Western European News Digest

The Bloody Queen's Fascist Austerity Plans

May 26 (EIRNS)—The drug-peddling, genocide-merchant whore currently occupying the British Throne, Queen Elizabeth II, lived up to her bloody reputation in opening up the new Parliament May 25, announcing the new legislative program for Her Majesty's Government. As AP reported: "Wearing her diamond-studded crown, Queen Elizabeth II arrived at Parliament in a gleaming horse-drawn carriage to deliver a message of austerity and making do with less in troubled economic times."

Explaining the nature of her slave-labor vision of the future for the British people, she declared that there would be "sanctions for those who refuse available jobs," that the state pension age would be "reviewed," that National Insurance (unemployment and pensions) will be changed to "safeguard jobs and support the economy"—i.e., slashed to the bone.

Her opening words were: "The first priority is to reduce the deficit and restore economic growth. Action will be taken to accelerate the reduction of the structural budget deficit. A new Office for Budget Responsibility will provide confidence in the management of the public finances." Confidence from the City of London, that is.

Glass-Steagall-Type Legislation in Belgium

PARIS, May 26 (EIRNS)— On March 11, Belgian Senators Jose Daras and Freya Piryns (Green Party), introduced a proposed law into the Senate to "split up banking activities" between commercial and savings banks and investment banks. Former Belgian Transportation Minister Senator Daras is the third vice-president of the country's Special Follow-up Commission in Charge of Examining the Financial and Banking Crisis.

"We must dare to learn the lessons of history. The separation of banking professions has given satisfaction in the past. Today, the leaders of great nations intend again to reduce the size of banks and separate the activities of taking bank deposits from proprietary market trades," the authors say.

The proposed legislation (4-1700/1) would go into effect as of 2012.

Mass Strike Dynamic in Portugal

May 29 (EIRNS)—Another day of labor protest is taking place in Portugal today, highlighted by two big protest rallies in the main squares in the country's capital Lisbon, Marques de Pombal and Restauradores. The protest was by the country's leading labor federation, CGTP-Intersindical, whose General Secretary Carvalho da Silva considers that Portugal in undergoing its biggest social-economic crisis since the revolution of 1974.

The government's plans to freeze public sector wages, cut unemployment support, and increase income taxes and value-added taxes, are going to hit mainly the broad majority of the nation's low-income households, which da Silva said is "simply not acceptable." The CGT-Sindical sees its protests today, plus the mass protests already set for June 8, as preparations for—if necessary—a wave of general strikes to force the government to drop its brutal austerity plans. The two leftist opposition parties in the national Parliament, Bloco de Esquerda and the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), are backing labor.

Germany's Exit from Euro Must Occur "Overnight"

May 25 (EIRNS)— This is the view expressed Tuesday in a conversation with EIR by Alfonso Tuor, an economist and the deputy editor of the Swiss daily Corriere del Ticino. Tuor's comment was directed at the scenario proposed by Berlin-based DIW researcher Belke, who had proposed a year-long process. "You cannot do it in one year; it must be done overnight, or in a weekend," Tuor said. "The announcement must be done by surprise, like: 'You are given 30 days time to convert euros into DM and state whether you want your debt to be denominated in Deutschmarks or euros.'

"It must be done in the same way as Nixon did with gold."

The question of the physical changeover is irrelevant, according to Tuor. The amount of "circulating money is very little. Monetary supply is mostly electronic." Technical banknote changeover "is a joke," you can do that afterwards.

Tuor is convinced that Germany will exit from the euro in 2-3 months, "or even in one month." "Now everything is coming down" in the financial system, he said. "I do not see who can intervene" to stop that. The stock market plunge is having other effects, in terms of devaluing bank collateral. It is a chain reaction.

"I am convinced that Germany's participation in the bailout package is the price Germany paid in order to get out of the euro," he said. In other words, soon Germany will say: we gave what we could, now it is over. Now we're going back to the Deutschemark.