German re-writing of Europe's recent history.

On summer weekends in South West France it is not unusual to see scenes such as the above in various tourist spots. Such vivid reminders of how our freedoms were only comparatively recently so dearly secured probably causes discomfort amongst some. Not far from the Château d'Oleron, where this picture was taken, is the 39 - 45 Museum at Le Gua, now  disused and its exhibits sold on behalf of its German purchasers, which nevertheless may still be seen, a short distance away on the main route to the Ile d'Oleron.

Most of the exhibits from the Museum were sold off in 2008, a list in French is included on this link to a discussion forum on the closure. Other detail on the sale by auction by "Herman Historica" of Munich is here.

Re-writing history is perhaps understandable when it contains much that is best forgotten, but when the lessons of such history seem not to have yet been learnt, then it is right to resist such attempted distortions, and hammer on regarding our joint and recent European shared miseries.

One still improperly addressed outrage, perhaps of particular significance in this final weekend of the 2012 French Presidential election campaign, (where possibly never since 1945 has the relationship between Germany and France been of such crucial importance,) is the lack of imprisonment at presumed German insistance of those Panzer troops who committed the massacre at Oradour-sur-Glanes. Some of the documentation regarding the 1953 Bordeaux trial is still banned within France, so no links will be provided here, but much background and many facts are available online and in English.

Note the significance of the date of the trial 1953, as it relates to the founding of the original institutions of what was to become the European Union. Supposedly that year in February, the common market in coal and iron ore was first established, symbolising a new start for France and Germany - yet it was a new start simultaneously marked by the main German perpetrators of the massacre of 642 men, women and children in a single rural French village, apparently avoiding the consequences of their barbaric actions!

Is it any wonder that a supposed peaceful union formed against such a backdrop has arrived at the point of crisis which we see so clearly in the EU of today?

Anti EU vote prevails in French Presidential First Round Voting

The significant numbers with 98% of the vote counted and based on still changing figures from the French Ministry of the Interior, as published in Le Figaro, linked here, (excluding only French votes cast abroad) are to me as follows:

Specifically anti-EU votes (Le Pen 18.1+ Mélanchon 11.1) 29.2%

Hollande 28.6%

Sarkozy 27.1%

Abstentions 19.6%

In the two weeks between the first and second round votes the two contenders now face a crucial choice, upon which possibly hangs the future of the EU. This choice is whether to abandon the present concept of the EU, already under imminent threat of economically induced collapse, and restore France to independent democratic sovereignty during the term of office they will then have become almost certain to win, or to continue to muddle along under German control!

If neither Hollande nor Sarkozy grab such an opportunity, then it now appears certain that the EU will suffer a long drawn out death over the next few years, guaranteeing that François Hollande will also be a one term President, exactly like his immediate predecessor.

Sarkozy appears to abandon support for Germany and the new Fiscal Treaty

The sitting French President appears to have suddenly started to hear his voters in abruptly reversing direction over growth versus austerity and French interests in respect of German  domination as reported in the Daily Telegraph this morning. This time next week the first round of the Presidential election in France will be over and the name of the two contenders for the second round will be known. It will be a tense few days here in France as few seem to me prepared to forecast the outcome, complete disgust with politicians appearing to be running at a previously unknown high level! Latest polling is here.

In another article, in the same newspaper Devon, is revealed as having valuable tungsten reserves in a presently abandoned mine near Plympton. An expensive new road to the mine has been under construction for some time by thge local authority so development seems assured!

EU break-up was always most likely to begin on a regional basis, maybe my native Devonshire will be able to afford to be in the vanguard!

Issue evasion could lead to "social explosion" post French elections!

The ever growing tendency to avoid the issues, so evident in many recent EU national election campaigns, is already particularly evident in these, the opening days, of the French Presidential campaign. That fact has been now noted by EurActiv in a report of foreign commentator's views from Paris, published today and linked here.

Politicians who have deliberately handed their responsibility to govern to largely anonymous foreigners were always certain to be reluctant to own up to this treachery to their electorates come national election time. As the autocratic and non-democratic powers of the EU have grown, so inevitably does this factor and of course the inherent dangers of such dangerous policies will similarly grow - this year in France, next year in Germany.

The following are some quotes from the report which is recommended to be read in full:

For Paul Taylor, Reuters’ Paris bureau-chief, the “real issues” have been little discussed in the course of the campaign. For him, the reduction of public spending and austerity measures have been ignored by the candidates as “traps”.

Taylor went on to say that politicians are not preparing the French for necessary sacrifices and that there might be a “social explosion” after the election due to the failure to prepare public opinion.

It’s a “campaign of spectacle” filled with false debates, said Alberto Toscano, correspondent for the Italian public broadcaster RAI. He attacked some of the candidates’ proposals as symbolic attention-grabbers.....

