Latest news with #FranziskaBrantner
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
German Greens slam Israel's action in Gaza as new offensive unfolds
Germany's Green Party on Saturday strongly criticized Israel's military action in the Gaza Strip, after the country launched a major new offensive in the sealed-off territory overnight. The ongoing blockade of aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip and the renewed expansion of hostilities are "unacceptable," Green Party leader Franziska Brantner said. One in five people in Gaza is at risk of starvation, she added, referring to the latest IPC assessment on food security, which is supported by several UN organizations and aid groups. Brantner said the German government must "make clear its position on compliance with international humanitarian law." Populist politician Sahra Wagenknecht meanwhile demanded an immediate halt to Germany's arms deliveries to Israel, describing its actions in the Gaza Strip as "a campaign of destruction and a gigantic war crime." Wagenknecht, who leads the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, said the German government must immediately end its "policy of solidarity" with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Observers fear Israel's new offensive will lead to many more deaths in the coastal strip, where people have been living in catastrophic conditions for many months. The Israeli military has not allowed aid deliveries into Gaza for more than two months, accusing the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas of reselling aid supplies to the increasingly destitute population. Israel recently announced that it would allow aid deliveries to resume, but not through the existing channels. Brantner demanded "unhindered access to humanitarian aid" as a matter of urgency. She accused German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul of supporting the reorganization of aid "instead of letting the established humanitarian actors do their work." During a recent trip to Israel, Wadephul expressed understanding for the Israeli argument that aid deliveries should not serve Hamas and pledged German support.
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Annual Easter marches held across Germany under banner of peace dove
Peace activists marched through several German cities during the traditional annual Easter marches on Saturday, against the background of plans by Berlin and governments across Europe to massively increase spending on rearmament. At the larger demonstrations, such as in Berlin, the Ruhr area, Wiesbaden and Kassel, initial police estimates suggested that several hundred people gathered in each location. Central themes included the demand for disarmament and a nuclear-weapon-free world, as well as the end to wars, such as those in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip. "The Easter marches this year are particularly directed at the new government, demanding that Germany becomes capable of peace instead of being war-ready," said Kristian Golla from the Peace Cooperative Network, referring to the incoming coalition of conservatives and Social Democrats. He said this is particularly true for the course in Ukraine policy: "The path to peace for the people in Ukraine does not lead through more and more weapons, but through negotiations," he said. In some cities, the turnout at the Easter marches this year was larger than recently, according to the Peace and Future Workshop in Frankfurt. However, the Easter marches are now significantly smaller than at the peak of the movement in the early 1980s. Criticism of some positions of the German peace movement In Berlin, however, some people also gathered with Ukraine flags for a counter-demonstration. They held signs with slogans such as "Democracy must be defensible!" and "False pacifism kills." Green Party leader Franziska Brantner also expressed criticism of certain calls to demonstrate at the Easter marches. "We share the desire for peace, absolutely," she told the weekly edition of the Berlin-based taz newspaper. However, with regard to the opposition to arms deliveries to Ukraine, which is defending itself against a full-scale Russia invasion, she added: "What bothers me about such calls to demonstrate is that being left-wing means being anti-imperialist, standing by the attacked, and not the aggressors." Events in more than 90 cities The Easter marches are organized locally by trade unions, left-wing and Christian groups, as well as peace groups. According to various networks that coordinate the protests, there are expected to be actions in more than 90 cities over the Easter weekend, most of them on Holy Saturday.
Al Etihad
11-03-2025
- Business
- Al Etihad
US dollar hits one-week high against Canadian dollar on Trump tariffs
11 Mar 2025 20:38 NEW YORK (Reuters)The US dollar rose to a one-week high against the Canadian dollar on Tuesday after President Donald Trump hit Canada with more tariffs, while the euro hit a new four-month peak against the US currency on hopes of a German defence spending doubled his planned tariff on all steel and aluminum products imported from Canada to 50%, in response to Ontario applying a 25% tariff on electricity sent to the US dollar rose to as high as C$1.4521 against the Canadian dollar, its highest level since March 4. It was last up 0.17% to C$ Greens Party co-leader Franziska Brantner told Bloomberg News her party was ready to negotiate a deal that would allow for increased state borrowing to boost defence spending and revive euro rose to as high as $1.09305, its highest since November. It was last up 0.89% and has gained more than 4% this month as Germany acts to ramp up defence US dollar remains weaker against its major peers as trade and growth concerns weigh on the equities selloff on Monday has not helped sentiment. Benchmark S&P 500 was trading down 0.42%, while the Nasdaq was up 0.16% on the dollar weakened 0.08% to 0.88010 against the Swiss franc. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.18% to 147.53. The greenback has lost more than 2% against both currencies so far in dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, was on track for its seventh straight loss. It fell 0.42% to 103.41. The Swedish crown firmed past the symbolic 10 crowns to the dollar level for the first time since December 2023 after Riksbank Governor Erik Thedeen said recent inflation outcomes have been slightly higher than expected. The dollar was last down 1.22% at 10.019 crowns.
