Europe Greece seeks EU help: Bill bans Franco legacy:
Anti-Semitism slammed:
Chancellor Angela Merkel celebrated the renaissance of Jewish life in Germany but denounced the “disgrace” of increasingly open antiSemitism and racism as she marked the 70th anniversary Tuesday of the country’s main Jewish group.
The Central Council of Jews was founded in 1950 to represent Jews who had survived the Nazi Holocaust. Noting that many Holocaust survivors couldn’t imagine a future in Germany, she said the council originally was envisioned as a provisional entity to help them emigrate.
But the decades since German reunification in 1990, in particular, have seen the Jewish community in Germany gain size and strength.
“We can be glad of flourishing Jewish life,” Merkel said during a ceremony at a Berlin synagogue. “But that is only one part of today’s reality. The other part of today’s reality is that many Jews don’t feel safe and respected in our country, and it causes me great concern.”
“It is a disgrace, and it shames me deeply, how racism and anti-Semitism are expressed in our country in these times,” she added. “Racism and anti-Semitism never disappeared, but for some time now they have become more visible and uninhibited.”
“We know how quickly words can become deeds,” Merkel said, pointing to the botched attack on a Halle synagogue last year by a German man who had posted an anti-Semitic screed online. (AP)
EU for balanced ties:
The European Union Monday called for a more “balanced and fair” relations with China, emphasizing that trade can energize economic recovery of the two sides from the coronavirus pandemic.
“Today’s meeting represents another step forward in forging a more balanced relationship with China,” Charles Michel, President of the European Council, told an online press conference in Brussels after a videoconference with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
They discussed four key topics; climate change, economic and trade issues, international affairs and human rights and COVID-19 and economic recovery. (KUNA)
The Spanish government is proposing a new bill that would ban a foundation promoting the legacy of Gen. Francisco Franco as well as offer reparations to the victims of the late dictator, among other long-standing unresolved issues from the country’s recent past.
The so-called ‘Law on Democratic Memory’ has been a key electoral promise of Socialist leader Pedro Sánchez, who last year completed during his first short term as prime minister the exhumation and relocation of Franco’s remains from a public mausoleum.
Sánchez is now in a left-wing coalition with the far-left United We Can (Unidas Podemos) party, and his Cabinet on Tuesday approved the new bill’s draft. It builds on an existing law from 2007 that relatives of victims of the 1936-39 Civil War and the ensuing dictatorship regarded as insufficient. (AP)