France, Germany welcome Spain back into 'old Europe' fold

[rodbarnett]

PARIS, March 16 (AFP) - Two days after the left's election victory in Spain, the French and German leaders met in Paris on Tuesday to contemplate a European scene profoundly altered by the Madrid bombings and the departure of one of their leading opponents inside the European Union.

President Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder were accompanied by their foreign ministers Dominique de Villepin and Joschka Fischer for three hours of talks at the Elysee palace that focussed on the implications of conservative leader Jose Maria Aznar's dramatic electoral collapse on Sunday.

Aznar's surprise defeat - widely attributed to his mishandling of the aftermath of Thursday's rail attacks in Madrid - removed a key figure in the pro-US group of EU nations that supported the war in Iraq and back liberalising reforms of the Franco-German protective social model.

By promptly stating his desire to restore "magnificent" relations with France and Germany, his replacement - the Socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero - signalled a major shift in the EU's balance of power back to what US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld referred to as "old Europe," analysts said.

"By torpedoing the BAB axis - Blair-Aznar-Berlusconi - the change of government automatically strengthens the Franco-German position," the daily Le Figaro said, arguing that Italian and British prime ministers Silvio Berlusconi and Tony Blair have been badly damaged by the Spanish election result.

"Spain once more in heart of Old Europe," headlined the Times newspaper of London.

http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=58&story_id=5677

[Flagg]

1. Welcome back Spain

there's only one EUROPE

[goforit]

2. A warm cudddly family again!!!............high 5's to all Spaniards!!!

Y'all rock!!!!

:grouphug: :yourock: :grouphug:

[seafan]

3. Only one problem w/ the last sentence of the article...

If the rail bombs, which killed 200 people, are shown to have been the work of al-Qaeda, all European nations will be forced to push the issue of Islamic terrorism to the top of their priorities - a move towards the US agenda far more profound than Aznar ever achieved in office. (bold, my emphasis)


Terrorism was *never* a top agenda priority of the Bush Administration prior to September 11, 2001. Or even AFTER, as Bush rode herd into Iraq, willy-nilly, with a lie in his heart, pulling valuable troop resources out of Afghanistan, where the real bad guys were hiding.

The terror attack in America instantly provided the catalyst and the cover for the neocon PNAC agenda to commence. Bush has continued to use the pretext of terrorism to hide his real agenda in Iraq, which is to set up mammoth new U.S. military bases, powered with Iraqi oil, to serve as a foothold into domination of the rest of the Middle East, to rake in lucrative reconstructive contracts for his obscenely wealthy friends and to prop up the value of the U. S. dollar.

The PNAC crowd are taking us toward world domination. And they do not plan on anyone stopping them.

So, looking at the quote above, if we change that one word in bold type to "away from", it will be accurate.

[54anickel]

4. The line is attributed to "commentators" that are un-named. Wonder

who they were. :shrug:

[tabasco]

5. Bush really is the Great Uniter.

He has united the world against us.

[oneighty]

6. Viva Zapatero!

Beware false promises.

180

[legin]

7. I have the feeling

that the deal for blair for supporting bush* was that blair and britain were going to be given control over Europe, replacing France/Germany.

It looks like he may end up with the complete opposite, totally isolated and at the bottom of the heap. LOL

The only slight 'fly in the oinment' is that i live here in britain. :silly:

[legin]

8. That stupid shit blair

He makes his stupid pseudo-interlectual speeches, and he gives the impression that he knows so much better than us mere mortals about how to deal with this difficult world, and he is going to end up selling us right down the fucking river.

[BonjourUSA]

11. Europe changes, include GB

GB people was massively for an US-led of the world. But the Iraqi crisis revealed a real change with millions of Brits demonstrators in the streets.

The post-war generation in the USA and in Europe is now less numerous than this one which never knew both continents fighting side by side. The links are going to be more and more thin and the economic and political rivalities are going to be more and more at the first place

[Dirk39]

9. It's not so much about "controling Europe"...

that might be a hard thing to do, but GB plays a key-role in that conflict. If GB would fully support Europe and change to the Euro, the USA we know, would be a thing of the past.

On the other hand, I wouldn't be too sure about peacefull, democratic Europe opposing the aggressive imperialistic USA...

Schröder even admits that behind the cuts in the german welfare system is the will to construct a german and french lead Europe as the Nr. 1 in the world within the next ten years.

And the more, Europe seems to oppose the USA, the more our societies resemble the kind of brutal neoliberal capitalism without any democratic control, the USA is so famous for.

Don't just concentrate on Bush and wake up with something worse from Europe one day.
Hello from Germany,
Dirk

[legin]

10. good post Dirk39 n/t