[Cross-posted from EuroTrib today]
“Europe faces a threat to its cohesion. But this time it’s on the eastern front, not the western”
The Observer view on the EU’s eastern bloc | Editorial – Jan. 7, 2017 |
European leaders have been at pains over the past 12 months to emphasise that Brexit is not the only or even the biggest issue confronting the EU. They do so, in part, to keep the British in their place. But they also speak the truth. Whether it is eurozone reform, the rise of xenophobic extremism or growing pressure exerted by Russia …
Yet the EU’s biggest challenge in 2018 may be none of the above. It comes from within. It has been slowly emerging along the bloc’s central and eastern flanks since the so-called Visegrád Group of Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic acceded in 2004.
More below the fold …
Orbán has called for the defence of Europe’s “Christian culture” against “Muslim invasion”. And he accuses Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, of “moral imperialism” in supposedly forcing Syrian refugees on Europe in 2015.
Orbán’s crude antics have resulted in elevated poll ratings at home, his expected re-election this spring, and a raised profile as the voice of heightened central and eastern European resistance to Franco-German domination of the EU. The prospect of Britain no longer being around to offset the influence of Berlin and Paris has fuelled this reactionary, Eurosceptic dynamic among smaller EU states whose membership London formerly championed – yet another unwelcome Brexit outcome.
…
Orbán now claims a new friend in the almost but not quite neo-fascist coalition that won power in Austria at the close of 2017. But it is Poland, under the ugly tutelage of the authoritarian Law and Justice party, that has emerged as his closest ally.
Every disadvantage has its advantage or new opportunities, …
A lot to consume in this strong editorial, it’s the underlying decade long development of the Eastern Bloc that has caused the erosion of Western – or Old Europe’s principles of the Common Market of the Six. I do put much of the blame in the aggression of NATO to move its frontier eastward and with the Afghan War at the behest of the United States, into a global expeditionary force for regime change wherever. The main culprits are the U.S. under Clinton – Bush – Obama and the U.K. regimes of Tony Blair – Gordon Brown – David Cameron.
The British financial centrum of London is one of the foremost homes of Russian oligarchs to stash their wealth and use their propaganda to overthrow their nemesis, Putin, in the Kremlin.
○ The Interpreter is an anti-Russian propaganda outfit funded by ousted Russian oligarch Khodorkovsky
Ever since 2004 and the first Orange Revolution, the anti-Russia movement has gained steam and in the last election year for U.S. President got all the losers of the Democratis party on its bandwagon. How sad … reminds me of the patriotic or nationalistic mindset of the 1960s and the early stage of the Vietnam War protest.
My earlier diaries on the opportunities after Brexit …
○ Europe Establishes Defense Pact PESCO
○ Europe’s Socialism Beats IMF Forecast …
○ Ukraine-Russia Proxy War and the U.S. Election
○ Berlin Stunned By Aggressive NATO Propaganda On Ukraine
It’s just like the American people electing Donald Trump as their president, it’s been a long time coming. Best to watch this fissure in democracy and get it over with as soon as possible with the least of harm. It’s a process where We The People must learn and make better choices.
