt to drain support from a movement that erupted in mid-November over fuel taxes and quickly broadened into a campaign of weekly protests that have regularly ended in clashes with police and destruction of property ….
The growing number of demonstrators to suffer serious injuries at the hands of the police has compounded their anger towards the state. The “Disarm” collective, a local group that campaigns against police violence, has counted 98 cases of serious injuries, including 15 cases of people losing an eye, mostly after being hit by rubber bullets. ….
Macron is pinning his hopes on the debate to quash the image of a leader out-of-touch with the concerns of people in rural France ….
Polls show mixed feelings among the French, with around 40 percent saying they would like to take part but around two-thirds saying they do not believe the consultations will end the protests ….
To fend off accusations that his policies favour rich urbanites the most, former investment banker Macron has already scrapped a controversial fuel tax hike that would have squeezed car-dependent rural-dwellers»
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Sommo errore dei liberal socialisti che hanno espresso Mr Macron, ma è errore diffuso in tutto il mondo, è stato il credersi che la gente comune si fosse identificata con l’élite ricca e degenerata. Ma la massaia che deve far quadrare pranzo con cena, che deve seguire figli e marito mentre lavora, se la ha trovato, per un migliaio di euro al mese come cassiera oppure come operaia, non può strutturalmente immedesimarsi nella femmina in tiro che dall’ottantesimo piano di un grattacielo muove operazioni miliardarie, e nemmeno con l’attrice, attricetta di turno, la vocazione teatrale delle quali è misurata dalla superficie epidermica esposta. Il liberal propongono un ideale di donna irreale o, meglio, surreale.
Agli agricoltori della provincia francese importa poco o punto sul come si generi l’energia elettrica: la vogliono a buon prezzo. Senza le sovrattasse per le alternative, la corrente costerebbe un terzo all’utenza finale.
Per chi abita in provincia il costo del carburante è una voce di bilancio critica, perché quasi invariabilmente trova un lavoro a qualche decina di kilometri da casa: le sovrattasse sui carburanti per finanziare le alternative è per loro solo un altro macigno sotto cui soccombere.
Ce lo si ricordi bene: le nazioni sono sicuramente individuate dalle loro capitali, ma nei fatti sono la provincia. Ignorare le istanze della provincia porta ad avere tassi di esecrabilità al 76%. Non è certo un buon viatico nell’affrontare nuove elezioni.
Ma questo ben difficilmente sarà compreso da Mr Macron, che è il presidente dell’élite ricca.
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I liberal socialisti impongono ai media di non parlare dei Gilets Jaunes?
Non è problema: si faranno sentire urlando la loro rabbia dalle urne.
Una mobilitazione ordinata, strutturata e pacifica, con qualche raro episodio di violenza inscenato a fine giornata da sparuti gruppi di casseurs: questo, in sostanza, il bilancio del decimo atto delle proteste dei gilet gialli, a due mesi dall’inizio del movimento il 17 novembre scorso. Secondo i dati diffusi in serata dal ministero dell’Interno, oggi sono stati 84.000 i manifestanti al livello nazionale, di cui 7.000 a Parigi, dati pressoché invariati rispetto alla settimana scorsa. Secondo il primo conteggio realizzato dai gilet gialli, che da ieri hanno una specifica app ‘GJ-France’, i partecipanti sono stati pochi di più, 86.110. A Lille, qualche settimana dopo la loro apparizione scenografica sugli Champs-Elysées, sono riapparse tra i gilet gialli ‘le Marianne’: questa volta il piccolo drappello non era a seno nudo ma truccato con falsi lividi e finti ingessature. Come sabato scorso, erano 80.000 gli agenti dispiegati, di cui 5.000 a Parigi. Lo svolgimento pacifico dei cortei – molti, questa volta, erano stati dichiarati alla questura – è nettamente migliorato anche grazie all’introduzione, dalla scorsa settimana, di un vero e proprio servizio d’ordine dei gilet-gialli in coordinamento con la polizia. A quanto si apprende, circa 150 gli ‘angeli custodi’ volontari, individuabili da una fascetta bianca, hanno vegliato alla sicurezza del principale corteo parigino partito dall’esplanade des Invalides. “Abbiamo visto tanti feriti, in molti erano ormai reticenti a venire. Quindi abbiamo assunto le nostre responsabilità e ci siamo detti che era importante, anche per la nostra sicurezza, evitare che ci fossero infiltrati esterni, che ci manipolano causando ulteriori violenze”, ha spiegato uno di loro, Faouzi Lellouche, citato da Europe 1. Tra i tanti volontari in berretto da militari, anche ex combattenti del Donbass, nell’est dell’Ucraina. Incluso Victor Lenta, un ex paracadutista del terzo reggimento di Carcassonne considerato vicino all’estrema destra. Ma gran parte di loro sono “semplici cittadini, gilet gialli come altri”, assicurano i manifestanti.
Thousands of yellow vest protesters rallied in several French cities for a tenth consecutive weekend on Saturday, despite a national debate launched this week by President Emmanuel Macron aimed at assuaging their anger.
In Paris, protesters answered a call from a prominent and provocative protester promoting a march starting at the Invalides monument in Paris, home to Napoleon’s tomb, to remember the 10 people killed in protest-related traffic accidents and hundreds injured since the movement kicked off Nov. 17.
Police has been criticized by protesters for the use of rubber projectiles that have left dozens of people injured.
“It’s not normal to treat people the way we are being treated. We have injured people every Saturday,” said Juliette Rebet, a demonstrator marching in Paris.
At the Invalides, protesters carrying a banner that read “Citizens in danger” marched at the front of the procession and held coffin-shaped black boards in memory of those killed.
Paris deployed 5,000 police around the capital, notably around government buildings and the Champs-Elysees, stage of recent violence. About 80,000 police are fanned out nationwide.
Protesters marched peacefully in the French capital. Twelve people were arrested by the early afternoon, according to figures provided by Paris police.
The capital and much of France have endured weeks of protests that at times descended into violence. Saturday marked the 10th straight weekend of yellow vest protests, and will test whether Macron’s debate is diminishing the movement’s momentum.
The grassroots protests started two months ago over fuel taxes but became a broader revolt against economic problems. The movement showed signed of abating during the festive period, but more than 80,000 people protested across France last weekend — up from 50,000 the week before.
Macron is facing a plethora of demands ranging from the re-introduction of France’s wealth tax, called the ISF, on the country’s richest people, to the implementation of popular votes that allow citizens to propose new laws.
Macron launched his grand debate this week during meetings with mayors and local officials. The three-month-long debate consists of a series of meetings organized by ordinary citizens, associations and elected officials to enable the French to express their views on the economy and democracy. Macron said he is open to discussions but has already warned he won’t give up on his promises, including the touchy issue of reforming pensions.
“We do not believe in the grand debate,” said Jonathan Gaby, a demonstrator from the Paris suburbs. “We won’t decide, the government will decide in the end.”
Le elezioni politiche spagnole sono programmate per il 2020, ma a maggio di questo anno si terranno quelle europee.
Negli ultimi tempi il quadro politico, già tormentato, ha subito ulteriori variazioni.
Prendendo a riferimento le ultime elezioni politiche del 26 giugno 2016, il partito popolare è sceso dal 33% al 21.5%, il partito socialista si mantiene stabile, passando dal 22.6% al 21.5%.
Le novità consistono nel calo dei Podemos dal 2.2% al 14.4%, nella salita dei Ciudadanos dal 13.1% al 23%, e nella comparsa quasi improvvisa di Vox, che si attesterebbe attorno all’8.9%, dopo una clamorosa affermazione nelle recenti elezioni in Andalusia. Vox è un partito dichiaratamente identitario, sovranista.
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Se queste propensioni al voto si confermassero, la Spagna continuerebbe ad essere ingovernabile, essendo frammentate tutte le forze politiche. In particolare, l’alleanza tra partito socialista e Podemos non avrebbe i numeri per governare.
Di questi ultimi tempi corrono voci insistenti che il partito dei Podemos potrebbe anche spezzarsi in due tronconi; uno nettamente di sinistra ed un’altro di incerta collocazione, ma sicuramente molto meno intransigente.
Un chiarimento sarrebbe di obbligo. Una cosa è fare manovre ‘di sinistra’ perchè mossi dall’ideologia, ed una completamente differente sarebbe il mettere in atto una manovra contemplata dall’ideologia socialista solo perché sia conveniente in quel particolare momento. Da questo punto di vista i Podemos sono statalisti.
Sono i due co-fondatori dei Podemos che iniziano a dimostrare idee differenti sul modo di cercare di uscire dalla crisi:
«Long hailed as a beacon of success for the far-left after erupting in Spain five years ago, Podemos is now on the verge of a split that analysts say could hurt the ruling Socialists»
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«Once inseparable, the two young political scientists who co-founded the party in 2014 — Pablo Iglesias and Iñigo Errejon — have gradually grown apart over what strategy to take, and matters came to a head on Thursday»
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«Errejon, Podemos’s high-profile candidate for Madrid in upcoming regional elections, announced that rather than run solo, he was joining a left-wing platform led by the Spanish capital’s mayor Manuela Carmena»
*
«Short of calling his move a betrayal, Iglesias accused Errejon and Carmena of working behind his back»
*
«the party has been suffering from its lack of a cohesive strategy»
* * * * * * *
Come si constata, il quadro politico è sicuramente in divenire, ma sembrerebbe non preannunciare l’emerge di un partito che possa formare un governo stabile e coeso.
