BERLIN (own report) – Germany has a new Minister of State in the Federal Chancellery for Culture and the Media. Known for his provocative views, Wolfram Weimer laments Europe’s “precipitous loss of power” as a result of decolonisation. He praises the alleged “civilizational accomplishment that came with world conquest”. Weimer also stated in ‘Das konservative Manifest’, which he published back in 2018, that the “commitment to Christianity” is “an important component of European identity”: “The baptism certificate is the ticket to entering European civilisation.” The next head of policy on culture and media has also bemoaned what he calls the “cultural self-destruction” of European societies, in which “the numerous kebab shops, the unrelenting immigration and the homage to Kanak-German” are being used “to eradicate the old national instincts”. In his “manifesto”, Weimer goes on to mock “the equal opportunities officers and integration counsellors” as “high priests of do-gooderism”. In his latest outpourings he is urging the centre-right in Germany to take into account the far-right AfD’s demands for pushing back immigration. The positions he advances can provide the ideological foundations for reshaping the EU and for an aggressively expansive global policy. Read more

BERLIN/BRUSSELS/BEIJING (own report) – Disputes over future economic relations with China are escalating in Berlin and Brussels. They were sparked by the Trump administration’s offer to grant countries more favorable tariffs for exports to the USA, if they reduce their economic cooperation with China. Washington is also luring automotive corporations with an exclusive cooperation in the development of autonomous driving – with the objective of jointly sidelining Chinese auto manufacturers. German car companies have long since begun close cooperation with Chinese companies. Last week, for example, BMW announced that it was developing new models in cooperation with Huawei and Alibaba, as well as with the support of the new AI start-up DeepSeek,. Around three dozen German companies have written to the incoming German government, expressing that to a growing degree they are depending on Chinese companies, which are increasingly becoming “innovation leaders.” Therefore, they are hoping for closer cooperation with China. In the latter half of July, the EU is preparing to hold an EU-China summit in Beijing. Read more

WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS/BERLIN (own report) - Internal contradictions are hampering an EU response to the unprecedented tariffs being imposed by the United States. The first tranche of import tariffs came into force on Saturday and more are to follow on Wednesday, hitting stock markets very hard. Share prices have plummeted not only in economies that are key trading partners of the US, such as Japan and Germany, but also in the United States itself. In fact more than six trillion US dollars have been wiped out in just two days. The dollar is also weakening. President Donald Trump has made a “huge mistake” with his tariff wall, says the President of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Marcel Fratzscher. Trump will, he argues, “get the short straw,” which is why he advises the EU to stand together and fight back. However, Brussels has so far showed little inclination, having postponed the implementation of retaliatory tariffs it announced not even against the latest steel tariffs but against those already imposed earlier on Europe. The backsliding results not least from objections to countermeasures by several member states that fear significant losses. Their position is that they would have more to lose than the United States in the event of an escalation. Other countermeasures targeted at US tech corporations are being considered. These, too, have so far been blocked, especially by Italy. The Meloni government maintains particularly close relations with the Trump administration. Read more

PARIS/BERLIN/WASHINGTON (own report) - A Europe-wide think-tank warns of “far-reaching European consequences” of Marine Le Pen’s de facto exclusion from the next presidential election in France. The court ruling has deprived Le Pen of the right to stand for election with immediate effect. This development is, as a recent article from the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) put it, likely to lead to an immediate upswing of support “for anti-establishment movements throughout Europe”. Opinion surveys indicate that almost half of the population in France believes that the judgement was politically motivated. Leading politicians of the extreme right from all across the European Union, including a prime minister and a deputy prime minister, have voiced their support for Le Pen. The Rassemblement National (National Rally) leader has also received wider widespread international backing beyond the EU. Condemnation of the sentence has also come from the right in North America, Latin America and Israel – in the case of Israel, from a government minister who recently hosted representatives from far-right parties around Europe at a conference in Jerusalem. In the United States, the highly influential Trump-advising Heritage Foundation has also weighed in. Le Pen’s conviction has consolidated core elements of a new network of the transatlantic far right as it closes ranks. Read more