Western European News Digest

Brittany: 10,000 Votes for Solidarity & Progress

PARIS, March 14 (EIRNS)—A regional election in France took place today, and the slate of Solidarity & Progess, the party headed by LaRouche associate Jacques Cheminade, got 0.94% of the vote. The big winner of the election was absenteeism, which reached 53% at the national level, an record, as approximately a million voted. The result of the S&P-supported slate, named "Lighthouse for the New World," is decent, given that France is not yet in a mass-strike process; that the territory to cover was quite extensive; and that, except in a few areas, the party was not well known prior to this effort. Campaign spokesmen estimate that about 20% of the voters followed the S&P candidates, through leaflets and e-mails. Of those, 5%, or a little over 10,000, voted for the slate.

Rogers' Texas Victory Covered on Italian Radio Padania

March 17 (EIRNS)—Radio Padania, the official radio station of the Lega Nord (Northern League) party, which broadcasts on the airwaves and online, hosted LaRouche representatives Liliana Gorini and Andrew Spannaus for about 90 minutes today, to discuss with host Roberto Ortelli and listeners, the strategic and economic situation, the Obama Presidency, the mass strike, and other issues. The host promoted the website of Movisol (Movimento Solidarietà), the LaRouche party in Italy (www.movisol.com) often during the broadcast.

Gorini and Spannaus explained the mass strike process in the United States, the necessity of a Glass-Steagall reorganization of the global banking system, the British control over Wall Street and international finance, the Obama impeachment campaign, and the LaRouche movement. Host Ortelli asked: What are the chances that LaRouche will succeed in rallying the sane forces in the United States to shift the situation around? To which the two Movisol representatives explained that Kesha Rogers' victory in Texas (22nd D.C. Democratic primary) shows the potential for a change in the population.

Italian Daily Runs EIR Exposé of Brits/Santander

March 17 (EIRNS)—Several days after Lyndon LaRouche's exposé that it was the City of London and Banco Santander—not Greece—that were bankrupt and breaking up the euro bloc—the daily Libero, on Feb. 11, prominently published LaRouche's warning to Europe not to bail out Santander. Libero is a right-wing populist daily and has an economic section called "Libero mercato" (free market).

Half of the lead news article on Feb. 11, entitled, "Brussels pretends to save Greece," which addresses the issue of the speculative attack against the euro, is dedicated to LaRouche. Author Claudio Antonelli says the attack is coming from U.S. and British financial interests, and quotes at length from LaRouche's statement: "Do not make the U.S. mistake of bailing out Wall Street."

German Media Begins Promoting Nuclear Fusion

March 18 (EIRNS)—In the wake of Chancellor Angela Merkel's visit to the national German research center for fusion research, which is being built up in Greifswald, there have been numerous endorsements of the potential for fusion power in the news media. Deutsche Welle, the state-run TV/radio station for international broadcasts, had a special presenting the Greifswald project "Wendelstein-7x," a type of fusion reactor known as a stellarator. "It solves issues faced by tokamak fusion reactors, first built in the 1950s. Tokamak reactors have been the preferred choice of physicists up until now because their simpler geometry made them easier to build," it reported.

Brits Blame Germany for Euro Crisis

March 20 (EIRNS)—A campaign to blame Germany for the euro crisis was started by British circles, using arguments similar to those used to blame China for world trade imbalances. They claim that Germany's consistent trade surplus is the source of financial "imbalances," and therefore, Germany should either reduce its exports or increase imports. Predictably, this campaign has led to increased tensions inside the EU.

The German magazine Der Spiegel noted that French Economics Minister Christine Lagarde "triggered indignation in Berlin when she blasted Germany's trade surplus in an interview with the Financial Times. The fact that Germany exports more than it consumes domestically hurts the country's European neighbors, Lagarde complained."

A rebuttal of this insane argument came from an economist at the Bocconi University in Milan, Roberto Perotti, who warned that "blaming Germany ... is a mistaken diagnosis that leads to the wrong cure." Such "advice" to "the greatest economic success of the postwar period is not credible," Perotti wrote in the Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore on March 19. Germany's trade surplus is "the result of many factors which maintain the competitiveness of German products and keep national savings high. Normally these are considered success stories, not failures."

EU Bows to British Pressure on Hedge Funds

March 17 (EIRNS)—The finance ministers of the European Union, after having roared that they would go ahead with a crackdown on speculation, even without the U.S.A., yesterday capitulated in front of Great Britain alone.

All EU members supported a draft to "charter" hedge funds operating inside the EU, except Britain (80% of hedge funds operating in the EU are based in the United Kingdom). At one point, Prime Minister Gordon Brown called in and, after his phone call, the Ecofin council decided to postpone a decision until after the British elections, in May.

'Torygraph' Appears To Be Watching LPAC Site

Mar. 18 (EIRNS)—The Tory mouthpiece, the Daily Telegraph in London, shows signs of following the LaRouchePAC website (www.larouchepac.com) with great interest. An article posted on line on March 6 by James Delingpole, about the fraud of "green jobs," refers to several recent studies showing the absurdity of the green-jobs hoax, and adds: "And if you've time, do watch this fantastically damning video about Green Energy." The link is to the 24-minute LPAC video "The Fraud of Free Energy."