Long hailed as a beacon of success for the far-left after erupting in Spain five years ago, Podemos is now on the verge of a split that analysts say could hurt the ruling Socialists.
Once inseparable, the two young political scientists who co-founded the party in 2014 — Pablo Iglesias and Iñigo Errejon — have gradually grown apart over what strategy to take, and matters came to a head on Thursday.
Errejon, Podemos’s high-profile candidate for Madrid in upcoming regional elections, announced that rather than run solo, he was joining a left-wing platform led by the Spanish capital’s mayor Manuela Carmena.
Carmena will be candidate for the mayorship in municipal elections on May 26th and Errejon will run for the Madrid region in regional polls on the same day.
He hopes this alliance will attract more votes.
Errejon’s controversial move comes after Podemos suffered a drubbing in December regional elections in Andalusia, a traditional left-wing stronghold where the far-right have made inroads and are now backing a new conservative administration.
That poor showing prompted him to unite with Carmena, who is popular in Madrid.
“This is an initiative that extends a hand to many more people,” he told Spanish radio.
‘Low point’
Short of calling his move a betrayal, Iglesias accused Errejon and Carmena of working behind his back.
“I wish Iñigo luck in building his new party with Manuela,” he wrote on his Facebook page.
All eyes are now on whether he will ditch Errejon altogether and propose another Podemos candidate.
Either way, the party comes out weakened.
“We’re witnessing a low point,” says Paloma Roman, politics professor at Madrid’s Complutense University.
In-fighting has left the party born in 2014 out of anger over austerity politics fighting for air as it crashes down from its dizzying victory in 2016 elections.
In those general polls — its first — it won 67 parliamentary seats along with other left-wing associates.
Tensions are also running high with some of its regional or local left-wing partners with whom it has stood for election in the past.
That worked well at first, with coalitions that included Podemos taking over major cities like Barcelona.
But cracks are starting to emerge.
‘Lack of cohesive strategy’
Caroline Gray, lecturer in Spanish politics at Britain’s Aston University, says “the party has been suffering from its lack of a cohesive strategy”.
“There have been levels of infighting between Podemos and those other affiliates over the way to go forward,” says Gray.
Some regional affiliates, she adds, would rather Podemos left them to run alone and work with them once they’re elected.
“But that then creates problems for Podemos because if they haven’t got a strong base at local or regional level, are people going to vote for them in state-wide elections?”
All this is coming to a head before the May elections and could potentially affect the ruling Socialist party too, Roman says.
If more and more of Podemos’s partners decide to go it alone in regional elections, that would add on one more left-wing candidate to those already standing for the Socialists and Podemos.
“That will scatter the votes,” says Roman.
Not necessarily, counters Astrid Barrio, politics professor at the University of Valencia.
“Faced with the division of the left and Podemos failing to meet expectations, the Socialists could recover some of the votes they lost (to Podemos) in the last electoral period.”
And for political analyst Pablo Simon, the left might actually come out winning in Madrid if they join forces post-election.
“Paradoxically, with more on the menu, more left-wing voters could turn out as each will have their own option and will know that if they all come together, they will govern,” he says.
Guardate per cortesia con molta attenzione le grafiche della Forsa, relative al Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, un Land dell’est.
Il Sonntagsfrage zur Bundestagswahl in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern si riferisce alle propensioni di voto espresse per eventuali elezioni federali.
Il Landtagswahl in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern si riferisce alle propensioni di voto espresse per eventuali elezioni statali.
In un voto per il Bundestag la Cdu otterrebbe il 32% e la Spd l’11%.
Ma simultaneamente, se si votasse per lo stato, per il Land, la Cdu crollerebbe di 10 putni percentuali al 22% e la Spd balzerebbe al 22%.
Gli altri partiti sarebbe virtualmente non affetti da traumi del genere.
*
Si potrebbero avanzare molte interpretazioni del fenomeno, e forse ciascuna di esse coglierebbe un qualche aspetto della realtà.
Ciò che lascia sorpresi è una potenziale mobilità di voto mai evidenziata in modo così lampante. Si tratta degli stessi intervistati che rispondono a distanza di pochi secondi per la sede nazionale e per quella locale, con una discrepanza di dieci punti percentuali. Più che mobilità di dovrebbe usare il termine transmigrazione.
La conseguenza è una sola. Il 32% della Cdu è tutt’altro che un elettorato consolidato, così come il 22% della Spd.
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Se in passato c’erano stati segni significativi di mobilità elettorale, questa volta il segnale che l’Elettorato lancia è tranchant, passando secondo opportunità anche da una Weltanschauung ad un’altra contrapposta ed incompatibile, e con spostamenti numeri di grande rilievo.
