EUROPEUS

Regional elections in Germany always have a national significance, since the heads of the regional governments (Länder) sit in the Bundesrat, the second German legislative chamber. This week-end, on of the smallest German Bundesländer, Hamburg, voted and the results are stunning.

The reason for Recep Erdogan’s visit to Germany was sad. During the recent carnival period, a house in Ludwigshafen (south-west of Germany), where Turkish families lived, burnt down and left nine Turkish persons dead. While the Turkish media explained a racist and xenophobe background of this disaster to their readers, German authorities conduct a very transparent investigation allowing Turkish officials to supervise their work. For the time being, the reason for this deadly fire remains unclear.

Regional elections in Germany have a particular, federal significance. The government representatives of the German Länder actually form the Federal Council (Bundesrat) which is the second chamber of the German parliamentary system, having some substantial influence on German politics, since the Federal Council must agree on any new law before it can be enforced. The founding fathers of the Federal Republic of Germany implemented this system to set up a control instance for the national parliament. So, the regional elections in Lower Saxony and Hessen on the last week-end also had a major and nationwide significance.

Watch this. A military coach and a simple solider are standing at the shooting range. The soldier holds a machine gun and the coach gives orders from behind. For those who do not speak German, here is what the coach says: "Imagine an intervention at the airport. You are aiming at terrorists. Give me two short shots”. The soldier shoots twice. Now comes the second part: “They are all dead now. Now imagine you are in the Bronx. A black car stops in front of you and three Afro-Americans step out. Give me a loud “motherfucker” before each shot.” The soldier says three times “motherfucker” and shoots at the imaginary “Afro-American motherfuckers”.

Nicolas Sarkozy turns out to be a real threat for the European future. In an attempt to fish some voters in the right extremist pool of nationalist dinosaur Jean-Marie Le Pen, he openly attacked the German partners in his recent speeches in Caen and Nice. In these speeches he stated that his country of adoption (his family originates from Hungary) does not belong to those „who have invented the final solution", underlining that France "has invented the Human Rights" and that France has "always fought for freedom all over the world“.

Six months ago when the Finnish Prime Minister Mr. Matti Vanhanen was talking about the priorities of the Finnish EU presidency, he emphasized many times that one of the main issues was going to be the European Constitution and in a way he did so by making all the member states agree that the Constitution was very important. Vanhanen reminded them that somehow Europe should escape from the deadlock following the negative reaction in France and Holland. Six months later we have a new president of the EU, Germany and the German chancellor in the first speech as president emphasizes that the European Constitution was “key for EU success” - I have very little doubt that we are going to hear the same six months later from Portugal!

Iran, the country where people feel so offended by some Danish drawings about the Prophet Mahomet, houses a two day conference on December 11 and 12 under the working title “Review of the Holocaust: Global vision”. Organized by the Institute for Political and International Studies (IPIS) in Teheran, the introduction gives the tone: “The word "Holocaust" which entered the political literature during the Second World War turned into one of the most important propaganda tools used to politically justify the support for the Jewish People in the 20th century.” Which translates into: “The term Holocaust was coined to serve the interests of the Jewish people.” There is enough historical evidence to prove the suffering of six million people who died in the concentration camps and questioning this evidence is an insult not only to the victims of the Nazi crimes, but also to every thinking citizen of the world.