This deal will allow Ukraine to boost its capabilities, including its essential air defence systems to protect its civilians, cities and infrastructure, which are still suffering indiscriminate attacks as seen this weekend in Kharkiv,” Sánchez told a press conference after the signing.
He said Spain had already pledged to supply Patriot missiles and said it would also send “another batch of Leopard tanks and above all ammunition”.
The Spanish government said the agreement would also include other areas, such as intelligence, training, de-mining, reconstruction and humanitarian assistance.
Ah yes, Germany is in those early stages where the nazis deny being nazis. Just look to the US for a glimpse of the future. Next step will be to try to take the meaning out of the word, then they'll slip nazi rhetoric into their propaganda in small deniable ways, and eventually they just drop the facade and start saying "What's wrong with being a nazi?"
On one hand nazi is just a meaningless word for "I don't agree with them" but on the other hand the actual risk are all those left-green fascist degenerates trying to destroy the country... Why would the fascists have called themselves national socialists if they weren't left. wink wink
Nazi is already a term for "i dislike your opinion". Also, the AfD is using a lot of NS rrethoric.Björn Höcke is going to court for like the fifth time because he used NS speech.
Soaring church spires, the 1,000-year-old town centre unblemished by second world war bombing or graffiti, snow-capped Alps in the middle distance – Kaufbeuren, in Bavaria, can count many blessings.
However, as voters prepare to elect a new European parliament next month, deep-seated fears have gripped a significant share of the electorate in one of the most affluent pockets of Europe’s top economy and delivered it to the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).
Surprisingly for many, the AfD continues to make inroads in Germany’s prosperous south and west, beyond its heartland in the poorer ex-communist east, as it embraces more extreme views on immigration, the war in Ukraine and national atonement for the Holocaust.
A bombshell report in January revealed that senior AfD members had attended a meeting at a lakeside villa where they discussed a scheme for the mass deportation of German citizens with immigrant backgrounds.
A father of eight, Krah spoke of his fear that his 21-year-old son could become “cannon fodder on the eastern front” if Germany brings back conscription, a proposal floated in limited form by defence minister Boris Pistorius to address looming security threats.
Bosse, from the conservative Christian Social Union, said he is haunted by a particular chapter of the Nazi past in Kaufbeuren, which under Adolf Hitler hosted a dynamite factory employing forced labourers, satellite concentration camps belonging to Dachau and a psychiatric hospital that orchestrated the extermination of more than 1,500 men, women and children.
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Sikorski has been a critical figure in taking Poland back to the mainstream of European foreign policy since elections last October led to a new coalition government and an end to eight years of rule by the rightwing nationalist Law and Justice party.
He had just come from a meeting in Berlin with the foreign ministers of France and Germany in the so-called Weimar triangle format, a grouping now seen as the new political powerhouse of the EU.
Although he said Russia was winning mainly small pyrrhic victories, the Weimar group backed a broadly drawn attempt to fill big gaps in EU defence capabilities formed at the end of the cold war.
I think the Russians about 15 years ago did some polling, or maybe they just noticed that on some issues like attitudes to homosexuality, gender, to all kinds of identities, you can drive wedges in our societies.
Although he said the Weimar triangle would have expanded to a quartet but for Brexit, Sikorski said Poland favoured “the deepest possible inclusion of the United Kingdom in the EU security and defence structures, if you so wish”.
Asked whether it was permissible for Ukraine to strike military targets inside Russia, he said: “The Russians are hitting the Ukrainian’s electricity grid and their grain terminals and gas storage capacity, civilian infrastructure.
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If this quote is still true, then there are still no ( longterm structural) procurement contracts.
What are we doing, and when are memberstates/Council going to do it, wtf. He said:
“Companies were telling me, ‘We read in the newspapers that there is all this demand for armaments but we are not getting the long-term contracts. And if we don’t have a 10-year contract, we are responsible to our shareholders. We can’t make the investments.’ So it’s about guaranteeing them that this is not just for tomorrow, but this is a long-term rearmament and change in security.”
Sounds like the government shouldn't rely on what's profitable for shareholders and instead manufacture them directly at-cost. If the corporations who own the technology and patents can't meet the needs of national security then they themselves are a threat to national security, and should be nationalised.
The question is also which companies are complaining. But it does seem like the European defense strategy needs more attention and standardize the militaries.
One type of apc platform, one type of mbt etc etc. but this is all long term.
