The UK’s European question is far from over – by Kirsty Hughes

As 2021 begins, the European Union and the United Kingdom have a new relationship, underpinned by their trade and co-operation agreement. This fractures, damages and complicates economic, political and social links between the UK and EU. And, alongside the 2019 withdrawal agreement, it ensures there is a customs and regulatory border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland—meaning the fractures go within as well as beyond the UK.

This attempted distancing of the UK from the rest of Europe, in the pursuit of some illusory, right-wing, ‘global Britain’ ideology combined with continuing propaganda around regaining sovereignty, is bound to fail overall. Instead, the UK is moving into the position of being a rather large economic and political satellite of the EU. And while in some ways, as intended by the Brexiters, leaving the EU will certainly weaken EU-UK relations, Brexit will mainly have the result of leaving the UK with less influence, less voice and less say but still hugely dependent on, and interdependent with, its European neighbours

The political and media frenzy around the possibility of deal or no deal was deliberately stoked by the prime minister, Boris Johnson, and his entourage to encourage headlines of an ultimate UK victory in the talks (Johnson’s cowardice and self-interest always making a deal look the more likely outcome). The stand-off also served to take attention away from the fact that any deal was bound to put up trade and other barriers and to fracture the UK’s part in the EU’s economic and political institutions, and so to damage the UK. But now, in the face of a 1,246 page deal—and much more yet to be negotiated or unilaterally decided (on data, financial services and more)—the reality is laid clearly out for all to see..

Read more at: The UK’s European question is far from over – Kirsty Hughes

Britain: Election results 2019: Tories on course to win majority - exit poll

First results are coming in, with the Tories gaining a seat from Labour, as the exit poll suggests Boris Johnson's party is on course for an 86-seat majority.

Read more at:
https://www.bbc.com/news/election-2019-50765773

USA - Freedom of the Press: Trump Allies Target Journalists Over Coverage Deemed Hostile to White House - by Kenneth P. Vogel and Jeremy W. Peters

A loose network of conservative operatives allied with the White House is pursuing what they say will be an aggressive operation to discredit news organizations deemed hostile to President Trump by publicizing damaging information about journalists.

It is the latest step in a long-running effort by Mr. Trump and his allies to undercut the influence of legitimate news reporting. Four people familiar with the operation described how it works, asserting that it has compiled dossiers of potentially embarrassing social media posts and other public statements by hundreds of people who work at some of the country’s most prominent news organizations.

The group has already released information about journalists at CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times — three outlets that have aggressively investigated Mr. Trump — in response to reporting or commentary that the White House’s allies consider unfair to Mr. Trump and his team or harmful to his re-election prospects.

Operatives have closely examined more than a decade’s worth of public posts and statements by journalists, the people familiar with the operation said. Only a fraction of what the network claims to have uncovered has been made public, the people said, with more to be disclosed as the 2020 election heats up. The research is said to extend to members of journalists’ families who are active in politics, as well as liberal activists and other political opponents of the president.

It is not possible to independently assess the claims about the quantity or potential significance of the material the pro-Trump network has assembled. Some involved in the operation have histories of bluster and exaggeration. And those willing to describe its techniques and goals may be trying to intimidate journalists or their employers.

It is clear from the cases to date that among the central players in the operation is Arthur Schwartz, a combative 47-year-old conservative consultant who is a friend and informal adviser to Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son. Mr. Schwartz has worked with some of the right’s most aggressive operatives, including the former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon.

Read more at: Trump Allies Target Journalists Over Coverage Deemed Hostile to White House - The New York Times: 

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Britain: Boris Johnson's Commons majority cut to one as Conservatives lose Welsh seat to Liberal Democrats

Britain's new Prime-Minister Boris Johnson suffered the first serious blow to his leadership on Thursday when his ruling Conservative Party lost a seat in Wales, cutting its working majority in parliament to just one.

The seat in Brecon and Radnorshire was won by Jane Dodds, the candidate for the Liberal Democrats, who overturned a majority of more than 8,000 votes to beat Conservative Chris Davies.

The by-election was triggered when 19% of voters signed a recall petition after Davies was convicted over a false expenses claim.

In her acceptance speech, Dodds said her "victory must be a turning point not just for our communities here in Brecon and Radnorshire but for the whole country too."

"My very first act as your MP when I arrive in Westminster will be to find Boris Johnson, wherever he's hiding and tell him loud and clear: stop playing with the future of our communities and rule out a no-deal Brexit now," she also said.

