1. Chancellor had a face-to-face meeting Thursday morning with the Finance Minister (SPD-guy).....didn't go well. Merz wants tax relief over gas prices....Klingbell said 'no'.
Poland yesterday dropped their VAT over fuel by over 50-percent.
2. Would appear that the once-a-day gas-price change mandate.....is not very popular with the public.
3. Yes, it does appear that a German government proposal allowing local authorities to block home purchases if buyers are suspected of "anti-constitutional" views, even absent any conviction or court ruling....exists (draft law).
Author? The draft bill, advanced by SPD Construction Minister Verena Hubertz.
The way written....it would let municipalities exercise first refusal on properties after consulting the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Verfassungsschutz) and other agencies.
So, yeah....there's a fair amount of criticism over this idea. The CDU-CSU folks haven't said much. SPD would need their support to pass it.
Legal? I would imagine challenges will occur.
The chief issue I see...in various areas of eastern Germany....in some towns/cities....it's around 40-percent of the population who might fit into the 'block-home-purchases'. You'd create 'dead-zones' over a decade with this type of law.
4. I went back to review US base financial relationships in K-Town, Wiesbaden, and Stuttgart....with all this 'exit-NATO' chatter.
So, from 2019.....the US added up the amount of money they pump into Kaiserslautern, and it amounted to $1.2-billion from the base structure (to include Landstuhl and the Army in K-Town), and military folks freely spending money.
Stuttgart? Well...they don't really collect this kind of data (either on purpose or accidentally). Best guess? It's near one-third of the K-town number (figure around $400-million).
Wiesbaden? Similar story as Stuttgart....data as a best guess.....near $400-million yearly.
In the cases of Wiesbaden/Stuttgart....if the Army up and left....there might be a one-year stumble, but both have the ability to recover and proceed on.
In the case of Kaiserslautern....it's probably a five-year stumble, and it'd require massive 'help' from the Pfalz state government to recover.
5. If you haven't paid attention in the past ten days to Ireland....you might want to spend ten minutes reviewing the ongoing crisis.
On my civil-conflict-index (1-to-10)....I'd say Ireland is close to a '4'.
To relate this in a clear fashion....the public has basically said 'enough' (mostly on immigration but includes other topics as well). The police are saying if you need arresting for disturbing public safety....it's six months of jail.
Well...the public went to halting police vehicles from refueling....triggering the national authority to say it's a police crisis....calling for the Irish Army to be ordered to 'help'. Some Army enlisted are saying they won't participate in this type of action.
As fragile as the economy is....I'd say they are probably seven to ten days from a massive shut-down.
The one odd thing that I seem to get from the landscape.....Irish people aren't really afraid of the police, the law, or the authorities.
If the authorities fail, or the gov't falls? Well....there's to be a messy immigration situation to develop, and thousand of migrants to leave for some safer land.
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