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Meet The 31-Year-Old Austrian Anti-Immigrant Who Just Became The World's Youngest Leader

As discussed earlier, Austria's young conservative star, Sebastian Kurz, is now assured of becoming the country's next leader, projections of Sunday’s parliamentary election result showed, but his party is far short of a majority and is likely to seek a coalition with the resurgent far right.

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"It's A Coup": Catalan President Slams "Worst Attack" By Spain "Since Franco Dictatorship"

Update: The defiant Catalan leader, Carles Puigdemont, addressed Catalans, Spaniards, and the rest of Europe on TV saying that the Spanish states' imposition of Article 155 means "liquidation of our self-government and cancellation of the democratic will of Catalans". In other words, he made it quite clear that the region's leaders would not accept direct rule imposed on the region by the Spanish government, as a political crisis that has rattled the economy and raised fears of prolonged unrest showed no signs of easing.

Puigdemont said Rajoy had set out to "humiliate" Catalonia in an "attack on democracy" and said removing powers from Catalonia was the "worst attack against the institutions and the people of Catalonia since the military dictatorship of Francisco Franco".

After taking party in peaceful demonstration, Puigdemont expressed his rejection of Madrid’s move, but stopped short of saying he would make good his threat to push ahead with the independence bid before direct rule takes effect.

“I ask the (Catalan) parliament to meet in a plenary session during which we, the representatives of the citizens’ sovereignty, will be able to decide over this attempt to liquidate our government and our democracy, and act in consequence,” Puigdemont said in a televised address.

Puigdemont also said Spain "closed the doors ot a request for talks, and should set a date to discuss the attack" and "Catalan institutions cannot accept attack by Spain."

In a striking accusation, the Catalan president said that "Catalan institutions dealt a coup by Spanish state." Puigdemont then switched to English to appeal to Europeans, says democracy also at risk in Europe: "Catalonia is an ancient European nation". He also announced a session in Catalan parliament to debate "the attempt to liquidate our self-government".

Puigdemont concluded by saying "Long live Catalonia" to which a silently listening crowd suddenly burst back into cheers and chanting.

However, as noted, Puigdemont did not specifically declare independence, but said Catalonia will not accept Madrid's plan to curb region's powers, leaving one tiny, final loophole.

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Meet The Eccentric, Euroskeptic, Czech Billionaire Who Will Become Prime Minister

The Czech election is taking place today, with the “Czech Donald Trump”, Andrej Babis, expected to be voted in as Prime Minister. As we noted last week, Babis is the Czech Republic’s second wealthiest person, is demanding the return of greater sovereignty from the EU, rejects the Euro and is against Muslim immigration. He has pledged to run the country like a business, while eliminating corruption. Oh, and he is also facing criminal charges for fraud. Babis's anti-establishment party ANO stands for "Action of Dissatisfied Citizens" and is also the Czech word for "yes".

The Prague Daily Monitor (PDM) reports that “ANO is the clear favourite of (sic) the election that will take place on Friday and Saturday. Opinion polls indicate that ANO is likely to win two times more votes than the CSSD, which may be narrowly overcome by the Communists (KSCM) and possibly even the Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) movement of populist Tomio Okamura or the right-wing Civic Democrats (ODS).”

In last night’s final one-and-a-half hour televised confrontation, Babis sparred with Foreign Minister, Lubomir Zaoralek, of the social democratic CSSD party. Behind in the polls, Zaoralek didn’t pull his punches “Zaoralek called Babis a parasite in connection with the work of the cabinet. ‘He pretends that all that was good about the government was him,’ Zaoralek said in reaction to Babis’s criticism of the outgoing government that comprises the CSSD, ANO and the smaller Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL). Babis is a predator who insolently liquidated his competition, Zaoralek said. He said the financial authorities issued property-freezing orders that liquidated companies that were rivals of firms from the giant Agrofert holding (owned by Babis).”

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"It Could Open A Pandora's Box": Italy's 2 Richest Regions Are Voting In Historic Autonomy Referendums

Voters in Italy's two wealthiest northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto are voting on Sunday in referendums for greater autonomy from Rome, in which a positive outcome could fan regional tensions in Europe at a time when neighboring Spain is cracking down to prevent Catalonia from breaking away.

Lombardy, which includes Milan, and Veneto, which houses the tourist powerhouse Venice, are home to around a quarter of Italy's population and account for 30% of Italy's economy, the Eurozone's third largest. Unlike Catalonia, the consultative votes are only the beginning of a process which could over time lead to powers being devolved from Rome. Also unlike Catalonia, which held an independence referendum on Oct. 1 despite it being ruled unconstitutional, the Italian referendums are within the law. Like Catalonia, however, Lombardy and Veneto complain they pay far more in taxes than they receive.

At its core, today's vote is about whether taxes collected in the two wealthy regions should be used far more for the benefit of the two regions, or diluted among Italy's other, poorer regions, especially in the south. Lombardy sends €54 billion more in taxes to Rome than it gets back in public spending. Veneto's net contribution is 15.5 billion. The two regions would like to roughly halve those contributions - a concession the cash-strapped state, labouring under a mountain of debt, can ill afford.

The two regions are both run by the once openly secessionist Lega Nord, or Northern League party, which hopes that the result will give it a mandate to negotiate better financial deals from Rome. The Northern League was established in the 1990s to campaign for an independent state of “Padania”, stretching across Italy’s north, from around Lombardy in the west to Venice in the east. It no longer campaigns for secession but argues that taxes the north sends to Rome are wasted by inefficient national bureaucracy.

While the twin referendums are non-binding, a resounding "yes" vote would give the presidents of the neighboring regions more leverage in negotiations to seek a greater share of tax revenue and to grab responsibility from Rome. The leaders want more powers in areas such as security, immigration, education and the environment.

Enthusiasm for today's vote will be critical as the level of turnout will have a direct significance of the results: in Veneto, it has to pass 50% for the result to be considered valid. There is no threshold in Lombardy but low voter participation would weaken the region's hand in any subsequent negotiations with the central government.

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Another thing about the EU - Putin really, really hates it.
It's a complete coincidence that Siggy is here trashing it, though.- KRAPO

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"I can't ... I can't go on..." he groaned, silent sobs heaving his manly chest. "You've found me out. Damn your persistence! I'm Putin! Yes. Really. Putin!"

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Well, try as hard as I might, I can't find an original thread on this topic. I'm sure it was discussed relative to Greece and Brexit, but I'll be damned if I can find it now.


Overall, the EU format is - in essence- a trade and finance deal, having to do with national debt; the maintenance of the Euro currency; overarching policies on migrants, banking, visa requirements (none required for the Schengen zone); product specifications, etc.

Most of the most important decisions are made in a non-democratic fashion, especially the decisions by the European Central Bank (ECB), but Merkel clearly dominates non-finance decisions as well, and single-handedly opened the EU borders to migrants of all origins. The EU simply has not been able to represent the existential interests of many of its member-states, leading to an increasingly broken future.

For example, I was re-sent an email from 2011 (by someone who was cleaning out their emails) which was prophetic in its analysis of Catalonia. The email discussed how the imposition of austerity on Spain by the ECB required that Catalonia (as the most prosperous of Spain's provinces) disgorge its tax coffers into the Spanish government, to make up for decisions that the Catalans themselves disagreed with and had no voice in.

Because of this lack of genuine representation, various nations, national groups, and breakaway regions are beginning to pull in different directions.

The EU was able to strong-arm Greece to remain in the EU by a combination of threats, loans, and political, bribery (and Greeks are still massively suffering to this day) but simply isn't strong enough to prevent Britain from leaving.

The independence movement of Catalan is another example of the centrifugal forces pulling the EU apart. Belgium is torn between Dutch-speaking Flanders and the poorer French-speaking Wallonia. The heavy-handedness of the EU in policies once considered "national" is encouraging the development of so-called "far right" (often mostly national-sovereignty) parties in many nations.

More importantly - because these nations are larger and stronger - the Visegrad group (Austria, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic) are pushing back on Merkel's open-door migrant policies.

And in that realm ...

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Meet The 31-Year-Old Austrian Anti-Immigrant Who Just Became The World's Youngest Leader

As discussed earlier, Austria's young conservative star, Sebastian Kurz, is now assured of becoming the country's next leader, projections of Sunday’s parliamentary election result showed, but his party is far short of a majority and is likely to seek a coalition with the resurgent far right.

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MORE AT http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-15/meet-31-year-old-austrian-ant
i-immigrant-set-become-worlds-youngest-leader

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Chaos Unleashed: Catalan Parliament Votes For Independence, Spain Activates "Nuclear Option"

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Damn! Those Catalans don't mess around, do they?

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Chaos Unleashed: Catalan Parliament Votes For Independence, Spain Activates "Nuclear Option"

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http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-10-27/catalan-chaos-continues-seces
sionists-prepare-independence-motion

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Well! Angela Merkel looks about to fall. And not because of the egregiously predatory policies of the German, Nederlander, and Finnish banks towards southern Europe.

Not because the Troika ran roughshod over Greece, bleeding it dry for every Euro that they could extract while driving the people to poverty.

Not because of the populist coalition that just won in Italy, uniting the Five Star Movement with the Northern League movement.

Not because of Brexit.

NOPE!

It's all because of Merkel's "open arms" immigration policy, which she foisted on Germany and the rest of the EU.

Merkel's Bavarian coalition partners are fed up to their eyeballs with migrants. They gave Merkel two weeks to come up with a plan to address the problem, and Merkel and Macron, being the good little globalists that they are, drafted a plan to make migrants EVERYONE's problem, and to create a joint "fiscal authority". Twelve EU nations immediately questioned the plan, and there are a good five or so that will resist to the bitter end.

So, in about two weeks, we might be saying Goodbye Angela, and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

She did some good things for Germany, but as the de facto economic leader of the EU she sucked.

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Marine Le Pen Leads Macron For First Time, Latest Poll Shows

French President Emmanuel Macron's already abysmal approval ratings, which has fallen precipitously this year following an exodus of cabinet officials, tone deaf messaging over the president's "lavish" lifestyle, controversial immigration policies and a scandal involving brutality by a Macron bodyguard and confidant, have already slid to their lowest level since his presidency began, putting him on pace to eventually match the single-digit approval ratings enjoyed by his predecessor, socialist Francois Hollande, which inspired Hollande not to seek a second term.


And over the weekend, the polls dealt another embarrassment to France's youngest leader since Napoleon, when they revealed that the National Rally (formerly National Front) party's candidates for the May European Parliament election are polling higher than candidates running on Macron's "En Marche" ticket. This is the first time the far-right party has overtaken Macron's centrist movement in the polls.

As the IFOP opinion poll showed, National Rally candidates - who belong to the party led by Marine Le Pen, Macron's former opponent in the 2017 presidential campaign - were polling at 21%, compared with 19% for En Marche:

The ruling party appears to be outpaced by the alliance of Macron’s former presidential rival –Eurosceptic Marine Le Pen. Her National Rally (formerly Front National) gathered 21 percent of the voters against LREM’s 19 percent. This represents some strong gains by Le Pen, who lost to Macron 33% to 66% in the second round of the presidential vote.

According to RT, Le Pen, a committed eurosceptic, is apparently hoping to repeat the success of the 2014 European parliament election, when her party, the called the National Front, won a quarter of the vote. Macron formed his party in 2016 as a vehicle for supporting his presidential bid.

The deterioration in public support for Macron, who is the latest French leader, following Hollande and conservative former President Nicolas Sarkozy, to struggle with fickle public opinion so soon after his electoral win, has been akin to the candidate hitting "a brick wall."

"Emmanuel Macron has crashed into a brick wall of reality. His hold on national politics is waning, as is his influence. He’s losing control of his government," said Christian Jacob, the Republicans parliamentary leader.

In addition to migration and the various gaffes and scandals that have plagued Macron's administration, he has developed a reputation as an out-of-touch leader, particularly after he summarily dismissed the complaints of elderly French citizens following a round of pension cuts.

According to some polls, Macron's approval rating has already dipped below the level enjoyed by Hollande at a similar point in his presidency, according to the Independent. This raises the possibility that France's "hero" centrist reformer

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upon whom the people had pinned their hopes to revive a moribund French economy, won't be able to follow through on his plans.

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Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally has nudged ahead of French President Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche in polling for the European Parliament elections.

Polling agency Ifop put En Marche at 19 percent, and the National Rally — formerly the National Front — at 20 percent, according to Reuters.

The survey asked 1,000 people how they would vote if the EU elections were held now.

Far-right parties, including those supporting a French exit from the EU, secured a combined 30 percent of support, up from 25 percent in a similar poll in August.

As POLITICO reported last month, Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte have reached a tentative agreement to unite En Marche with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe for the European Parliament elections.

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Merkel has been widely described as the de facto leader of the European Union, the most powerful woman in the world, and the leader of the Free World.

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“Nation states must today be prepared to give up their sovereignty”, according to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who told an audience in Berlin that sovereign nation states must not listen to the will of their citizens when it comes to questions of immigration, borders, or even sovereignty.

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