Davies came in second with the Brexit Party helmed by Nigel Farage securing the third place. The main opposition labour party, meanwhile, finished fourth.

Several smaller parties including Plaid Cymru, the Greens and the Independent Group for Change had decided not to field candidates in order not to split the Remain vote.

Adam Price, leader of Plaid Cymru, said on Twitter on Friday morning that "the single most important thing in this byelection was to put party politics aside, and deliver a pro-Remain MP" and called for People's Vote — or second referendum on Brexit.

"But if Boris Johnson is intent on a general election, he should know that Plaid Cymru and the other pro-Remain parties are committed to cooperating so that we can beat Brexit once and for all," he also wrote.

For Boris Johnson, who stormed to the Prime Ministership in a Conservative leadership contest last week, the election was a first electoral test and ultimately a blow.    

Read More at: Boris Johnson's Commons majority cut to one as Conservatives lose Welsh seat to Liberal Democrats | Euronews

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Greece: Conservatives win Greek election with promise to revive economy, unseating leftist Syriza

Conservatives are returning to power in Greece after defeating the leftist ruling party, which failed in its pledge to fight austerity. Now New Democracy offers more jobs and less taxes for austerity-weary Greeks.

The party of opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis has claimed 39.74 percent of the vote, with Syriza trailing on 31.5 percent, the Interior Ministry said, after counting nearly 45 percent of the vote in the snap election.

If nothing changes significantly, New Democracy would claim between 155 and 167 seats in the 300-member parliament, which would enable it to form a government without political complications.

The turnout in the election was estimated at around 55 percent, which was blamed on the hot weather, as temperatures reached over 40 degrees in some parts of the country.

Syriza, which had been in the driving seat since 2015, has acknowledged its defeat, with Alexis Tsipras calling Mitsotakis to congratulate him.

“Today, with our head held high we accept the people’s verdict. To bring Greece to where it is today, we had to take difficult decisions (with) a heavy political cost,” the outgoing PM told the journalists.

Read more at: Conservatives win Greek election with promise to revive economy, unseating leftist Syriza — RT World News

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Britain - Conservative Party: Populist Rightwinger Boris Johnson leads pack of Conservatives candidates

Boris Johnson tops first-round UK Conservative leadership vote Boris Johnson, who has pledged to deliver Brexit on Oct. 31, edged closer to power on Thursday when he won by far the most support from Conservative Party lawmakers in the first round of the contest to replace Prime Minister Theresa May.

Read more at: 

http://www.france24.com/en/20190613-uk-conservatives-boris-johnson-first-round-party-leadership-vote-brexit

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Britain - Brexit: Theresa May under pressure to quit after local election losses

Theresa May under pressure to quit after local election losses

Read more at:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/03/theresa-may-under-pressure-quit-local-election-losses?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Blogger

Britain: A labour Conservative coalition on Brexit?

What is UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s policy on Brexit?

Read more at: 

https://www.euronews.com/2019/04/03/what-is-uk-labour-leader-jeremy-corbyn-s-policy-on-brexit

Britain - Brexit: Theresa May should start reading the Tea Leaves as 2.6 million Leave voters have abandoned support for Brexit since referendum, major new study finds - by Benjamin Kentish

The Brexit disaster

More than 2.6 million people have abandoned their support for Brexit and now back staying in the EU, a major study has concluded.

If the huge number of Britons who have changed their mind had voted to stay in the EU in 2016, the referendum would have delivered a clear Remain verdict.

The data will add to the debate about whether the country now needs a new referendum, with millions having second thoughts about their Leave vote amid growing fears about Britain crashing out of the EU without a deal.

In a key finding that will particularly intensify pressure on Jeremy Corbyn to take a tougher stance against Brexit, the study found the overwhelming majority of those changing minds are Labour voters in seats the party currently holds.

It comes as Conservative divisions over Brexit deepened, with Theresa May attempting to slap down Boris Johnson after he wrote another article attacking her approach.

The Independent has launched its own campaign for a Final Say referendum, with almost three quarters of a million people having signed our petition demanding one so far.

Read more: 2.6 million Leave voters have abandoned support for Brexit since referendum, major new study finds | The Independent

Italy: Elections: Why the Italian elections are no test for the European Union - by Cas Mudde

This Sunday, more than 30 million Italians will go to the polls to elect a new legislature and, indirectly, a government. It will be the first major European election of 2018, after a somewhat confusing and inconsistent pattern of elections in 2017, and the international media is sparing few cliches.

