Monday, July 24, 2017

Tuesday German News

Election campaign invoking new refugee crisis:  ARD article.  It's hard to imagine a candidate trying to hype up another refugee crisis but SPD chief Schulz has gone onto talking points....warning of a new crisis.  In a ARD interview he noted that the Mediterranean situation is now "dramatic".  The general public?  If anything....they are going to ask what the limit will be and how the EU stops this crisis....like the refugee episode involving Turkey.  One might suggest that Schulz is way out of step with the general public on this topic.

Chainsaw attack. ARD article.  Basically....one single guy in the Swiss village of Schaffhausen....took a chainsaw into the village and injured five folks (two of them pretty badly).  It was a health-insurance agency....but no one says if he had complaints or the trigger to the event.  Cops looking for the guy....he just walked away.  Cop comment: It's not a terror act.  Terror now equates to strictly Islamic issues....not nut-cases.

VW recall has an end-date: Focus article.  If you own a diesel VW under the recall situation for the manipulated engine....you have until early August.  At that point, VW turns the listing over, and the cops can come and claim your tags....making the car non-op.  Pretty serious jeopardy. No one cites numbers, but you have to wonder about how many people are refusing the software update.

Schulz and the million-refugees comment: ARD article.  There was a reference in some speech where SPD's Schulz talked over the 2015 million refugees who came into Germany.  The reference got picked up and analyzed.  In the beginning of 2016....people used the one-million number as a fact.  By the middle of 2016....the government had analyzed the data and corrected itself....saying that 890,000 had officially (registered) into Germany for 2015.  People have stood by the 890,000 number since then.  The prior number (1,091,000)?  It is curious that no one ever went back to explain the 200,000 that were wiped off the facts.  Just passing through.....duplicates in the records....or a glitch in the system?  Unknown.  In Schulz's defense....he was making a broad comment and warning of the growing issue of migrants in Italy and that a solution needed to be found.

Ryanair looking to buy into Air Italia:  BBC article.  There are at present, 18 offers on the table for Alitalia.  What RyanAir says is that they would be interested and have the money to buy the airline, but they want restructuring (meaning that personnel cuts would be a part of the deal).  I might guess that all 18 offers on the table state virtually the same thing.....personnel cuts have to come.  Alitalia is in serious jeopardy.....perhaps now for an entire decade.  What RyanAir will do with the airline?  I think they are in some belief that no treaty will occur for BREXIT and there will be serious trouble in getting rights to land in the EU.  If they owned Alitalia...they'd have a card to lay on the table.  Long-term use of Alitalia?  A lot of business analysts have said that if you really took the personnel rooster and made some serious cuts....it could be a profitable airline.

Bertelsmann Study on populist issue: ARD article.  Foundation study complete....saying that one-third of all Germans fall into the populist category.  Naturally, they want to cite that lack of education and knowledge is part of the problem.  The end recommendation is that 'big' parties should avoid populist themes or topics, and thus protect the democracy.  The weak part of this story is that you end up with very difficult coalitions where the 'big' parties really aren't that strong in number, and the general public is frustrated with a marginalized coalition.

No comments: