Brexit increasing tensions in Franco-German relations

Finian Cunningham
Strategic Culture Foundation

Berlin and Paris have long been seen as the main political drivers for the European Union project. When Britain voted last month to quit the 28-member bloc, it was German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande to whom the leadership role beckoned for rallying a 'united Europe' and defending the core concept of the EU.

However, this circling of wagons by the EU's top two nations is prone to debilitating competing nationalist interests. And those diverging interests will tend to undermine the much-heralded unity of purpose between Berlin and Paris. What we can expect, in the aftermath of the Brexit, is increasing tensions between Germany and France that could, in turn, lead to further fracturing of the EU.

Already a notable divergence of positions has emerged. When Britain's new Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May embarked on her first foreign visit last week she was scheduled to meet Chancellor Merkel in Berlin, followed the next day by a reception with President Hollande at the Élysée Palace, Paris. May had to wait until the evening on the second day to be received by Hollande who had earlier that same day gone on an official visit to the Republic of Ireland. His strange absence looked like Hollande was sending the British leader a sly snub.

More substantively was the contrasting German and French positions on the Brexit process. The British premier had announced that there would be no formal commencement of Britain's departure from the EU until early next year. Britain, said May, needed to formulate suitable economic terms with the EU before it would sign Article 50 of the 2007 Lisbon Treaty, thus triggering the exit process.

On this delayed departure from the EU by Britain, the German chancellor appeared to be in comfortable agreement with her British counterpart. Merkel said she understood the importance for Britain to obtain economic matters in order.

By contrast, Hollande reportedly adopted a much more vexed attitude, demanding 'the sooner the better' Britain leaves the EU. While the French president appeared to soften his hardline stance on meeting May, he nevertheless continued to express his government's frustration with Britain. Speaking alongside the British leader, Hollande said that Britain cannot continue to avail of the single market while imposing restrictions on freedom of movement.
This differing position between Berlin and Paris towards the Brexit was apparent immediately following the British referendum result. The French have been pushing a policy for more abrupt termination in Britain's membership of the EU compared with the Germans.

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July 14th massacre in Nice - another false flag in France?

Peter Koenig
Information Clearing House

Another terror event in France. On Bastille Day; 14^th of July, the day commemorating the French Revolution of 1789, the most important French National Holiday. This time in Nice, killing at least 84 people, many children - and leaving scores injured.

President Hollande will eventually achieve his objective - being the first country in Europe with permanent Martial Law. He has already declared to extend the current State of Emergency for another three months, when it expires on 26 July. Such a temporary extension is in his power. He will have plenty of time to force it through Parliament - thereby prompting other EU countries to do likewise. Why France? - Naturally, Hollande follows Washington's orders. He is the most spineless puppet in Europe, making France the foremost EU vassal of America. And that in a post-Brexit ambiance, where according to several polls 70% - 80% of the French people are anti-EU and would vote for a Frexit, if they were given the chance to vote. This is a considerable increase since the Brexit referendum.

Washington needs a militarized Europe to be controlled by force, to impose its neo-fascist corporate and finance rules, to push the TTIP down the throat of the Europeans, to make Europe the new and effective low-cost high-tech colony of the empire - and an unfailing buffer zone to Russia; Cold War all over again. This time not so cold any more. WWIII is an imminent possibility, thanks to the EU vassals in Brussels giving NATO free reign to advance ruthlessly towards Moscow.

What happened? - During last night's celebration of the French National Holiday, around 11 PM, a speeding truck plowed into a crowd of thousands who were watching the fireworks along the Mediterranean Boulevard Anglais. The driver of the truck, was simultaneously and indiscriminately shooting into the crowd. He was able to run for 2 kilometers before being stopped by police, which instantly shot and killed him.

All indications signal the Big Script of yet another false flag; yet again in France; a horrendous terror attack, killing hordes of people, spreading pain, misery, fear and outrage in France, Europe - the world over.

The young truck-driver was identified as a 31-year-old Frenchman, resident of Nizza, with Tunisian origins. As in previous cases, 'coincidence' has it that his identity papers were found in the truck.  

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How the Nice Tragedy Will Be Used to Bolster War, Usurp Freedom, and Create More Terrorism

Claire Bernish 
The Free Thought Project

At least 84 people were killed when an attacker plowed through a crowd gathered in Nice, France, for Bastille Day festivities.

As the country and world reel in shock, French President François Hollande already claims the purposeful mowing down of dozens to be a likely act of terrorism.