Almost no journalist can resist making references to Italy’s almost inherent “political instability”, referring to the many “political crises” and national elections and governments the country has had in recent history – even though Italy had one government more and held one election less than the (allegedly stable) Netherlands in the 21st century.

In the runup to the 2018 Italian elections, the international coverage is dominated by stories that present the usual Italian tropes in all possible combinations. As always, Italy is “on the brink” of political chaos or worse. Article after article covers topics such as mafia and immigration, the rise of fascism, the risk of political violence, or the threat of populism to Italian democracy and the European Union. Don’t get me wrong, many stories are factually correct, even if they often overstate the relevance of their topic. 

Read more: Why the Italian elections are no test for the European Union | Cas Mudde | Opinion | The Guardian

Paris Agreement on Global Warming: Donald Trump Dumps agreement as US Conservatives and Evangelicals applaud move

Noah Could Be Back In Business

Donald Trump has announced the withdrawal of the US from the global Paris agreement on climate change - in a huge blow to efforts to curb the effects of global warming. The president said he wants to "renegotiate" a "more fair" deal for the US with Democrats and other countries.

He added: "if we can get a deal, that's great. If not, that's fine."

Mr Trump, who had made pulling out of the pact - which has been signed by almost 200 nations - a central plank of his run for the presidency, said that in withdrawing he was "keeping his campaign promise to put American workers first".

He said he wants to talk to citizens of "Pittsburgh, not Paris" to cheers in the crowd of the Rose Garden at the White House.

The President had been put under extreme pressure by allies around the world to stay in the agreement, and though administration said his views on the subject were "evolving" - having previously claimed climate change was a "hoax" - Mr Trump refused to be backed into a corner.

He has said that the deal would hit the US coal industry hard and that it would prove "too costly" for US to stick to the Paris accord to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

But Mr Trump ignores the fact that new money in renewable energy outpaced new investments in fossil fuels for the first time in 2015 to the tune of $350bn.

Pulling out of the agreement outright would take four years under the standard cooling-off period for new international treaties - the route Mr Trump is likely to take, but he said that the US is out "as of today."

Note EU-Digest: Of the world's countries, the climate change denial industry is most powerful in the United States. 

The Koch brothers, industry advocates and libertarian think tanks, often in the United States. More than 90% of papers sceptical on climate change originate from right-wing think tanks.The total annual income of these climate change counter-movement-organizations is roughly $900 million.

Between 2002 and 2010, nearly $120 million (euro 136 million) was anonymously donated via the Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund to more than 100 organizations seeking to undermine the public perception of the science on climate change.. In 2013 the Center for Media and Democracy reported that the State Policy Network (SPN), an umbrella group of 64 U.S. think tanks, had been lobbying on behalf of major corporations and conservative donors to oppose climate change regulation.

Since the late 1970s, oil companies have published research broadly in line with the standard views on global warming. Despite this, oil companies organized a climate change denial campaign to disseminate public disinformation for several decades, a strategy that has been compared to the organized denial of the hazards of tobacco smoking by tobacco companies.

Also for millions of Americans evangelical Christians belief in the science of global warming is well below the national average.

Recent data from the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication suggests that while 64 percent of Americans think global warming is real and caused by human beings, only 44 percent of evangelicals do. 

Evangelicals in general, tend to be more politically conservative, and can be quite distrusting of scientists (believing, incorrectly, that they’re all a bunch of atheists). Plus, since some evangelicals really do go in for that whole “the world is ending” thing—not an outlook likely to inspire much care for the environment. 

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US Healthcare: Conservative Pundit: Obamacare May Destroy GOP -- by Jonathan Chait

Conservatives who loathe or fear Donald Trump have a tendency to depict the Republican front-runner as a reflection not of the party whose heart he is winning but the party that loathes him uniformly. To the burgeoning genre of conservative analyses attributing Trump’s rise to things conservatives already hate, National Journal’s Josh Kraushaar adds the passage of Obamacare:

Ima­gine, for a mo­ment, the state of the 2010 midterms without Obama­care in the equa­tion. Re­pub­lic­ans would have run against the stag­nant state of the eco­nomy with some suc­cess.

But without the gal­van­iz­ing op­pos­i­tion to Obama’s health care law—Re­pub­lic­ans net­ted a whop­ping 63 House seats that year—Demo­crats would likely have nar­rowly kept con­trol of Con­gress, and con­tin­ued to press for­ward with Obama’s agenda.