He said the state of debate in France was evidence of a “French paradox for nostalgia and a will to change”

German advances amongst disastrous drop in French car sales

The middle of the French Presidential election campaign could perhaps not prove a worse moment for the incumbent's policy of complete national convergence with Germany to be greeted by the following depression style statistics:

A total of 507,089 vehicles were sold in the first quarter of 2012, down from 647,454 in the same period a year earlier.
French car manufacturers PSA Peugeot Citroen and Renault, which account for over half of the market, each saw their sales plunge by 30 percent.....

 Top-end manufacturers BMW and Mercedes were unaffected, posting sales increases of 8.4 percent and 24.2 percent.

Opinion Poll warning for the French Presidential Elections

There are nine candidates in the first round, even were Sarkozy to win there would be a run-off with the second placed candidate unless a miracle occurred and the incumbent President gained more than 50% of the vote.

The following report in the New York Times this morning, linked here, is hugely confusing if you read this quote:

The Ifop/Fiducial poll of 1,638 eligible voters conducted March 11-12 found Mr. Sarkozy would garner 28.5 percent support if the first round, set for April 22, were held today, compared with 27 percent for Mr. Hollande. Mr. Sarkozy trailed Mr. Hollande in a projected second-round runoff in the same poll by 9 percentage points, 54.5 percent to 45.5 percent.

With a margin of sampling error of roughly 2 percentage points, the result put the two candidates virtually neck and neck. Previous polls put Mr. Hollande about 5 percentage points ahead in the first round.

Only the second round numbers have any real significance. Hollande at present looks like walking it!

Nine countries push for EU FTT 'without delay'!

Panic is clearly setting in across the EU as EurActiv describes what was reported on some business TV channels yesterday afternoon. Read here.  The essence is in this quote:

 The statement, released by Paris, says Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and the finance ministers of France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Finland, Greece and Portugal signed the letter.

The nine countries call on the Danish presidency to speed up the work of the Council of the European Union, which represents the governments of the individual member countries, so that a draft of the FTT directive is discussed in the first half of the year.

There is, of course no rational explanation for this demand, other than the imperatives of French electoral expediency, strange indeed that a proposal which can only inevitably destroy jobs in the long run, can be seen to be a vote winner for the short interim period while the City of London is being bankrupted and destroyed!

"Raw, cynical blackmail against a whole people" - Yannis Panagopoulos.

"Why have Germany and France been risking a social explosion in Greece for a deal that isn't going to stick anyway?" asks Hamish McRae in his column in The Independent this morning.  His two answers to that question may be read from this link. The first centres around the traditional fears of contagion to the EU periphary, his second is about France.

Both assume that the EU has arrived at this point as if by some dreadful mischance and that none of what is now taking place could have been foreseen. I have been linking to articles written by Mr McRae for long enough to be fully aware that Mr McRae knows perfectly well that such is not the case. We are here because that is where the EU has been planned to deliver us!

The Euro was always doomed to arrive at this point, as an economic's journalist and writer of note, Hamish Mcrae must know that nothing could have prevented it, only the timing was uncertain. Therefore when he discusses the arrangements Merkozy now plan to consolidate their control over Europe he must do so in the knowledge that this was their chosen destination.

I wonder if Mr McRae's support for Merkozy's actions, clear from his column, would extend to a cancellation of the elections, first in Greece, thereafter in France?

Every failed Merkozy summit makes a springtime EU smashing tsunami more probable!

President Sarkozy's latest farce of a summit with Chancellor Merkel makes his electoral prospects this spring less certain. As reported on this blog yesterday the main concrete item to emerge was a commiment to speed more funds to the ESM, thus further weakening France's credit ratings.

At present a scenario with the front running socialist contender François Hollande facing a run-off in the second round of the Presidential contest against Marine Le Pen (whose father managed a similar feat against Jaques Chirac,) seems not at all unlikely, especially given the fact that the main identifiable plank of Sarkozy's campaign seems to be to merge France "with"  (many would say submerge "under") Germany.

Things can be made no more certain given that footballing hero Eric Cantona, has today been reported in Le Figaro, as seeking to gather the 500 signatures from elected officials to also be able to stand, a report with video in French is here.

Will the daughter of Le Pen or Delors grab France's Presidential Crown?

Dominique Moïsi, a senior fellow at the French Institute of International Relations, is quoted in this linked article from the New York Times - “Now they can say the elites are not only corrupt; they are also depraved.”

Well Monsieur Moïsi, quite so, but increasingly over recent months, this blog's chosen term for their activities, lies and amazing antics that we feel daily compelled to report upon, has been the one simple word - "evil".

It is clear, reading the alalysis in the above linked New York Times report, that French politics has received a very large spanner, straight into the gears of its generally smooth running electoral machine.

Living in France, I presently sense no enthusiasm for either the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen, nor for that of the arch-federalist and Maastricht Maestro, Jaques Delors. But it is early days, I will be posting on this blog, more frequently on French politics, as events unfold.

French elections still hold some significance, unlike those in EU-subjugated Britain, but the next French President may be the last to have any influence over the advancing German juggernaut, whose values we see every day gaining greater unchecked control across our Continent!