“The terrorist nature of the attack cannot be denied,” Hollande said early Friday. “We must show absolute vigilance and determination. All of France is under the threat of Islamic terrorism.”

Three days have been set aside to mourn victims of the horrific act, which happened as crowds assembled along Promenade des Anglais in advance of a fireworks display.

One witness, who said attendees had set off their own small fireworks throughout the day, described the scene prior to the attack as ‘jovial’ and ‘upbeat,’and told the Guardian:

“After being there for a little over ten minutes, we heard what sounded like fireworks going off and then heard screaming. All of a sudden, there were hundreds of panic-stricken people running our way and it was clear that if we did not move, we would get trampled. So we started running as fast as we could while having no idea what was going on.”

Two Americans from the Austin, Texas, area — father and son Sean and Brodie Copeland — were among the dead, though most victims are believed to be French citizens.

Police ultimately shot the driver of the truck to halt the carnage. In the aftermath, authorities identified the attacker as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a Tunisian who had a French visa and lived in Nice — and a petty criminal and delivery driver.

Once again, the West struggles to cope with an attack civilians in some areas of the Middle East have become all-too familiar with.

But something the West has come to expect in the wake of such tragedies — increased Police State-like surveillance, controls, security, and altogether lessened freedoms for everyone — is already taking hold.

A seething undercurrent of bigoted animosity wrests reason from the minds of politicians and large segments of the public, as the need to blame begins to usurp logical, cool-headed debate over how, precisely, to react to a vicious attack like the one in Nice.

Wariness should rule such conversations; but reactionary emotions instead have a penchant for taking precedence.

Indeed, though vigilance must be heightened now — it shouldn’t be aimed solely at the vagaries of a terrorist threat. If freedom teeters on the brink, now would be the tipping point.

And it’s already received a push from Hollande who announced the continuance of France’s hotly-contended state of emergency, first declared after 77 people perished in the November 2015 attacks in Paris.

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“Emergency” Measures May Be Written Into The French Constitution

The Intercept

 

JUST HOURS INTO A TERRORIST ATTACK that started on the evening of Nov. 13, and would eventually claim 130 lives, François Hollande announced that France was reestablishing border controls, and used a 1955 law to proclaim a state of emergency. 

 

This 60-year-old law gives French law enforcement wide and sweeping powers, freeing them from much of the normal judicial oversight. The law gives prefects, the French government’s local representatives, the ability to place people under house arrest, based merely on the suspicion of the intelligence service that they pose a threat to national security. They can also order police raids targeting any place where they think information about terrorism may be found, without a warrant. 

 

Initially intended to last 12 days, the state of emergency was extended on November 19 for an additional three months by both chambers of parliament. During the vote in the lower house, only six MPs voted against the extension. 

 

In some instances, the concrete consequences of the state of emergency border on the Kafkaesque. There’s this man, who was challenging the requirement that he report frequently to a police station (one of the other features of the state of emergency law). Because his court hearing to challenge the requirement was late, he showed up 40 minutes past the time he was supposed to be at the police station. He was immediately detained. Then there’s this man, who was placed under house arrest in southwestern France because he was suspected of being a radical Muslim — except he is a devout Catholic. The police also raided a halal restaurant for no apparent reason. 

 

Since last month’s attacks, there have been some 2,500 police raids, and nearly a thousand people have been arrested or detained. French local and national press are now full of reports of questionable police raids. So outrageous were some cases that the French Interior Ministry had to send a letter to all prefects reminding them to “abide by the law.” 

 

The state of emergency, which was initially supposed to mitigate the threat posed by Islamic terrorism, has been used to target environmental and political activists who have nothing to do with radical Islam, let alone terrorism. Several heavily armed police officers stormed the home of produce farmers in rural France, and Le Monde reported that at least 24 people closely involved with protests around COP21, the Paris climate conference, were placed under house arrest. This includes a member of the legal team of Coalition Climat 21, a well-established gathering of more than 130 organizations and NGOs. The French Human Rights League said the minister of the interior was confusing terrorism with normal civic activities and concluded, “The state of emergency is a danger to civil liberties.” 

 

Yet rather than be regarded as a temporary measure for extraordinary circumstances, the government’s ability to declare an extended state of emergency may soon be written into the constitution. François Hollande, speaking in front of both chambers summoned in Versailles two days after the attacks, announced his plan to modify the French constitution in response to terrorism.