There would be tea-party-aligned Re­pub­lic­ans elec­ted, but ab­sent the wave, not enough to form the con­cer­ted op­pos­i­tion that emerged.  …

With in­tensi­fy­ing en­ergy on the Right, the biggest polit­ic­al threat to mem­bers emerged from with­in their own party, and they ad­ap­ted ac­cord­ingly.

Long story short, by shepherding a major social reform that has cut the uninsured rate in half while coming in well below its projected costs and bringing health-care inflation down to its lowest rate in recorded history, Obama angered Republicans, forcing them to nominate an ignorant, bigoted clown.

Read more: Conservative Pundit: Obamacare May Destroy GOP -- NYMag

Russia, EU and Britain: What to make of the Putin fan club? - Thomas E. Ricks

US and European far-right party leaders praising Putin

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump recently went out of his way to praise Vladimir Putin as a man “highly respected in his own country and beyond,” and “a leader, unlike what we have in this country.”

Trump is not alone. Trump’s views echo those of a number of other political figures in the United States. In 2013, former Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan asked on his blog, “Is Putin One of Us?” Putin has a point, he wrote, when he asserts that the “’destruction of traditional values’” has been “imposed undemocratically.” Putin, he wrote, “may be seeing the future with more clarity than Americans still caught up in a Cold War paradigm.”

Putin also has many admirers on the right in Europe. Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, cites Russia (and China and Turkey) as models of the “illiberal state,” based on “national foundations” and achieving economic success. Nigel Farage, leader of Britain’s UKIP party, called Putin the world leader he most admired, “as an operator, but not as a human being.” French National Front Leader Marine LePen, Geert Wilders of the Dutch Freedom Party, and other leaders of European far-right parties have condemned the European Union and the United States for “encircling” Russia. LePen’s party has acknowledged receiving a $10 million loan from Russia, suggesting that her sympathies are requited.

Russian oligarchic funds have also been lavished on allies in Greece and elsewhere. What’s in this for Putin? Russia’s efforts to cultivate support among Europe’s anti-EU fringe movements are not part of an effort to propagate a “Putinist” ideology, but rather are aimed at weakening and dividing the European Union.

But more is going on than geopolitics. Many on the right project their idealized conception of leadership onto Putin: decisiveness, ruthlessness, pragmatism, manliness. In truth, Putin does have many skills as a political leader.

He is extremely well informed on a wide range of subjects (indeed, he would put many American candidates to shame) and he is capable of explaining difficult issues to the public in a simple and persuasive way. He has a quick, acid wit, and immense self-discipline. He is a skillful tactician, maintaining ties with the multiple factions competing for power and wealth (as they say in Russia, “the Kremlin has many towers”) and keeping opponents off balance with unexpected initiatives.

Read more: What to make of the Putin fan club? | Foreign Policy

Spain Discovers Parliamentarianism - by Diego Baes

Mariano Rajoy - obstructionist policies ?

It took Spain’s political parties a staggering 44 days to properly react and face head-on the outcome of the general election on 20 December. In a country hardly accustomed to tight election results and coalition talks, the aftermath of the vote left the political class not only in dismay but, more worryingly, in stasis.

Two months after a general election that has so far failed to produce a government, the running joke among the country’s chattering classes has become that Spain is now Italy. But without Italians. Or, more precisely, without the Italian nerve of steel for brinkmanship and their long history managing it.

The other joke — this one much more serious and revealing of the political culture — is that for almost 40 years Spain functioned as a presidential system disguised in parliamentarian robes. A de facto two-party system was able to amass enough votes on either side of the political divide to produce strong and stable governments that could turn the parliamentary chamber into a mere extension of the executive branch.

Until this last election, that is. It has not only buried the two-party system and suddenly forced parliamentarian manners on the political culture but also revealed a lack of political stewardship and negotiation skills that is putting Spain’s still young democracy to the test. As for the public and the media, they have required a crash course on the rules and procedures of a genuine parliamentary system of government.

Perhaps the most bizarre moment since the election came when Mariano Rajoy, head of the conservative PP and acting prime minister, rejected the King’s offer to — as head of the list with the most votes — lead the effort to gather support in the Cortes (176 votes needed for outright majority) to form a government. Rajoy declared himself unwilling while insisting he was not stepping aside.