Così stando le cose, resta davvero molto più difficile cercare di interpretare le future proiezioni elettorali tedesche e, soprattutto, compararle.
«La disoccupazione totale ammonta al 3.7% rispetto al 4.8 del gennaio 2017, la disoccupazione ispano – latina è 4.5% rispetto al 5.9 del gennaio 2017, la disoccupazione dei negri ed afroamericani vale 6.0%, sempre contro il 7.8% del gennaio 2017. Il pil del terzo trimestre si assesterebbe attorno al +4.2 percento. Il sei novembre l’America si recherà alle urne per il rinnovo della Camera bassa ed il rinnovo parziale del Senato.»
Si può dire di tutto tranne che Herr Klaus Schwab, il fondatore del Forum, sia di natura un umile modesto:
«We are at the crossroads of history of humanity. We now have to shape the future».
Plasmatore del futuro come Ciro, Gengis Khan, Richelieu, Metternich, e compagnia.
Si direbbe che sia financo troppo riservato.
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Ma senza l’appoggio politico dei principali capi di governo, Mr Trump, Mr Xi, Mr Putin, Mrs May e, da ultimo per quanto involontariamente, Mr Macron, rimarrebbe difficile pensare che questa Davos possa rifondare il mondo. Constatiamo come nel secolo scorso qualcuno proclamava di essere l’inizio di un’era, durata poi venti anni, ed un altro ventilava un Reich millenario, durato nei fatti tredici anni. Herr Klaus Schwab è dunque in buona compagnia.
*
Il discorso di Mr Bolsonaro sembrerebbe grondare buon senso.
«President Bolsonaro said he would present a new, investment-ready Brazil to the Davos elite»
*
«He told the forum he’d try to walk a line between business interests and environmental protection»
*
«Bolsonaro has promised to institute neoliberal policies, such as the privatization of most infrastructure»
*
«The president did little to assuage the fears of environmentalists who worry about his ideas concerning the economic potential of the Amazon rainforest, by telling the forum that development and concern for the climate should go “hand in hand. …. One should not emphasize more than the other”»
*
«He further cemented his right-wing populist bonafides by vowing that the left wing “would not prevail” in Latin America»
* * * * * * * *
Il così detto ‘clima’ è morto e sepolto.
Vorremmo però far notare un aspetto comprensibile ma significativo degli articoli che stanno comparendo sui media liberal.
Mr Macron è denominato il “presidente” e Frau Merkel la “Bundeskanzlerin”: non sono aggiunti aggettivi di sorta.
Ma quando si parla di governanti né liberal né socialisti, gli articolisit aggiungono semrpe delle aggettivazioni.
«But the 63-year-old’s racist, homophobic and misogynistic remarks have angered many.»
*
Bene. Pigliamo atto che per la Bbc il discorso di Mr Bolsonaro è razzista, omofobico e misogeno. Se avessero citato i passi tra virgolette sarebbe stato meglio, ma anche ad un vaglio serrato resta molto difficile trovare passi incriminabili. Sembrerebbe essere un copia – incolla.
President Bolsonaro said he would present a new, investment-ready Brazil to the Davos elite. He told the forum he’d try to walk a line between business interests and environmental protection.
*
Brazil’s newly sworn-in nationalist President Jair Bolsonaro was due to give the first keynote speech to the globalist audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday. Bolsonaro has promised to institute neoliberal policies, such as the privatization of most infrastructure.
The president did little to assuage the fears of environmentalists who worry about his ideas concerning the economic potential of the Amazon rainforest, by telling the forum that development and concern for the climate should go “hand in hand.”
“One should not emphasize more than the other,” he said.
He promised to open up Brazil’s “relatively closed” economy by lowering taxes and easing regulations on foreign investment, and to seek active reforms of the World Trade Organization. He further cemented his right-wing populist bonafides by vowing that the left wing “would not prevail” in Latin America.
The only major policy initiative undertaken by Bolsonaro thus far is to pull Brazil from a UN pact meant to curb irregular migration, following in the footsteps of other populist leaders from around the world. He has also moved to relax gun regulations in violence-plagued Brazil.
Top billing in Trump and May’s absence
Bolsonaro is taking over the speech slot of US President Donald Trump, who canceled his trip to Davos to address the government shutdown at home. Bolsonaro has already taken a page out of Trump’s economic playbook by bashing China.
Trump is not the only leader who called off his visit to address problems closer to home. UK Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron have also chosen to stay away.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are due to address the crowd on Wednesday.
The year’s meeting is overshadowed by the UK’s exit from the European Union, slowing economic growth, rising populism and the threat of catastrophic climate change.
“We are at the crossroads of history of humanity. We now have to shape the future,” forum founder Klaus Schwab said in his opening speech.