But you also hear of the excuse making like Germany with the Taurus.. it wil take months to start and then the manufacturer states they can start production next month and include upgrades as well.
More than 200 staff members of EU institutions and agencies have signed a letter expressing “growing concern” over the union’s response to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, arguing that it runs contrary to its core values and aim of promoting peace.
The letter, signed by 211 people in their personal capacity as citizens and addressed to the EU’s top three officials, begins by condemning the 7 October attacks “in the strongest terms”.
Citing the January ruling by the international court of justice that suggested a credible risk to Palestinians under the genocide convention, the letter warns that the EU’s “continued apathy to the plight of Palestinians” risks normalising a world order where the sheer use of force, rather than a rule-based system, determines state security, territorial integrity and political independence.
“To stand idly by in the face of such an erosion of the international rule of law would mean failing the European project as envisaged by them.
The letter, shared exclusively with the Guardian, was written by a small group of staffers, said Zeno Benetti, one of the organisers.
A version of the letter made public on Friday does not include the names of those who signed as they were promised confidentiality by the organisers.
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Citing the January ruling by the international court of justice that suggested a credible risk to Palestinians under the genocide convention, the letter warns that the EU’s “continued apathy to the plight of Palestinians” risks normalising a world order where the sheer use of force, rather than a rule-based system, determines state security, territorial integrity and political independence.
“It was precisely to avert such a grim world order that our grandparents, witnesses of the horrors of World War II, created Europe,” the letter reads. “To stand idly by in the face of such an erosion of the international rule of law would mean failing the European project as envisaged by them. This cannot happen in our name.”
It urges the EU to officially call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire, adding this to a list of requests that include officially calling for the release of all hostages and to ensure that member states halt direct and indirect arms exports to Israel.
Benetti emphasised that the initiative was not meant to be pro-Palestinian, nor was it aimed at taking a partisan stance on the conflict. “Rather, we signed because we think that what’s happening is jeopardising principles of international law that we deem important and that we take for granted,” he said.
The West's response to Israel's genocide has been shocking. The mask has slipped and we see their racist double standards and how hollow their claims of moral superiority. They are in the business of maintaining white supremacy at all costs. They will shed rivers of crocodile tears and wring their hands only after Israel has completed its genocide of Gaza.
It's telling that there's wide spread condemnation of the west for their response to the invasion of Gaza yet no one ever condemns the west for its response to the Uyghur genocide in China, the Rohingya genocide in Myanmar, or the Darfur genocide in Sudan.
It's almost like they don't actually care about the genocide of Palestinians, or genocide at all, they just want to weaken western countries by creating division and internal conflict.
Maybe they genuinely do care though, and now we'll start to seeing all these anonymous online voices calling for a strong multinational response to the genocide of Palestinians as well as the genocides being conducted by Chinese and Russian backed states.
The glaring difference is that Israel is armed, funded and given full diplomatic protection by the US and it's proxies in Europe while legacy Western media faithfully regurgitates Israeli whitewashing and propaganda. That's not the case for China or Myanmar.
Regardless I'm not sure why that's relevant. If the US stopped supporting Israel everyone would suddenly start ignoring the Palestinian genocide like we're supposed to ignore the Chinese and Russian backed genocides?
I think that's a simplistic take held by many that ignores the political climate in Israel. Netanyahu explicitly stated they'd continue the invasion of Gaza even if all western powers withdrew their support. Netanyahu is backed into a corner by corruption charges and the only way he stays in power and out of jail is with the backing of right wing extremists in Israel. The right wing extremists have a singular goal of creating a single Israeli state in region.
So even if the west were to withdraw support it wouldn't like change much, maybe instead of conducting the operations with bombs and tanks they'd be using guns and machetes to carry out their genocide like what happened in Rwanda.
The US only has to threaten withdrawing support and Israel backs down. See how limp Netanyahus response to Iran's attack in April was. Biden didn't want an escalation so nothing happened.
Israel is finished without the unconditional support of the US and they know it. The only reason they act with impunity is because of the shield the US provides them with.
From someone who has been having out this fight across the pond,
For the love of god country and cadbury, drag every last man woman and anyone else you can to the polls to vote for the most viable non Tory candidate, even if you have to do it by their hair. The militant non voters will be upon you to rally for the tories under your noses soon, and if you fail to take them seriously when you have this chance to obliterate the tories you'll truly have your own Trump as consequence.
theguardian.com
Heiß