Western European News Digest

BüSo Campaign Spot for European Elections

May 8 (EIRNS)—The German Civil Rights Solidarity Movement (BüSo) has produced a 90-second television spot with Helga Zepp-LaRouche for the June 7 European Parliament elections. It will be shown twice on each of two German public TV stations. The same audio message will be aired 15 times on regional radio stations. A translation of the text:

"Have you received your government bailout yet, for your overdrawn bank account? No? Then you must not be a banker, who has gambled everything away!

"Irony aside, in spite of the some $20 trillion that the banks have received since August 2007, the unprecedented collapse of the real economy goes on and on.

"This breakdown crisis that I and the BüSo have been warning about for years now, will continue non-stop, until a fundamental change in the financial system occurs. Very soon, we will be threatened with hyperinflation such as in 1923, but this time internationally.

"There is a way out: We need an orderly bankruptcy reorganization for the estimated $1 quadrillion worth of toxic waste that are now held by banks worldwide.

"Then, the nationalized Bundesbank could issue productive credit for conversion of the automobile industry, in order to produce tractors for Africa, and infrastructure here at home.

"The free market has failed.

"We now need a new just world economic order and a moral and cultural Renaissance.

"So, vote BüSo, the party that forecast the collapse, and now has the only possible solution!"

Ireland: EP Elections Becoming Poll on Lisbon

PARIS, May 7 (EIRNS)—The June 7 vote in the European Parliament elections may draw the lines on whether the Irish will hold a new referendum on the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, which is supposed to take place in October. The treaty, which codifies far-ranging supranational authority and the virtual elimination of any traces of national sovereignty, was signed by EU heads of state in December 2007, but was defeated by Irish voters in a June 2008 referendum. The treaty cannot go into force until all member nations support it, so heavy pressure has come on Ireland to hold a new referendum. Twenty-three out of the EU's 27 members have ratified it.

The French daily l'Humanité runs an interview with Michael Youlton, the Irish national coordinator of the Campaign against the EU Constitution (CAEUC), a coalition of 14 organizations. Youlton says the "Yes" camp is increasingly in bad shape.

For example, the Irish Labour Party, a major component of the "Yes" camp, asked the government coalition, the Fianna Fail-Green Party, to introduce changes into the Lisbon text, but received no response. Also, says Youlton, Labour's youth organization recently switched to the "No" side. Recent polls indicate that Fianna Fail's popularity is in "free fall," with only 23% expressing a favorable opinion, the lowest ever.

German Press Moots Weimar-Style Hyperinflation

May 5 (EIRNS)—The Munich-based, neocon weekly Focus, Germany's second-largest weekly, has cover story this week on inflation, with a graphic of a hand holding banknotes that are melting away. The story recounts how in 1923, when a roll of bread cost 14 million Reichsmarks one day and 18 million the next, stores would no longer accept nominal values of the mark after 12 o'clock noon, because that was the time that the money value was adjusted daily, by the central bank. People carried around bundles to buy the smallest things, and workers' incomes shrank at the same pace.

The cover story is not just a dry historical reminder, because the magazine adds a clear and explicit warning to its readers, that they should not be fooled by certain deflationary trends now, because inflation is just around the corner.

Germany's Schwan Wants Roundtable on Banking Crisis

May 4 (EIRNS)—The German Social Democrats' candidate for President, Gesine Schwan, reiterated on Channel 2 (ZDF) TV this morning that efforts to bail out and stabilize the banking sector alone will not do the job of solving the current economic crisis. Without a serious attempt to address the mistakes that have been made by the banks, confidence will not be restored among the population, where "rage and disgust are spreading." Schwan said she is thinking of a roundtable to arrange such an in-depth discussion.

This is not the Pecora Commission which Helga Zepp-LaRouche's Büso party has been calling for, but it is apparently influenced by the broad BüSo campaign.

Dutch Royals Escape Murder Attempt

PARIS, May 4 (EIRNS)—At the annual April 30 Queen's Day festivities in The Netherlands, a 38-year old Dutchman, who had lost his job as a security officer a few months ago, aimed his black car at the open-top bus carrying Queen Beatrix and her family in a parade through Apeldoorn, 55 miles from Amsterdam.

The car smashed through railings and careened through the crowds waiting to see the royals; six people were killed and at least 8 others remained hospitalized. The driver died of his injuries on May 1.

The vehicle missed its target and slammed into a stone monument 15 meters from the bus. The driver, Karst Tates, confessed before his death that his action was aimed against the royal family. He had recently been laid off, and reportedly had had to return the key to his rented apartment that day. Traces of cannabis were found in his bloodstream.