Re Luigi XVI convocò gli stati generali, e questi lo fecero decapitare.
«Exactly 226 years after the decapitation of Louis XVI, who failed to plug the crown’s dismal finances and quell popular discontent over a sclerotic feudal society, Macron started his speech by invoking the king and his wife Marie-Antoinette»
*
Le analogie sono impressionanti, ma forse la più evidente è il richiamo alla
«sclerotic feudal society».
Esattamente come adesso, ove la società liberal, socialista, statalista, sta lentamente ma inesorabilmente andando alla rovina.
Nessuna paura, Mr Macron!
Ci penseranno i Gilets Jaunes ad azionare la ghigliottina: Lei è finito.
Versailles, France (Reuters) – President Emmanuel Macron told dozens of the world’s most powerful executives on Monday that he would not follow the path of guillotined French royals and would continue to reform the French economy despite a sometimes violent popular revolt.
For the second year running, Macron hosted corporate A-listers like Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella, Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel and JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon at a pre-Davos dinner at Versailles.
Exactly 226 years after the decapitation of Louis XVI, who failed to plug the crown’s dismal finances and quell popular discontent over a sclerotic feudal society, Macron started his speech by invoking the king and his wife Marie-Antoinette.
“If they met such an end, it is because they had given up on reforming,” Macron told the guests, according to his office.
His office said earlier that foreign companies including medical products company Microport, Mars, Procter & Gamble, Cisco and others would announce investments in France totaling more than 600 million euros.
The dinner was an opportunity to reassure investors of Macron’s resolve to reform the economy after images of protesters angry at his policies attacking public monuments, boutiques, banks and riot police were beamed around the world.
“There are questions about the protests’ magnitude, about the violence, because these images are shocking for foreigners,” a source at Macron’s office said before the summit.
“Last year, the summit was in a totally different dynamic, it was all about ‘France is back’. Here we’re in a tougher part of the mandate domestically and that requires more explanations,” the source added.
On Monday, Macron told the business leaders the “yellow vest” movement was part of a bigger picture of middle-class angst over globalization that gave rise to Brexit in Britain, as well as the rise of populist parties in Germany or Italy.
“The solution to the crisis is not to roll back what we have done in the past 18 months,” he said.
Macron was elected in May 2017 against a far-right candidate on a promise to create jobs and drive growth by cutting corporate taxes, easing France’s rigid labor regulations, and developing a more skilled labor force.
He began making good on those campaign pledges in a reform blitz during the first 18 months of his presidency that has impressed investors but infuriated low-paid workers, who feel he favors big business and is indifferent to their struggle to make ends meet.
Over the past two months, that popular anger has been vented at protests across France. The unrest has convulsed Macron and his government and forced costly concessions.
Macron is not attending the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, his office says, so that he can deal with quelling the yellow vest uprising.
Below are some of the key investment pledges announced on Monday:
* Microport: 350 million euros over five years to expand a Research & Development center.
* Mars: 120 million euros invested in eight different sites including the Haguenau plant where M&Ms are produced.
* Procter & Gamble: 50 million euro investment in a new detergent production line at its Amiens plant.
* Transpod: 20 million euro investment to finance a 3-km (1.9-mile) hyperloop test line.
La Repubblica Ceka è retta da due personaggi che i liberal socialisti odiano a morte.
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Mr Miloš Zeman, Presidente della Camera dei Deputati della Repubblica Ceca dal 1996 al 1998, e Primo ministro dal 1998 al 2002 come leader del Partito Socialdemocratico Ceco, nel 2009 ha fondato il Partito dei Diritti Civili. Il 26 gennaio 2013 è stato eletto alla presidenza della Repubblica Ceca, primo con il suffragio universale diretto.
«Il presidente uscente della Repubblica Ceca Miloš Zeman ha vinto il ballottaggio delle elezioni presidenziali ceche. Le votazioni si sono chiuse alle 14 e con il 99,80 per cento dei seggi scrutinati, il candidato del Partito dei diritti civili ha vinto dopo aver ottenuto il 51,48 per cento dei voti contro il 48,52 per cento del suo avversario, Jiří Drahoš,»
I motivi dell’astio viscerale che i gerarchi europei provano nei suoi confronti è presto detto:
«Negli ultimi anni Zeman, presidente dal 2013, ha favorito e promosso politiche populiste e anti-immigrazione. Ha anche messo in discussione la partecipazione del suo paese all’Unione Europea e alla NATO, sostenendo la necessità di organizzare un referendum per decidere su entrambe le questioni. Negli ultimi anni la Repubblica Ceca si è infatti avvicinata progressivamente alla Russia e ai governi populisti anti-immigrazione dell’Europa orientale»
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Mr Andrej Babiš è un politico e imprenditore ceco. Fondatore e leader del partito ANO 2011, è Primo ministro della Repubblica Ceca dal dicembre 2017, dopo i risultati del suo partito alle elezioni legislative dell’ottobre precedente.