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Why is a Western hate campaign being waged against Muslims?

Michel Chossudovsky
Global Research

December 10 2015 

Why is a hate campaign being waged against Muslims? 

Why are Muslims increasingly categorized as terrorists? 

Why is this hate campaign part of the US presidential election campaign? 

Why is Donald Trump calling for police state measures directed against American Muslims? 

Why are Muslims the object of ethnic profiling and job discrimination? 

Why has France's president Francois Hollande suspended civil rights coupled with a hate campaign directed against France's Muslims, which represent 7.5 percent of the country's population?

Why is the West waging a war against Muslim countries?  

Why is Islam regarded as evil?

The answer to all these questions is both simple and complex. 
 
It just so happens that more than 60% of the World's reserves of crude oil lie in Muslim lands. 
 
Muslims are the inhabitants of the countries which possess the oil. And America's imperial agenda consists in acquiring ownership and control over the World's oil reserves. 

If these lands had been inhabited by Buddhists, Western politicians - with the support of the mainstream media - would be demonizing the Buddhists. 

Muslim countries including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Yemen, Libya, Nigeria, Egypt, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, possess more than 60 percent of the World's crude oil reserves. 

With regard to conventional crude oil (excluding tar sands in Venezuela and Canada), the percentage of global (conventional crude) oil reserves in Muslim countries is much larger.
Countries which possess large reserves of crude oil are slated for destabilization. 

More than 50 percent of the World's crude oil reserves lies between the tip of the Arabian peninsula and the Caspian Sea basin: Yemen, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Azerbaijan. 

The above region is America's war theater. That is where the battle for oil under the banner of the "war on terrorism" is being fought. Those are the Muslim lands which have been slated for conquest or regime change. Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf monarchies and emirates are US proxy states, firmly under US control. 

The collective demonization of Muslims, including the vilification of the tenets of Islam, applied Worldwide, constitutes at an ideological level, an instrument of conquest of the World's energy resources. It is part of the broader economic, political mechanisms underlying the New World Order. 

This vilification is carried out by actually creating terrorist organizations integrated by Muslims, as part of a longstanding intelligence operation going back to the Soviet-Afghan war. 

Al Qaeda and its affiliated organizations are creations of the CIA. They are not the product of Muslim society. Terrorist attacks are undertaken by jihadist entities which are CIA intelligence assets. 

The Islamic State (ISIS) is an intelligence construct which is used essentially for two related purposes. 

1. They are the foot soldiers of the Western military alliance, the instruments of destabilization, recruited, trained, financed by the Western military alliance. The various al Qaeda entities are the instruments of destabilization in US-NATO sponsored proxy wars (AQIM in Mali, Boko Haram in Nigeria, ISIS in Syria and Iraq). At the same time, they constitute a pretext and a justification to intervene under the banner of a "counter-terrorism" bombing campaign. 

2. On the home front, the various Al Qaeda/ ISIS terrorist cells - supported covertly by Western intelligence - are the instruments of a diabolical and criminal propaganda operation which consists in killing innocent civilians with a view to providing legitimacy to the instatement of police state measures allegedly in support of democracy. 

These false flag attacks allegedly perpetrated by terrorist organization are then used to harness Western public against Muslims. 

The underlying objective is to wage a an illegal war of conquest in the Middle East and beyond under the banner of the "global war on terrorism". According to Western politicians, "we are defending ourselves against the terrorists". According to our governments, the bombing raids allegedly directed against the terrorists in Syria are "not an act of war", they are presented to Western public opinion as an "act of self-defense". "The West is under attack by the ISIS terrorists", the ISIS is based in Raqqa, Northern Syria, "we must defend ourselves" by bombing ISIS. 

We are told that this is not an act of war, it is an act of retribution and self-defense. The only problem with this propaganda op is that "The Terrorists R US", our governments and intelligence services have been supporting ISIS from the very outset. 
 
In the eyes of public opinion, possessing a "just cause" for waging war is central. A war is said to be Just if it is waged on moral, religious or ethical grounds. Muslims within Western countries are being vilified as part of an imperial agenda, as a means to justify the destabilization of Muslim countries on humanitarian grounds (e.g. Iraq, Syria, Libya, Nigeria, Yemen). 

America is waging a holy crusade against Muslims and Muslim countries. The "war on terrorism" purports to defend the American Homeland and protect the "civilized world". It is upheld as a "war of religion", a "clash of civilizations", when in fact the main objective of this war is to secure control and corporate ownership over the region's extensive oil wealth. 

