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Saturday, May 17, 2014

The Untouchables

by  New Europe

“In politics, there are things that are said but not done and things that are done but not said,” is attributed to Greek president, Konstantinos Karamanlis, whose name is given to the bridge that unites the two main buildings of the European Parliament in Brussels.

As an ever decreasing percentage of Europeans head to the polls for this week’s European Parliament elections, it is important to remember how the EU, especially the Commission President has treated certain member states.

Veteran EU correspondent, Peter Spiegel has written in the Financial Times about the G20 summit in November 2011, after the then Greek  prime minister, George Papandreou had called for a referendum on the €172 billion bailout programme. Papandreou hoped that this would force people to choose and give him a mandate to enact the harsh reforms that were being demanded from Greece.

At the G20, Papandreou was subjected to the wrath of the French president and what Sarkozy’s finance minister later called “psychological warfare.”

According to the account, while the room was erupting, President Barroso sat quietly. Secretly, Barroso had contacted Greek opposition leader, and current prime minister, Antonis Samaras and they discussed ‘technocrats’ who could take over from the elected Greek PM, then as the meeting ended, Barroso swiftly struck a deal with Evangelos Venizelos, who had sensed the end of Papendreou, but remained ambitious.

By the time the Greeks returned to Athens the referendum and the president were finished.

That’s not all that happened at the G20. Former US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner reveals, in his book “Stress Test” that “European officials” were asking the US to help them push Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi out of office.

“We can’t have his blood on our hands,” Geithner replied.

On our back page we discuss the disturbing machinations used by Merkel and Van Rompuy that have kept four national leaders from running for European office.

It is difficult to imagine more damning accounts of the way the EU is acting behind the scenes. 

The reports of the President of the Commission conspiring to overthrow the government of a member state is not one of the things that “are done but not said”. It is simply not done. Because they undo Europe.

Europe is being undone. Like a fish, it rots from the head first.


READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT www.neurope.eu