the first congress of the „Alternative for Germany“ (AfD) showed that the movement, launched only a few months ago by a group of renegade academics, journalists and businessmen, is striking a chord with voters and may prove an influential force come September.

More than 8,000 people have now joined the new party and more than 1,200 of these new members have defected either from the Christian Democrats, their Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union, and the Free Democrats, who are junior partners in the coalition government. The party has also drawn support from former members of the Social Democrats, and many who had no former party affiliation.

“Before the state gets involved in the liability hierarchy, owners and creditors of banks” will be asked to contribute, and the ESM will help if “the government itself can’t because its access to financial markets is restricted,” he said.

„Europe is tearing itself apart right now,“ said Starbatty. „A currency which is supposed to have united a continent is doing precisely the opposite.“

Wie der britische “Telegraph” meldet, hat die Regierungspartei von Premierminister David Cameron, die konservativen Tories, mit Vertretern der “Alternative für Deutschland” A.f.D. bereits vor deren heutigen Parteigründung in Berlin “geheime Gespräche” geführt.

Großbritannien: Änderung der E.U.-Verträge “Gelegenheit für Rückübertragung von Macht vom Block”

EU finance ministers agreed in December to create a single supervision mechanism (SSM) for euro zone banks, which would see national supervisors cede some powers to the ECB.

At the tail-end of day one of this week’s meeting of European Union finance ministers in Dublin, governments struck a deal that British officials hope will offer an opening for their campaign to win back powers from the EU.

Germany said European banking union will require changes to EU law

Am Freitag und Samstag sondierten in Schloss Meseberg die Kanzlerin von Deutschland und der Premierminister von Großbritannien die Chancen einer Änderung der Vertragsgrundlage des Staatenbundes “Europäische Union”. Am Samstag, nach einem Treffen des E.U.-Finanzministerrates in der irischen Hauptstadt Dublin, verkündete dann der Finanzminister der Republik Deutschland, immer noch Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble:

Germany Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the EU‘s Lisbon treaty had to be changed to allow common rules on shutting troubled banks – a central element of the union.

“A banking union only makes sense if we have mechanisms for the restructuring and resolution of banks,” Schaeuble said. “But if we want these European institutions, we need treaty changes.”

Berlin (and some others) has been calling for a change in current EU legal treaties that would entrench a strict separation between bank supervision and monetary policy.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal despite the personal warmth between Mr Cameron and Chancellor Merkel, the Conservatives are negotiating a secret alliance behind her back with Eurosceptic rivals to her Christian Democrats ahead of national elections this year and European polls in 2014.

One of the party‘s founders, economics professor Bernd Lucke, told the BBC he wanted to see a „gradual dismantling of the euro as a common currency“.

„We think that Europe has big problem coping with the euro as a common currency, since there are member countries of the eurozone which have big competitiveness problems, and which actually need a devaluation and can‘t have it,“ he said, citing Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal and France as examples.

Called Alternative for Germany, the main goal of the party founded by academics and economists is the „orderly dissolution“ of the euro, said Frauke Petry, a business owner and party spokeswoman.

the chasm between European elites and the public has never been as wide in the postwar period as it is today. The average voter in southern Europe does not feel represented by Eurocrats like Jose Manuel Barroso and Olli Rehn, German Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble or other Eurogroup officials. He has never voted for them, they have never spoken to him, he does not share their ask-no-questions mentality. The distance between elites and ordinary people was made evident by recent elections in Italy.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye made clear Friday that dialogue is an essential first step toward defusing heightened tensions with North Korea, ruling party officials said, a day after she expressed a strong willingness for talks with the communist nation.

Metro: You say you want to tear down the political system. Are you sure the people who voted for you wouldn’t instead like to see solutions to Italy’s problems?

Grillo: The destruction of the system has already started thanks to the Internet, which is demolishing the world’s corruption and fake democracy. Change is happening now, but the political class hasn’t yet understood that we’re not just another party of destruction seeking to replace the old ones. The Movement is a shift in mentality, culture and society.

“The answer is that part of the Italian population is living in a gigantic The Truman Show,” Grillo said, referring to Peter Weir’s 1998 comedy about a man who discovers his life is a hit television show. “The responsibility for this is completely due to Italian journalists … [in an] outright war against reality, a war of mystification, of illusions, in which lies are spat out by news media every day.”

(25.03.) Time is running out for Italian industry.

Die Entscheidung der politischen und ökonomischen Elite der Republik Zypern, das Land in ein regionales Finanz- und Wirtschaftszentrum zu verwandeln, wurde bereits in den 1980er Jahren getroffen. Diese wirtschaftspolitische Neuorientierung zielte schon deswegen nicht auf das russische Kapital, weil es so etwas gar nicht gab. Schließlich existierte damals noch die Sowjetunion.

Rajoy promises more economic changes but asks Europe for stronger support in exchange for austerity

Col. Cracel told Lusa this reform was “more of the same” as the armed forces have been in permanent reform since 1974.

The Obama administration has put Japan on notice that it is watching its economic policies to ensure they were not aimed at devaluing the yen to gain a competitive advantage.

Japan‘s policy of boosting its economy with aggressive monetary stimulus is likely to win the understanding of major economies at their meeting in Washington next week, its newly appointed top financial diplomat said on Friday.

President of the House of Representatives Yiannakis Omirou has said that the Cyprus parliament has never considered nor has the right to remove the Governor of Cyprus Central Bank from his post, and that the House fully respects the independency of the institution of the Central Bank of Cyprus and its Governor.