Throughout history, vilification of the enemy has been applied time and again. The Crusades of the Middle Age consisted in demonizing the Turks as infidels and heretics, with a view to justifying military action. 

Demonization serves geopolitical and economic objectives. Likewise, the campaign against "Islamic terrorism" (which is supported covertly by US intelligence) supports the conquest of oil wealth. 

Muslims are equated with terrorists: Islamophobia serves to wage nationwide campaigns against Muslims in Europe and North America. 

It is an instrument of war propaganda used to degrade the history, institutions, values and social fabric of Muslim countries, while upholding the tenets of "Western democracy" and the "free market" as the only alternative for these countries. 

What lies behind the anti "conspiracy theorist" discourse - The State Against The Republic

Comment: In the wake of the Paris Attacks this article by geopolitical analyst Thierry Meyssan is well worth revisiting.

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Thierry Meyssan

Voltairenet.org

 

At the request of President François Hollande, the French Socialist Party has published a note on the international “conspiracy theorist" movement. His goal: to prepare new legislation prohibiting it to express itself. In the US, the September 11, 2001 coup established a "permanent state of emergency" (Patriot Act), launching a series of imperial wars. Gradually, the European elites have aligned with their counterparts across the Atlantic. Everywhere, people are worried about being abandoned by their States and they question their institutions. Seeking to retain power, the elites are now ready to use force to gag their opposition.

The President of the French Republic, François Hollande, has assimilated what he calls "conspiracy theories" to Nazism and called to prevent their dissemination on the Internet and social networks.

Thus he declared, on January 27, 2015 at the Shoah Memorial:

"[Anti-Semitism] maintains conspiracy theories that spread without limits. Conspiracy theories that have, in the past, led to the worst "(...)" [The] answer is to realize that conspiracy theories are disseminated through the Internet and social networks. Moreover, we must remember that it is words that have in the past prepared extermination. We need to act at the European level, and even internationally, so that a legal framework can be defined, and so that Internet platforms that manage social networks are held to account and that sanctions be imposed for failure to enforce" [1].

Several ministers also decried what they called conspiracy theorists as so many "fermenters of hate and disintegrators of society."

Knowing that President Hollande calls "conspiracy theory" the idea that States, whatever their regimes - including democracies - have a spontaneous tendency to act in their own interests and not in that of their constituents, we can conclude that he presented this confused amalgam to justify a possible censure of his opponents.

This interpretation is confirmed by the publication of a note entitled "Conspiracy theories, current status" by the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, a Socialist Party think tank of which Mr. Holland was the first secretary. [2]

Let’s leave aside the political relations of François Hollande, the Socialist Party, the Fondation Jean-Jaurès, its political radicalism Observatory and the author of the note and let’s focus on its message and its ideological content.

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Putin makes an example of Turkey's back-stabbing: Why the US and West should pay close attention

Steven C. Wolf
Caravansaray Posts

First the facts: the toll is settled. Two Russians are dead, and a Su-24 fighter-bomber and Russian helicopter that arrived in relief are down. A marine from that effort died, as did the pilot of the jet. The second pilot of the jet was rescued, evidently in a joint effort by Russian, Hezbollah and Syrian forces . When they bailed, the pilots were shot at by the rebel militants. It is not clear whether the Russian pilot was killed in the air or once he hit the ground but either way, "our moderates" committed war crimes. In the gruesome video, someone is reported saying, "We should have burned him before he died." The Russians have followed the downing with massive aerial bombardments of the rebel positions, and the Syrian Arab Army has made further advances.

As for the war of words and images: As my first two posts on this indicate, there was confusion about the path of the Russian jet. The Turkish version emerged first, and this was picked up by al-Jazeera, the Qatari voice of the Western alliance. We may remember that when the Russian passenger jet exploded over Sinai, "ambivalent alliance" bosses Cameron and Obama were practically sure within hours 'whodunnit' and how. The Russians took their time and looked at the evidence — which they have not revealed, it should be remembered. Similarly, when the Russian radar video came out, it fairly convincingly belied that of Turkey. Others have commented that for Turkey's story to be correct the planes had to be flying at stall speed. Turkish reports that 10 warnings in 5 minutes preceded the takedown are refuted point blank by the surviving Russian pilot who said they were flying at 6000 feet, not 15,000, on paths well within Syria he had flown many times. He said they did not even have time to make evasive maneuvers when they were hit in the tail section. Parties from several sides are calling this a planned provocation.

