European Politics

The future of Europe doesn't look quite as bright as it did just a few years ago.

Russia is a very real threat again. The election in Greece puts further strain on the relations within the EU, not only is there great resistance against the terms of their dept but the goverment is also pro-Kremlin, which make handling the Ukrainian-crisis even harder. Weakened relations within the EU could open up for more of Putin. The Baltic doesn't seem so far away, especially as basically nothing happened after Crimea. We only sit and wait and hope for another economic collapse in Russia, while only diving further into a crisis of our own.

After living in the world's most naive bubble, there's been quite the wake up call for us Swedes. Not the least through the submarine hunt in the Stockholm archipelago last October. Too bad we basically have no military strength left. (At least I hope people are awake, maybe we still think we'll have another 200 years of peace.)
 
Forostar said:
They're sending 20 Germans:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/12/us-germany-kosovo-migrants-idUSKBN0LG21H20150212
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I saw a political talk show few days ago where this was discussed and some guy suggested the best solution would be to build a wired fence to separate Hungary and Serbia, since that's now legal in EU. And that Bulgaria/Romania already have that on the border between their countries.

This is also interesting (Note: I don't really trust our sources on this + English is really bad and looks like Google Translate):
http://english.blic.rs/News/10670/They-move-people-out--in-order-to-prevent-riots-in-Kosovo
But it's not so far-fetched to think this is true.
 
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/15/us-denmark-shooting-israel-idUSKBN0LJ0H620150215
Netanyahu: "Jews deserve protection in every country but we say to Jews, to our brothers and sisters, Israel is your home. We are preparing and calling for the absorption of mass immigration from Europe,"
... The cabinet later on Sunday submitted a plan to encourage the absorption of Jews from France, Belgium and Ukraine, and would discuss immigration from other European countries at a later date. ..
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I thought this is as European as anything else. He addressed the European Jews, because of the recent attacks.

edit: I deleted the content that had to with Palestinians. But in all fairness, if I would have posted that in the other thread, you could have said I should have left the European stuff in this topic. Some matters cross continents.
 
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They have delayed the inevitable ... part of the extension deal was they keep up austerity and budget cutting measures, which this government does not seem to want to do.
 
Yes, but the deal included less austerity. Most economists have pointed to the extremities of Greece's austerity as a reason for their sudden economic pain. Perhaps moderation is the key here.
 
Moderation works best for moderate problems. Until they can get their bond rates down to something reasonable and people have faith in those bonds, they are screwed and really have no control over their own fate.
 
It's not just bonds, though. Greece's public income was reliant entirely too much on government spending. If you remove the source of income, private markets collapse - and people are out of work. It's a democracy, and the government has a duty to the people to some extent, simply because the people believe that - which is why the leftists won the election.
 
You are right. Their spending was totally out of control given the reality of the Greek economy.

But how are they supposed to spend more than they take in without bonds ... and how are they supposed to repay their debt by selling insanely high interest bonds that no one trusts to start with.
 
This is why their debt relief package was so important. I don't know, it's an incredible example of a democracy in action - and of Greece using the same gun pointed at them to swing back at the EU. I have a feeling economists and political scientists will be looking at this case for a long time to go.
 
Of course it is important, but the Greeks got themselves into this by employing similar policies the new government ... which is composed of left and right wing radicals ... is proposing.

They are placing the blame on the entities that bailed them out instead of what got the lm in the position to need to be bailed out to start with.
 
And if they had gone bonkers and said fuck the EU, we're doing what we want, even if it bankrupts us, then they'd truly be irresponsible. What they did was negotiate different terms with the EU - something that happens every day with irresponsible borrowers in the private market.
 
Ariana said:
It's interesting how you guys practically applaud Greece for twisting everybody's arms.
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It's incredible. They forced a gigantic economic conglomerate to blink simply by stamping their feet. Whether or not it's good for Greece or good for the EU or whatever is a different thing. I think...Greece was too far in one direction, and the EU heeled them far too hard the other way, and moderation is probably the best policy here. But I'm not an economist.
 
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