French far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen endorses Trump.

French far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen endorses Trump. (TOI).

French far-right patriarch Jean-Marie Le Pen, kicked out of his own party for racist and anti-Semitic comments, has given controversial Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump the thumbs up.

“If I was American I would vote for Donald Trump… may God protect him,” tweeted the fiery 87-year-old founder of the National Front, now led by his daughter Marine.

Trump’s unlikely juggernaut in the US presidential primaries on the back of comments tinged by racism and veering towards demagoguery, has stunned observers and shaken the American political establishment to its core.

Le Pen’s endorsement comes after former Mexican president Felipe Calderon compared the real estate mogul to Adolf Hitler and said he was “frankly racist.” Read the full story here.

'EU is suffering from a crisis of decision making, that means it will slide into irrelevance' Stratfor Founder.

'EU is suffering from a crisis of decision making, that means it will slide into irrelevance' Stratfor Founder. (SP).

The EU has a range of problems that it cannot solve because of fundamental weakness in its decision making that dooms it to irrelevance, George Friedman, US political scientist and founder of think tank Stratfor, told the EurActiv blog on Friday.

"The future of the EU is interesting, because it cannot make any significant decisions now, and it cannot decide to dissolve. What will happen is what is happening now: less and less does Europe make decisions, and when it does, European states pay less and less attention to them," Friedman said.

He drew attention to the disagreement between the EU's centers of power in Brussels and Germany, and the governments of Poland and Hungary. Although representatives of EU institutions have criticized the politics of those member countries, their governments have continued to pursue their own course, ignoring the EU's input and consequently consigning it to irrelevance.

​"The Polish decision to change the make-up of the board of their media and to change their judiciary, this is what Merkel and the EU have time for. So what does Poland do? The same thing Hungary did: it ignores it, because it doesn’t matter. The EU will exist, and will happily sink into irrelevance." Read the full story here. 

Related: 

Can the refugee crisis and subsequent rise of Extreme right make the EU fall apart?

Judge: Merkel Committed Historic Breach Of Law In Opening Borders, Constitution Allows ‘Right To Resist’ https://t.co/l0xvYU6lVo

— MFS - The Other News (@MFS001) January 17, 2016

Dutch 'no' to Kiev-EU accord could trip EU crisis: Juncker.

Dutch 'no' to Kiev-EU accord could trip EU crisis: Juncker. (DS).

THE HAGUE: European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker urged Dutch voters Saturday not to oppose an EU cooperation deal with Ukraine, saying such a move "could open the doors to a continental crisis."

A citizens' campaign in the Netherlands spearheaded by three strongly eurosceptic groups garnered more than 300,000 votes needed to trigger a non-binding referendum on the deal, three months from now.

Observers said the vote, set for April 6, pointed more towards broader euroscepticism among the Dutch than actual opposition to the trade deal with Kiev, which fosters deeper cooperation with Brussels.

A Dutch 'no' "could open the doors to a continental crisis," Juncker told the authoritative NRC daily newspaper in an interview published Saturday.

"Let's not change the referendum into a vote about Europe," Juncker urged Dutch voters, adding: "I sincerely hope that (the Dutch) won't vote no for reasons that have nothing to do with the treaty itself."

Should Dutch voters oppose the deal, Russia "stood to benefit most," he said. Read the full story here.


Related:    Can the refugee crisis and subsequent rise of Extreme right make the EU fall apart?

'Sign of the Times?' - 'Mein Kampf' sells out in Germany on first release day .

'Sign of the Times?' - 'Mein Kampf' sells out in Germany on first release day. (JPost).

Demand for a new edition of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” has far exceeded supply on its first day of release.

Publishers of the 2,000-page annotated edition of the Nazi leader’s book said at a press conference Friday, the day of the book’s release, that they have received orders for four times as many books as they had printed, Reuters reported.

The Munich Institute for Contemporary History has said it published the new edition to preempt uncritical and unannotated versions, and that it hopes the new edition will help destroy the book’s cult status. “Mein Kampf” can also be easily found on the Internet.

“Mein Kampf” sold 12 million copies in Germany before the end of World War II, according to Reuters. Hmmm......I wonder how many downloads it had recently? Read the full story here.

Can the refugee crisis and subsequent rise of Extreme right make the EU fall apart?

Can the refugee crisis and subsequent rise of Extreme right make the EU fall apart? (Taz).

An official with the EU has voiced a concern that the Union is facing a threat of falling apart.
Gunther Oettinger, European commissioner for digital economy and society, said in an interview with German newspaper Bild on Dec. 30 that there is a threat of disintegration of the EU, TASS news agency reports.

“The European Union has learned to overcome the crises. However, there are more and more countries with unstable or populist governments. I am concerned about it,” he said.

“For the first time I see a serious danger that the EU could fall apart,” Oettinger added.

The commissioner further called for continuing the talks for Western Balkan countries’ joining the EU, saying “however, the conditions for accession to the Union have to be strict.”

Oettinger also voiced scepticism regarding Turkey’s accession to the EU.

“There won’t be Turkey’s accession this decade and maybe during the next one,” he said.

European stocks stumble on gloomy Lagarde, oil retreat https://t.co/3E3AEKyO2m

— MFS - The Other News (@MFS001) December 30, 2015

France - Jewish History teacher stabbed in Marseille street by trio praising Islamic State.

France - Jewish History teacher stabbed in Marseille street by trio praising Islamic State. (TOI).

A teacher at a Jewish school in the French city of Marseille was harassed in the street and then stabbed on Wednesday night by three people professing support for Islamic State, prosecutors said.

Three people on two scooters, one of them wearing an Isis T-shirt, approached the teacher and showed him a picture on a mobile phone of Mohamed Merah, a homegrown Islamist militant who killed seven people in a series of attacks in southern France in 2012.

Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin said: “The three people insulted, threatened and then stabbed their victim in the arm and leg. They were interrupted by the arrival of a car and fled.”

The 57-year-old victim, who was wearing a kippa, was attacked about 8pm outside his home, a short distance from the school and synagogue complex, a source close to the investigation said. Hmmm......Time for Israelis to leave France and EU[rabia]. Read the full story here.

"… ISIS has an approval rating in France (at 16%) almost as high as President Francois Holland (at 18%)"

— A.M.H. (@alimhaider) November 19, 2015

Video: Polish Anti-Refugee Demonstrators Burn Effigies of Orthodox Jews at Wroclaw Protest.

ONR na wrocławskim Rynku

Video: Polish Anti-Refugee Demonstrators Burn Effigies of Orthodox Jews at Wroclaw Protest. HT: Matzav.

Dozens of demonstrators in the western Polish city of Wroclaw participated in burning effigies of Jews fully equipped with peyos and black hats, Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza reported on Wednesday.

The demonstration was part of a larger protest against admitting refugees of the civil war in Syria into Poland. Demonstrators warned that many of the refugees were actually economic migrants and terrorists, according to the report.

The demonstration took place on a portable stage in front of the Wroclaw city hall. Police contained the demonstration but allowed it to happen, with no formal complaints.

Many in Europe are concerned with the influx of refugees fleeing the violence in Syria, which has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives over the past nearly five years and caused widespread devastation.

Earlier this week, the Algemeiner reported on another anti-refugee banner hung on major thoroughfare in the city of Poznon.

Poland has officially decided to accept 5,000 refugees. Hmmmm.....As i warned extreme right will rise all over Europe.