The West has not acknowledged many Russian charges. The US is trying to play both sides, saying Turkey was within its rights, but "made a bad mistake" shooting down the Russian fighters. Western leaders — and Erdogan is Western in spades (especially in his cynical use of religious sentiment) — have isolated themselves and their countries within a propaganda fanfare fortress. Sometimes it is not clear whether they believe their own propaganda. As I mentioned at the time of the UNGA70 speeches by Putin and Obama, the authors of official and slightly-less-than official pronouncements generally do not care how their lies resound around the world, but generally address their own political constituencies, their domestic audience, and their allies.

Putin has ramped up the pressure considerably since the shoot-down, and in some unexpected ways. First, unsurprisingly, with his military in the field. He is now situating S-400 anti-aircraft missiles, the best in the world, such that any similar incident will be immediately followed by the takedown of the Turkish jet, even if it has returned to Turkey. Erdogan takes this as an act of war. It is now clear why he began his Syrian buildup quickly, but actually quite moderately, with a few dozen planes, and no ground forces or other hardware. Evidently he understood the trigger-happy idiots that run the Western alliance — including Erdogan's best friends in the US like Gen Allen former "ISIS czar" and Gen Breedlove, NATO commander — would make some blunder that made a further buildup a foregone conclusion and one that could evoke no complaint. What is more surprising is that Putin is not just blaming Turkey, but the US for the affair, and rightly so. I will come back to that.

Russia's provincial authorities played out the betrayal Russians feel. Thirty-nine Turkish businessmen were arrested, retained a while, and fined for minor visa irregularities. Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev has given the DUMA two days to assemble suggested economic reprisals. Certainly, the Turkstream oil project, Putin's major 'carrot' offering to Turkey last fall, is dead in the water. So is the nuclear power plant deal, and the accelerating upward trends in Turkish-Russian business activity over the last decade. Poof! Thanks, Erdogan, I'm sure many businessmen are saying, echoing German businessmen, who say, thanks, Merkel, for sanctions which cut us off from our most natural business partner and neighbor.

Putin charged Turkey the first day with being an accessory to terrorism and of backing ISIS with the shootdown. Erdogan, who refuses to apologize for the incident ("why apologize if I'm right?"), was "outraged" and deemed this "slander". As he has said before many times, "Everybody knows our commitment in the war against ISIS". (How right he is). But courageous Turkish newspapers continue to dare the ban on publishing untoward information about the Glorious Leader and One-Party "Democracy". Turkish journalists put to shame the US press, which has pathetically cowered before power for decades. The NYTimes wags its tongue as the military-industrial-banking complex wags the dog of government.As mentioned in my last posts, the Turkish press did manage to convey the gist of Putin's complaints.

If Erdogan feels slandered by the charges, then, as Putin said in his press conference with Hollande, it is "theoretically" possible he did not know about the lines of ISIS oil tankers that continually stretch from the horizon to the Turkish border, "a living pipeline". In the same press conference, the leader of another NATO ambivalent alliance member, Francois Hollande announced that he and Putin had agreed to strike only terrorists, and not to strike those who are fighting terrorists. Good, I'm glad they got that far. Practically, it does mean Hollande has promised not to hit Assad's troops, though moments earlier, his eyes glazed over and he pronounced the Western mantra: "Assad must go."He then went on "I authorized strikes against ISIS in September, because I knew the terrorists that hit us in Paris were organizing in Raqqa."(He knew in September?)

As for more duplicitous NATO members, Putin said in the same press conference, "once we had quickly developing economic relations with Turkey, we considered them partners, almost allies". He then walked the audience through Erdogan's lies about the downed Russian jet and the plain fact that ISIS lives on Turkish support and US collusion. "Well, that is their choice" he said as he left the podium.

The Russian press too has steadily released information and reporting on the Turkish ISIS connections. The 'rebels' who were bombed in this region are only a part Turkman, many of these are directly backed by Turkey, and they are led by Turkish officials. They certainly are not "moderate" as the video of their treatment of the dead Russian makes plain, and as usual, the usual murderous takfiri extremists Jubhat al-Nusra, are strong in this area. Or were. They have been bombed into oblivion in the last two days.