 A tactical maneuver that went against a basic tenet of parliamentarian life: if the party with the most votes is unable to form a government, other parties get a shot. Rajoy wanted it both ways: avoid the political costs of a failed attempt while remaining on the sidelines arguing that his party had the most votes and therefore the right to govern.

Note EU-Digest: Mariano Rajoy seems to have received his "basic political training" in obstructionist politics from fellow Conservatives in the US Republican party, who also have a habit of using undemocratic obstructionist tactics. 

Read more: Spain Discovers Parliamentarianism

Croatia faces lengthy coalition talks after narrow win by HDZ

Croatia’s conservative opposition has claimed victory in the country’s first election since it joined the European Union in 2013.

Preliminary results indicate a narrow victory for the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ)winning 61 seats in the 151-seat parliament.

It means coalition talks are set to follow

HDZ leader Tomislav Karamarko said: “This victory puts us in position to take responsibility for leading the country, a country which is in a difficult state.”

The ruling centre-left Social Democratic Party and allies are set to take 53 seats. With such a narrow margin premier Zoran Milanovic appeared hopeful of participating in a coalition.

Read more: Croatia faces lengthy coalition talks after narrow win by HDZ | euronews, world news

Canada: How Saudi Arabia, and a $15B armoured vehicle deal, became an election issue - by Mark Gollom

The issue of whether Canada should be involved in such a deal with a country with a poor human rights record carried forward Friday. Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, as he did the night before, defended the $15-billion deal that Canada helped secure last year, under which the London, Ont.-based manufacturer General Dynamics Land Systems will sell armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia.

At a campaign stop in Rivière-du-Loup, Que., Harper was asked whether he was putting Canadian jobs ahead of human rights concerns.

"As I've said in the debate, it's frankly all of our partners and allies who were pursuing that contract, not just Canada. So this is a deal frankly with a country, and notwithstanding its human rights violations, which are significant, this is a contract with a country that is an ally in the fighting against the Islamic State.

A contract that any one of our allies would have signed," he said.

"We expressed our outrage, our disagreement from time to time with the government of Saudi Arabia for their treatment of human rights, but I don't think it makes any sense to pull a contract in a way that would only punish Canadian workers instead of actually expressing our outrage at some of these things in Saudi Arabia."

Note EU-Digest: what a weak excuse by Stephen Harper. It shows once again that most Conservatives, where ever they may be  always choose money over principles.

Read more: How Saudi Arabia, and a $15B armoured vehicle deal, became an election issue - Politics - CBC News

USA - GOP Second Debate: a reality show which has nothing to do with elections or Democracy

This debate was the latest sign that influential Republicans are increasingly worried that Donald Trump could become the party's nominee, and they are determined to stop him.

A day after a major conservative group, the Club for Growth, launched a series of ads targeting Trump, several of his rival candidates at the debate in California aggressively attacked the man who leads the polls of the Republican race.

This is also a sign that the Special Interest groups in America, which today control most of the Democratic and Republican political candidates (including the Presidential ones),  and who have turned the US from a Democracy into an Oligarchy, are trying to eliminate Donald Trump politically.

Carson and Trump, who so far have not been seeking financial support from special interest groups have obviously become the target of them and their loyal financially dependent "clients" in the Republican party.

In case any of these two would win the nomination, it would mean that the Special Interest Groups massive investment in "pro-business" and "pro-keeping a blind eye" candidates they invested in to support their tax evasion schemes, or stopping the advantage of those seeking an equal distribution of wealth,etc., would be wasted. 

Bottom line of this Republican debate - which some are also calling a "political reality show",  is that it clearly revealed that Democracy in America is now on life support.

EU-Digest

US Politics: Is the GOP on the Brink of Civil War? - by Fran Coombs

Senator Ted Cruz voiced the unhappiness of many Republican conservatives when he took to the floor of the Senate last Friday and in a rare intraparty broadside accused GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell of lying. Veteran Republican senators quickly rallied to McConnell’s defense.

Was it the shot fired at Fort Sumter that signals the real start of a GOP civil war?

Cruz said McConnell had told Republican conservatives in the Senate that there was no behind-the-scenes deal to revive the controversial Export-Import Bank. Conservatives view the bank as corporate welfare, while the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and pro-business Republicans are big supporters of it. But rather than let the bank stand or fall on a separate vote, McConnell announced at the last minute that a measure allowing reauthorization of the bank would be attached to much more popular legislation for funding highways. This maneuver guaranteed the bank’s reauthorization.

