From Volume 37, Issue 25 of EIR Online, Published June 25, 2010

Western European News Digest

Court Ruling Clears German Bailout of EU

June 17 (EIRNS)—Just in time to save Chancellor Angela Merkel's neck, the German Constitutional Court ruled against the temporary injunction requested in a Constitutional complaint by Peter Gauweiler and Dietrich Murswiek against the transfer of any money from Germany in connection with the EU750 billion EU super-bailout fund. The Court gave way to a pragmatic interpretation of the issue—to the benefit of the government. A notorious pro-deregulation law firm, Freshfields, was among the legal advisors of the government.

The court states in its ruling that it became convinced by the government's argument that, should the crucial German share in the bailout package be frozen, "unpredictable consequences on the financial markets" could not be ruled out.

Romanians Join Mass Strike Movement

June 17 (EIRNS)—Romania's center-right government narrowly survived a no-confidence vote on June 15 against its proposed austerity package. The censure motion, "Stop Social Genocide," was put forward by 120 opposition members from the Social Democratic and Conservative parties. It failed by only 8 votes.

The government's austerity measures propose cutting public sector wages by 25%, and pensions by 15%, in addition to imposing drastic cuts in the public sector, including social benefits, and they envisage the axing of 200,000 of the nation's 1.3 million public-sector jobs. The government claims that the brutal cuts are necessary for Romania to receive the next tranche of the $20 billion "rescue loan" of the IMF.

Approximately 5,000 people gathered June 15 outside Parliament to protest the government's unpopular austerity plan, say organizers. Romanian police had a hard time preventing protesters from entering the building. The trade union confederation Cartel Alfa says it is ready to continue the protests over the coming days, following the Greek example. The opposition party, PSD, wants to take the government to the Constitutional Court, to stop the austerity plan.

Sweden Ends 30-Year Anti-Nuclear Nightmare

June 18 (EIRNS)—The Swedish parliament yesterday enacted the historic decision to allow construction of new nuclear power plants. This means the end of 30 years of an anti-nuclear nightmare, starting with the 1980 referendum against nuclear power. Even though there was no possibility to vote for the development of nuclear power at that time, the LaRouche movement in Sweden—the EAP—led a campaign for a clear "Yes" to nuclear power. This means, that after 30 years, a majority of the Swedish parliament finally have adopted a policy once solely fought for by the EAP.

The result of the referendum was used to enact a law for decoupling nuclear power by 2010, but also to ban researchers from even developing nuclear science and technology, the so called "Thinking Ban Act." The result was the closing of a whole Swedish integrated group of industries producing the Swedish nuclear power plants, that also were exported to Finland. A whole generation of scientists, engineers, and machine-tool workers was sidelined. Last year, the Swedish government started crash programs to educate a new generation (before the old experts totally disappear) to be able to build the new nuclear power plants.

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