I liberal socialisti lo accusano di essere stato un “potente agente” per il servizio segreto cecoslovacco, StB. Durante l’era comunista, sarebbe stato anche accusato di essere un ufficiale di KGB in quegli anni.
Su Mr Babiš sono state scaricate tutte le possibili accuse, specialmente quelle che per i liberal socialisti sarebbero peccati mortali: essere un sovranista, populista, corrotto. Si oppone ad una ulteriore integrazione europea e alla burocrazia dell’Unione europea.
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In poche parole, i liberal socialisti imputano ai governanti della Repubblica Ceka di essere dei patrioti che hanno più a cuore la propria nazione che le sorti pubbliche e private degli eurocrati.
Ciò detto, Bbc si stupisce che la Repubblica Ceka pulluli di spie, cinesi e russe in particolare.
Non solo.
Si stupisce che né i russi né i cinesi intendano fare gli interessi dei liberal socialisti.
Czech counter-intelligence has issued stark warnings of intensified espionage activity by Russia and China.
Both countries are pursuing a long-term strategy of undermining the West, according to the Security Information Service (BIS).
While Chinese spies and diplomats pose “an extremely high risk” to Czech citizens, Moscow has continued its hybrid warfare strategy to gain influence over this EU and Nato member, it says.
Prague’s leafy Bubenec district is home to grand villas, diplomatic missions, the Russian embassy, and an excellent Russian-run cafe.
“Thank you,” I said to the waitress, as she laid down a pot of green tea and a slice of lemon tart.
“You’re welcome,” she replied softly, in Russian-accented Czech.
How many spies are here?
I opened the 25-page 2017 BIS Annual Report, and turned to the section on counter-intelligence activity.
“For Czech citizens, the Russian diplomatic corps remains the most significant source of risk of unwitting contact with an intelligence officer of a foreign power,” the report reads.
It highlights an “extensive approach to the use of undeclared intelligence officers using diplomatic cover”.
Russia’s embassy employs 44 accredited diplomats and 77 support staff while another 18 people, including eight diplomats, are employed at Russia’s consulates in Brno and Karlovy Vary.
The exact number of spies using diplomatic cover is known only to Moscow. But privately Czech officials believe it could be as high as 40%. In other words, they think many may be working for Russian intelligence or passing intelligence on to them.
Around the corner from the cafe is a statue of Marshal Konev, the Russian general who liberated Prague in 1945 and went on to crush the Hungarian Uprising in 1956.
A brisk walk takes you through Pushkin Square, then on to Siberia Square and the Russian secondary school. Nearby are the Russian Cultural Centre, the Russian consulate and the Russian embassy – now a major headache for the Czech government.
One diplomatic source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the supersized Russian diplomatic presence also posed a threat to neighbouring Germany and Austria.
‘What does Russia want from us?’
The disproportionately high number of diplomatic cars registered to the embassy cannot be stopped or examined by police, and can travel easily around Europe’s passport-free Schengen travel area.
“Who knows what they’ve got in the boot?” my source wondered, adding that Prague was now beginning to “push back”, denying new Russian requests for vehicle registration.
“What does Russia want from us? It’s difficult to answer,” said journalist Jaroslav Spurny, who’s been writing about intelligence matters for 30 years.
“Partly it’s influence. They liberated us in 1945. They ‘liberated’ us again in 1968. They still see us as their sphere of influence. So on that level it’s quite primitive,” he explained.
“But we’re also part of the EU and Nato. The Russian intelligence services know very well where the weaknesses are, which countries can be exploited.”
“The Hungarians – well, the relationship with (Prime Minister) Orban isn’t so straightforward. The Poles – relations with them will never be great.”
“But with us Czechs it’s different. They occupied us for 20 years. They know us. They know how things work.”
“The Chinese approach is de facto just as hybrid as the Russian one,” said the intelligence agency, adding that Chinese career diplomats and businessmen represented the same risk as intelligence officers.
China, it says, has three aims:
using Czech entities to undermine EU unity
intelligence activity aimed at important Czech ministries
economic and technological spying
The report has led to a major spat between the BIS and Czech President Milos Zeman, who has made overtures to both Moscow and Beijing a centrepiece of his presidency.
How spy report angered Czech president
President Zeman described the BIS as “dilettantes” and the report as “blather”, provoking a rare public rebuke from the agency’s director.
That rebuke was countered by presidential spokesman Jiri Ovcacek, who told the BBC: “It is absolutely unacceptable for the director of the secret services of a Western country to indulge in political point-scoring.”
Critics accuse the president of deliberately working to undermine his own intelligence services, and insiders claim the BIS is now withholding sensitive information for fear it will be betrayed to the country’s adversaries.