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The Struggle for Hearts and Minds: Putin Continues to Call NATO's Bluff

"How in the world is this not front-page news in the West? Does Turkey really not control it's border with Daesh-occupied northern Syria? Of course it does. Are Turkish officials really unaware that endless convoys are daily making the trek into and out of Turkey carrying this illegal oil? That's nonsense. So why, oh why aren't Erdogan and his associates rotting in prison? Because they are a NATO member, and because NATO (i.e. the U.S.) is an even greater sponsor of terrorism."

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Harrison Koehli
Sott.net

France and Russia have agreed to cooperate in the fight against the Daeshbags. The news comes after Hollande and Putin met in Moscow yesterday, where they agreed to share intelligence, intensify and coordinate airstrikes together, and jointly make sure their airstrikes concentrate on "terrorist" groups, including Daesh. Putin clarified:

... we will exchange information with France about the areas that are being held by healthy opposition, not terrorists, and will refrain from delivering air strikes at them. We will also exchange information, when we - France and Russia - know for sure that certain areas are captured by terrorist organisations, and we will coordinate our efforts with regard to those areas.

It looks like France really is allying with Russia, to the extent it is able -- something the U.S. has refused to do. Putin said he and Hollande "are looking at this kind of cooperation as concrete and practical input towards forming a broad anti-terrorist coalition, a broad anti-terrorist front under the auspices of the United Nations. I will note that the number of nations sharing this initiative is growing." He also said that both parties "agreed to continue working together very actively within the framework of the International Syria Support Group and promote the fulfilment of all agreements reached within this group, first and foremost with regard to the deadlines and parameters for holding intra-Syrian talks."

Hollande reiterated these points, calling such a coalition "the most important reality in today's world" and stressing that France has "done everything we can to ensure that our military will be actively involved in eliminating ISIS." He even said the UK and Germany are on board for this kind of coordination. (Germany will primarily be providing reconnaissance.) On the political side, he said:

"We believe that the following conditions should be met if we are to ensure a political transition process. A coalition government, an independent government, should be formed during a transition period. This transitional period should lead to the adoption of a new constitution, elections should be held with the participation of all political factions, groups and members of the expatriate community. And it goes without saying that Assad does not have any role to play in the future of his country.

However, in order to achieve this, it is imperative that Russia should play the main, one of the main roles in this process. I've told Mr Putin that France is ready and willing to work with Russia hand in hand towards our common objective, which is to fight terrorist groups, above all ISIS. It is for this reason that I believe our meeting today to be of utmost importance".

Yeah, "it goes without saying"... More like it's not worth saying at all, because it's US BS. But there's nothing in the Vienna agreement about Assad having to go. If the Syrian people want him, that's their right. So on the one hand Hollande parrots the U.S. talking point, but on the other stresses that "all agreements reached" by the Syria Support Group should be implemented. He also had this to say: "The only goal that we should all set for ourselves is the fight against ISIS and the elimination of the terrorists. We have no other goals." 

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France Moves to Make ‘Conspiracy Theories’ Illegal by Government Decree

21st Century Wire

Political elites and super-bureaucrats are worried. It's becoming harder to control consensus reality.

A history stitched together by lies and cover-ups, political assassinations, slight-of-hand false flag deceptions, secret societies, dual loyalties and stolen fortunes - this have been the privilege of ruling elites for centuries.

Putting aside history's 'big ticket' items though, the real reason for this authoritarian trend is much more fundamental. By knocking out their intellectual competition, political elites and their media moguls hope to minimalize, and thus eliminate any alternative analysis and opinion by applying the completely open-ended and arbitrary label of "extremist" to speech. They want to wind back the clock, where a pre-internet, monolithic corporate media cartel held a monopoly on ideas.

Although France has taken the lead in this inter-governmental effort (see below), the preliminary assault began this past fall with British Prime Minster David Cameron publicly announcing on two separate occasions, that all of these so-called 'conspiracy theories' (anything which challenges the official orthodoxy) should be deemed as "extremist" and equivalent to "terrorist" and should be purged from society on the grounds of 'national security'. The first came with Cameron's warped speech at the UN, and afterwards, a similar charge was made by the UK leader against anyone who dares press the issue of institutional paedophilia and child abuse.  

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Charlie Hebdo - The Hidden Agenda Exposed

French goverment resigns amid rancor over German austerity pressure

RT

The French government has resigned despite being formed just 4 months ago. They quit after ministers slammed President Francois Hollande's plans for taxation and cuts, while also being critical of Germany’s austerity program.

The statement published on Monday said the new office would be formed on Tuesday and would be in the "direction he (the president) has defined for our country."
 
Following the 2008 financial crisis, Germany has taken the lead to try and resurrect the EU’s economy. This has been marked by cutbacks and taxation, which have not proved to be universally popular within the eurozone. Economics Minister, Arnaud Montebourg, an outspoken critic of Germany, believes that country has hindered France’s development. 

Montebourg said it was time to resist Germany's "obsession" with austerity and work out some alternative ways to promote household consumption. He said that measures that had been introduced since the financial crisis were not doing anything to help the country’s economy grow. He also blamed Germany for factory closures in France. 

"You have to raise your voice. Germany is trapped in an austerity policy that it imposed across Europe," the Socialist minister said in the interview with the French newspaper Le Monde on Saturday. 

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On Zionism in France and its Opposing Forces

Strategic Culture Foundation
Olga CHETVERIKOVA

Municipal elections took place in France at the end of March and ended with the defeat of the Socialists and the victory of the centre right. The elections’ frontrunner was the Union for a Popular Movement party (UMP), which received 49 percent of the people’s votes, while François Hollande’s Socialist Party took just 42 percent of the votes. Marine Le Pen’s National Front achieved its best result ever, winning more than a thousand local council seats. 

The elections took place against the backdrop of a fall in François Hollande’s rating. Many journalists believed that the elections would be followed by the resignations of the most unpopular cabinet ministers – Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, Foreign Affairs Minister Laurent Fabius, and Minister of the Interior Manuel Valls. Their expectations did not prove true, however. Laurent Fabius remained in his post, while the odious Manuel Valls became Prime Minister. As Marine Le Pen put it, Ayrault «played the role of the vicarious sacrifice»: the people have changed, but not the politics.

The head of government was replaced on 31 March as the World Jewish Congress (WJC), which calls itself the «diplomatic arm of the Jewish people», began in Paris. It is interesting that the mainstream media in France did not cover the Congress meeting. The Congress’ leadership, which includes the Frenchmen David René de Rothschild and Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF). President Roger Cukierman, announced in its press release that it welcomes new Prime Minister Valls’ fight against anti-Semitism, and considers legitimate the measures they have adopted to restrict freedom of speech. François Hollande also drew high praise from the WJC, which the well-known mondialist Jacques Attali, who attended the Congress and is believed to be Holland’s advisor, found more than satisfying. 

Such unanimity once again confirms the closeness of the French president and France’s new prime minister to the international Zionist lobby. Manuel Valls is playing a particularly important role here. He has wide connections with organisations including not just the CRIF, the main lobbying structure of French Jewry, but also the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and the Zionist organisation European Leadership Network (ELNET), which was established in 2007 and lobbies for the interests of Israeli business circles in Europe.

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France's Hollande Sees Approval Ratings Jump After Affair With An Actress

Comment: Gotta love the French. British or American would be damned to hell after this  standard piece of political manipulation. They are all at it so the question is why has this particular titillation been allowed to surface now? Obviously someone isn't happy with apart from most of the French public. Yet,  for many of our French friends - where politicians having a mistress it seen as quite normal - he's just become a real man...Funny but tragic.

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Francois Hollande:

Raising more than the Tax bill

Zero Hedge

Having tumbled to record lows - amid a crumbling economy, soaring unemployment, and staggering taxation - it would appear French President Francois Hollande has figured out how to raise his approval rating. As Bloomberg reports, the Socialist president’s approval rating jumped 2 points to 26 percent, according to an LH2 poll, after a magazine reported that he’s having an affair with actress Julie Gayet. While Hollande "deeeply deplored" this intrusion into his private life, we suspect we won't mind so much now that the poll numbers are out. This 'affair' strategy backfired for Clinton but may just be what Obama and Abe need...

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François Hollande, Zionist Always

 

 Valérie Trierweiler, Hollande hosted by Shimon Peres

and Benjamin Netanyahu (November 18, 2013).

Voltaire.net
Nov. 26 2013

François Hollande was elected president by cultivating ambiguity. Yet it was easy enough to read his previous statements to see full support for the State of Israel. The change he had announced to his constituents has not occurred. On the contrary there has been continuity with his predecessor. We cannot but note that France has gradually abandoned its policy of independence to stand alongside the United States and the last colonial state.

