Would any of the Germans care to enlighten us on the post Merkel future? I suspect she is more liked abroad than at home, for many of us she seems like the grown up in the room for the last decade. It’s not much maybe, but it’s a hell of a lot better than most.
Will the right go the Axel Springer /Tory/Republican route and try to eat the fascists’ lunch by adopting their policies and stances wholesale? Have the German Greens gone the way of the Irish Greens and fully embraced bourgeois neoliberalism? Does that make them electable?
Do I even have a clue about the right questions to ask?
The Afghanistan crisis is fanning the embers of populist and nationalist movements, including in Finland, where Finns Party leader Riikka Purra recently called for abolishing Finland’s refugee quota.
“Afghanistan has revived debate on migration. Politicians are causing bad blood by talking about ‘adverse immigration’ and ‘lifestyle surfing,’” Aki Kangasharju, head of the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy (Etla), told tabloid Iltalehti.
He noted that statistics and international studies show that highly educated foreigners not only save the Finnish state money by being educated elsewhere but also don’t compete for the same jobs as the native population. The think-tank head also pointed to the persistent problem of Finnish debate on migration grouping asylum seekers and immigrants in the same discussion.
Eurostat figures show that newcomers with low educational levels are more likely to be working than their Finnish counterparts.
“They require fewer social benefits than Finns with similar backgrounds,” he explained, adding that refugees in Finland make up just 0.4 percent of the population.
Breaking News! Japan’s Prime Minister Suga (who has got to be the most ineffectual prime minister in modern Japanese history, and that is saying a lot) has announced that he will not run for the party leadership position again when the party votes on the 29th, meaning that he will step down from the PM position at the end of this month.
This article just assumes the technology for CO2 Sequestration into existence. As far as I know, there’s no project yet doing this at scale.
Also, Since Ukraine currently has to import gas to meet its current energy demands, the energy intensive process of turning their gas into hydrogen would leave them with a larger energy deficit, not a thriving export industry. To do what the commentator suggests, you’d have to:
Build sufficient renewable electricity capacity for Ukraine to no longer need its own gas supply.
Upgrade the Ukranian Gas pipeline network to carry Hydrogen to the rest of Europe
Create mass-scale gas-to-Hydrogen plants in Ukraine
Create a CO2 sequestration infrastructure that could hold the output CO2.
Convert the EU’s energy infrastructure to accept large-scale Hydrogen imports.
Yea and no. There are two factions but any version of the Green Party that will be part of a government will probably be less radical than one would hope.
In general, yes but there have been some leadership gaffes that might torpedo their chances.