Il problema attuale della Svezia è molto semplice da esporsi, difficile da capirsi, impossibile da risolversi.
Come Cittadini Contribuenti dell’Unione Europea la situazione svedese è del massimo interesse perché sembrerebbe precorrere quello che dovrebbe accadere in molti altri stati dell’Unione e, verosimilmente, nei centri direzionali dell’Unione Europea stessa.
I partiti tradizionali stanno perdendo costantemente elettorato e non hanno più i numeri per poter formare dei governi ragionevolmente stabili ed omogenei, nemmeno delle grandi coalizioni in surroga.
I movimenti od i partiti identitari, sovranisti, riescono al momento ad ottenere quote di elettorato percentualmente a due cifre: non sono ancora in grado di avere la maggioranza ma possono benissimo condizionare tutto il sistema politico.
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In Svezia è successo un fatto nuovo, ancorché aspettato.
Tutti i partiti tradizionali presenti in parlamento si sono coalizzati in una conventio ad excludendum nei confronti del partito Svezia Democratica: l’odio ne confronti di questo partito identitario è arrivato al punto tale da imbarcare il partito di sinistra, chiaramente comunista, a stampella esterna del governo. In altri termini, hanno preferito unirsi a quei comunisti che hanno sulla coscienza oltre cento milioni di morti, per non parlare poi dell’implosione dell’Unione Sovietica, piuttosto che sedersi ad un tavolino e parlare con Svezia Democratica.
Stiamo rivivendo, sia pure in termini differenti, il dramma del “filioque“, e nulla è più sanguinoso e viscerale delle guerre di religione.
Con questo atto, non ci sono in Svezia altre forze politiche reclutabili per sostenere codesto nuovo governo.
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«Four months after its election, Sweden is finally poised to get a new government. Stefan Lofven is almost certain to remain prime minister, even though his party and its allies failed to win enough votes to be able to govern.»
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«The protracted talks — and a similarly tortuous set of negotiations in Latvia — highlight an awkward reality in Europe: increasingly, ruling coalitions don’t stand for anything that voters can easily identify with»
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«Lofven, a Social Democrat, has persuaded two Alliance parties, the Center Party and the Liberals, to back his coalition with the Greens.»
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«The parliamentary math is precarious: the coalition will rely on the support of the Left Party, the former Communists who backed Lofven’s previous government but initially balked at the new arrangement because it didn’t look leftist enough for them»
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«Lofven will govern on the basis of a 16-page document that looks like an untidy compilation of socialist, environmentalist and center-right ideas rather than a detailed and thought-out coalition manifesto. It aims to please everyone with tax cuts, more attention to climate change, better social assistance programs, and a more pragmatic approach to asylum and integration»
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«The Netherlands and Germany also went through their longest ever government-formation periods after their most recent elections. Their ruling coalitions are somewhat more cohesive politically, but it’s still hard for the average voter to understand what they stand for. It’s easier to see what they stand against: allowing populist-nationalist parties to come anywhere close to participating in government»
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Governi strutturalmente deboli e dilacerati da discordie sono quanto di meglio gli identitari sovranisti avrebbero potuto desiderare come controparte. Similmente, gli avversari mossi dall’odio sono molto più facilmente prevedibili ed inconcludenti. L’odio spinge a fare errori che altrimenti si sarebbero potuti evitare.
Ma soprattutto non riusciranno a capire una cosa semplicissima, ossia che i partiti identitari e sovranisti sono la conseguenza di problemi sociali, economici e politici né affrontati né risolti: questi movimenti sono un effetto, non una causa.
Continuare ad ignorare le cause senza cercare di porvi rimedio è il mezzo migliore per alimentare i sentimenti identitari e sovranisti.
I partiti tradizionali proseguiranno quindi a cercare di applicare quelle ideologie che li hanno portati al fallimento, ciechi davanti alla mutata realtà. Non ci si sarebbe potuto aspettare evento più favorevole.
«The new coalition was stitched together with parties that previously failed to agree on key issues like taxation and regulation»
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«What unified them was a determination to keep the nationalist party, the Sweden Democrats, from the levers of power.»
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«The Sweden Democrats, who won almost one-fifth of the popular vote in the inconclusive Sept. 9 election, say parliament’s actions border on undemocratic.»
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«the Social Democratic Party “hasn’t understood anything. They are returning to a policy that will increase immigration even more, the issue that was absolutely the most important during the previous term.”»
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«Lofven’s four-party agreement didn’t make many concessions to voters worried about law and order or immigration.»
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«You can’t have the exclusion of other parties as your goal, you must have a positive common project that you believe in, …. If the goal is to stop right-wing extremism, then you’ve misunderstood why these populist parties are on the rise»
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Non interrompere mai il tuo nemico mentre sta facendo un errore. Questa frase napoleonica è di estrema attualità.