Some commentators have explained the French position in 5 +1 negotiations with Iran as dictated by Saudi Arabia, or through reference to the Jewishness of Hollande’s Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius. This ignores that French policy in the Middle East has profoundly changed in nine years.

It all started in 2004 with the break between Jacques Chirac and Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian President had promised his French counterpart to favour Total’s tender. But when the French proposal reached the palace, it was so disadvantageous for the country that the president changed his mind. Furious, Jacques Chirac broke with Syria and presented Resolution 1559 to the Security Council.

Then, the French elected Nicolas Sarkozy without knowing that he had been partially raised by one of the principal leaders of the CIA, Frank Wisner Jr. Not content with having been fabricated ​​by the United States, he discovered Jewish roots and cultivated his Israeli relations. International policy was dictated by Washington but because at the time there was no difference between Israel and the United States, he appeared only as being at one with them.

François Hollande had, for 10 years, been designated secretary general of his party because of his mediocrity: directing no current and not being vassal to any leader, he could keep house while maintaining a balance between the contenders at the Elysee. He devoted himself to never having a personal opinion, to remaining as transparent as possible. So much so that during his presidential election campaign each saw him as a moderate man who could surround himself with experienced personalities. His supporters have been the first to be hurt by this.

The reality of François Hollande emerged only once he arrived at the Elysee. Expert in domestic policy, he does not know much about international relations. In this area, his convictions come to him from illustrious socialist personalities.

Thus, he had placed his nomination under the auspices of Jules Ferry, colonization theorist. In Le Figaro, his friend, Israeli President Shimon Peres glowingly compared him to Léon Blum and to Guy Mollet, although the latter is no longer popular in France. In 1936, the former had proposed to surpass the UK by creating the State of Israel in Lebanon, which was then under French mandate. In 1956 the latter attempted to seize the Suez Canal with the help of the Israeli army.

During his ten years at the head of the Socialist Party, François Hollande limited his interventions on the Middle East, of which here is a brief anthology:

• In 2000, when southern Lebanon was occupied, he along with Bertrand Delanoe prepared plans for Prime Minister Lionel Jospin to travel to Palestine. His speech includes a condemnation of Hezbollah which he likens to a terrorist group.

• In 2001, he demanded the resignation of geopolitician Pascal Boniface, guilty of having written an internal memo criticizing blind Party support for Israel.

• In 2004, he wrote to the Superior Audiovisual Council to challenge the authorization given to broadcast Al -Manar. He continued pressure until the channel of resistance was censored.

• In 2005, he was hosted in camera by the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF). According to the minutes of the meeting, he supported Ariel Sharon and strongly criticized Gaullist Arab policy. He stated: "There is a trend that goes way back, this is called the Arab policy of France and it is not acceptable that the government have an ideology. There is a recruitment problem at the Quai d’Orsay and at the ENA and this recruitment should be reorganized."

• In 2006, he took a stand against President Ahmadinejad who invited rabbis and historians, including Holocaust deniers, to Tehran. It feins ignorance about the direction of the conference, which was to show that Europeans had replaced their Christian culture with the religion of the Holocaust. And against the grain, he explained that the Iranian president intended to deny the right of Israel to exist and was poised to continue the Holocaust.

• He mobilized for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, on the grounds that he had French dual citizenship. No matter that the young man was captured while serving in an army of occupation at war against the Palestinian Authority, also an ally of France.

• In 2010, he, along with Bertrand Delanoe and Bernard-Henri Lévy, published an open forum in Le Monde to oppose the boycott of Israeli products. According to him, the boycott would amount to collective punishment imposed also on Israelis working for peace with the Palestinians. This is a line of reasoning that he had not held during the similar campaign against apartheid in South Africa.

Finally, before the Franco-Saudi rapprochement and even before being President, François Hollande had already expressed his support for the Israeli colonial state. And he had already condemned the Axis of Resistance (Iran , Syria, Hezbollah). The truth is thus the opposite: applying the Quincy Agreement, Saudi Arabia became closer to France because of its pro-Israel policy.

The policy of the Socialist Party in general and that of François Hollande in particular has its roots in nineteenth century colonialism, of which Jules Ferry was a herald and Theodor Herzl a promoter. Today , Zionists in the party have come together at the initiative of Dominique Strauss-Kahn in the discrete and powerful Léon Blum Circle... whose honorary president, Jean- Marc Ayrault has become Francois Hollande’s Prime Minister.

Translation Roger Lagassé

Source
Al-Watan (Syria)