Bloomberg
11-03-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
German Greens See Chance for Defense Spending Deal This Week
Germany's Greens are ready to negotiate and see chances for an agreement by the end of this week in a dispute over defense spending with the country's prospective next ruling coalition led by chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz. 'We really need Europe to speed up its defense spending,' the Green party's co-head Franziska Brantner said Tuesday in a Bloomberg TV interview. The defense bill presented by the conservatives and the Social Democrats was very narrow, and didn't include intelligence or support for Ukraine, she said.
Yahoo
08-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
German opposition parties slam exploratory coalition talks result
The German opposition parties have slammed the results of the exploratory talks between the conservative CDU/CSU bloc and the Social Democrats (SPD) on forming a government. Instead of solving structural problems, the parties want to do as they did in previous centre-left governments and pour money into everything, Green party leader Franziska Brantner said in Berlin on Saturday. "That is poison for our country." Co-party leader Felix Banaszak emphasized: "We are further from an agreement today than we have been in the last few days." The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU) are likely to need the votes of the Greens to pass the security package they agreed on a few days ago. They had agreed to relax the debt brake for higher defence spending and to create a debt-financed special fund of €500 billion ($528 billion) for infrastructure. The changes, which require a two-thirds majority, are to be decided by the existing Bundestag. The new Bundestag, elected on February 23, has different majorities and would make it more difficult to pass. Specifically, the Greens are accusing the CDU and SPD of wanting to finance their election promises with these new funds instead of using the money for actual improvements. "We see that the €500 billion are obviously not supposed to be used for additional infrastructure projects, but for election promises, pensions for mothers and commuter allowances," said Brantner. It was "depressing" that climate protection does not play a role, Banaszak added. AfD charges that Merz is breaking promises The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) charged that CDU leader Merz, the country's likely next chancellor, has already broken his electoral promises and caved to demands from the Social Democrats, given the exploratory coalition talks' results. In return for "breaking his election promises and surrendering to the SPD's debt madness, Friedrich Merz has only received vague promises and formulaic compromises in migration policy, full of reservations and backdoors," AfD parliamentary group leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla said on Saturday. The outlined social and economic policy plans bear "the signature of the SPD, the loser of the election," Weidel and Chrupalla asserted. "Outdated socialist recipes like 'industrial electricity pricing' and e-car subsidies create neither prosperity nor economic growth; they accelerate the decline of the planned economy and deindustrialization," they added. They charged that the CDU betrayed its voters, opened the floodgates to debt and damaged the constitution "for this miserable result." "This exploratory paper is an agreement to the detriment of Germany," the AfD leaders added. The Left: CDU&SPD working against the majority Germany's far-left party, The Left, sees the exploratory agreements between the CDU and SPD on the way to coalition talks as working against the interests of most citizens. "At best, there is a 'business as usual' option. The majority of society can only stand by and watch as politics is made over their heads and against their interests," parliamentary group leaders Heidi Reichinnek and Sören Pellmann charged on Saturday. "Key issues such as housing, health, strengthening families, equal living conditions in East and West or affordable food are discussed in passing or not even mentioned. Concrete measures or major projects in these areas are sought almost in vain." The fact that at the same time it was announced that there is a great need for consolidation suggests that this will affect the weakest in society, they added. "This extremely problematic prioritization is supplemented by a blank cheque for rearmament and a special fund whose contents nobody knows – and on top of that, its legitimation is highly questionable from a democratic point of view," the heads of the left-wing faction criticized.