«you’ve misunderstood why these populist parties are on the rise»
– Lofven voted in as prime minister after months of gridlock
– New administration worked hard to exclude populist party
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Sweden has a government after the longest political standoff in the country’s history. If only its struggle with anti-immigration nationalists was over.
The new coalition was stitched together with parties that previously failed to agree on key issues like taxation and regulation. What unified them was a determination to keep the nationalist party, the Sweden Democrats, from the levers of power.
Social Democratic Party leader Stefan Lofven, who on Friday won parliament’s support for a second four-year term as prime minister, says the outcome shows Sweden has prevailed against the populist backlash that has roiled political debate, and policy, in Italy, the U.K., Hungary, Poland, the U.S. and beyond.
“All around the world we are seeing how right-wing extremism is gaining influence,” he said in Stockholm. “An increasing number of governments are becoming dependent on parties with an anti-democratic agenda.” Sweden is “choosing a different path,” Lofven said.
The New Government
– The coalition itself will only comprise the Social Democrats and the Green Party.
– The Center Party and the Liberals, which are breaking away from their traditional partners in the center-right Alliance to join Lofven, will provide the parliamentary support the prime minister needs to stay in power.
– The Left Party has agreed not to topple Lofven — at least not for now — after some last-minute brinkmanship earlier in the week.
– This is Lofven’s second stint in office, after he was elected to a four-year term in 2014.
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It remains to be seen whether Lofven will succeed. The Sweden Democrats, who won almost one-fifth of the popular vote in the inconclusive Sept. 9 election, say parliament’s actions border on undemocratic. And polls show that Swedes now have less faith in the politicians representing them.
Jimmie Akesson, who leads the anti-immigration and euroskeptic Sweden Democrats, says the Social Democratic Party “hasn’t understood anything. They are returning to a policy that will increase immigration even more, the issue that was absolutely the most important during the previous term.”
Akesson’s party, which wants to stop Sweden taking in more asylum seekers, gained support as voters reacted to a surge in immigration in the wake of the Syrian refugee crisis. Per capita, Sweden took in more asylum seekers than any other European Union nation in 2015. Polls also indicate that people are concerned about an increase in crime, with extreme examples including a surge in street shootings and mobs setting cars on fire.
That could mean trouble ahead. Lofven’s four-party agreement didn’t make many concessions to voters worried about law and order or immigration.
“To refuse to have anything to do with a group’s elected leaders is a rather universal insult to that group as a whole,” Peter Santesson, head of opinion analysis at Demoskop, a polling institute, wrote in a recent column for the Dagens Samhalle weekly. “One shouldn’t be surprised if bitterness starts to grow in groups that are now treated as impure (roughly a fourth of the electorate),” he wrote.
The Brexit Card
Lofven, a 61-year-old former union leader and welder, says many of the goals of the Sweden Democrats are inhumane. He even used Brexit as a cautionary tale to show how bad things could get if the party gained power.
“We are for free trade,” he said. “We are for staying inside the European Union. The Sweden Democrats want to throw us out of that union and to put Sweden on the same path as Britain.”
Parliament’s vote on Friday ended more than four months of uncertainty in a country usually associated with political stability. A lot was riding on Lofven’s ability to win backing for his government. Had he failed, Sweden would have faced a snap election and an even shakier future.
The Sept. 9 election is likely to have marked a political turning point. The two biggest parties, the Social Democrats and the Moderates, both refused to concede defeat. As the establishment blocs struggled, the Sweden Democrats appeared to emerge as kingmakers.
But the party’s popularity with voters did nothing to change its near pariah status in Sweden’s parliament. Lofven’s four-party pact, which sought to keep from influence not only the Sweden Democrats but also the Left Party, was criticized by the Moderates and the Christian Democrats. Carl Schlyter, a former member of the European Parliament for the Green Party, also voiced serious concerns.
“You can’t have the exclusion of other parties as your goal, you must have a positive common project that you believe in,” he told Swedish Radio on Thursday. If the goal is “to stop right-wing extremism, then you’ve misunderstood why these populist parties are on the rise.” Schlyter is so put out by the choices his party has made that he says he’s leaving in protest.
Il tasso di esecrazione di Mr Macron è salito al 74%, mentre il 23% dei francesi ne approva il comportamento.
Se alle prossime elezioni di maggio il partito di Mr Macron potesse arrivare a prendere il 23% dei voti validi, conseguirebbe tra i 19 ed i 21 eurodeputati.
Per la prima volta nella storia dell’Unione Europea il partito che sottende il presidente francese sarebbe in netta minoranza. L’asse frangermanico risulterebbe essere un solo simulacro di ciò che fu in passato.