Conservative senators hit the ceiling. “The American people elected a Republican majority believing that a Republican majority would be somehow different from a Democratic majority in the United States Senate,” Cruz said, comparing McConnell to his predecessor as Senate majority leader, Democrat Harry Reid. “Unfortunately, the way the current Senate operates, there is one party, the Washington party.”

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of Republican voters agreed with Cruz recently when he responded to Jeb Bush’s comment about the need for Americans to work harder by saying: “The problem is not that Americans aren't working hard enough. It is that the Washington cartel of career politicians, special interests and lobbyists have rigged the game against them.” [Just 38% of Republicans agreed with Bush.]

Most Republican voters have long felt this way, saying in surveys for years that their congressional representatives are out of touch with the party’s base. Only 24% of Likely GOP Voters now believe Republicans in Congress have done a good job representing their party’s values. Democrats, by contrast, are much happier with their representation in Washington, D.C. 

Read more: Is the GOP on the Brink of Civil War? - Rasmussen Reports™

Greece Exposes The Flaws Of A Wrong Europe - by Mehmet Ugur and Ozlem Onaran

The Greek people, their newly-elected government and many Europeans and non-Europeans with a sense of justice, history and solidarity, have been shouting loud: the “Greek problem” is a consequence of neo-liberal economic and financial policies that have become increasingly dysfunctional and dangerous. The problem has been made worse by the ascendance of sheer inter-governmentalism in Europe.

Both neo-liberalism and inter-governmentalism are the results of collusion between economic, financial and political elites in Europe, aided by economists, political scientists, lawyers, analysts and journalists with a conservative outlook. The symbiotic relationship between these two has been feeding on the spoils of increasingly unequal wealth accumulation. Their narrative about “Greeks living beyond their means” is nothing but an unashamed distortion of facts about both the present and the past.

The distortion of current facts takes the form of preaching to the Greek people on how they should show penance despite the facts on the ground. The origin of Greek debt, like subprime lending in the US and, given the general dysfunctionality of the financial system as laid bare by the Great Recession, is a result of reckless lending by private banks. Accommodating economic policies and perverse financial regulations have facilitated this – just as much as the symbiotic relations between the European arms industry and corrupt politicians in Greece, and tax evaders in Greece and tax havens in Luxembourg and elsewhere in Europe.

This distortion takes the form of misleading public opinion despite evidence that the ruling elite has secreted away. The conservative European elites and their henchmen have been pushing Greece towards destruction despite IMF documents showing that austerity is unlikely to make Greek debt either repayable or sustainable in the medium- to long-term.

The conservative rhetoric distorts the history of Europe too. Europe prospered and avoided repeated crises and wars only when it found collaborative solutions to collective problems. The leading proponent of austerity, Germany, was by far the biggest beneficiary of debt forgiveness. After World War I Keynes argued in the Economic Consequences of the Peace that the Versailles Treaty was a “Carthaginian peace” that would ruin Europe rather than set the conditions for economic recovery. This is very important not only because the demand for solidarity with the German people came from a scholar at the winning side, but also because the demand was made despite the fact reparations were meant to compensate for the human and material costs of more sinister German military actions in the form of war.

Note EU-Digest: Excellent report on the flaws of the European monetary and political structures which can be traced back to European Conservative Political forces copying and linking themselves to the "ruthless and corrupt" US financial system and the general dysfunctionality of that system, as laid bare by the 2007-2009 recession. This in addition to the reckless lending by private banks and accommodating economic policies and perverse financial regulations. When will Europe understand that the future of Europe must depend on our own needs and objectives and not be influenced by "surrogate" decisions on the other side of the Atlantic, as it unfortunately is today.

Read more: Greece Exposes The Flaws Of A Wrong Europe » Social Europe

Poland: Conservative Duda wins Poland's presidential vote

Conservative challenger Andrzej Duda has won Poland's presidential election and ousted the incumbent in a runoff vote, according to official results.

Duda, a right-wing member of the European Parliament, won with 51.55 percent of the vote, the State Electoral Commission said on Monday.

President Bronislaw Komorowski, allied with the ruling pro-business Civic Platform, garnered 48.45 percent in the second round of voting on Sunday, with a turnout was 55.34 percent.

Duda, a 43-year-old lawyer with experience in the government, will be take office in August.
Poland's president is the head of the armed forces, and can propose and veto legislation. In foreign policy, the president's role is chiefly ceremonial.

Read Conservative Duda wins Poland's presidential vote - Al Jazeera English