Europe Prepares for War as the Democratic Deficit Grows Wider<\/strong><\/p>\n Is a Color Revolution Underway in Serbia?<\/strong><\/p>\n There are huge demonstrations taking place\u00a0 in Serbia<\/a> against pro-Russian President Alexsandar Vucic. His government has been accused of corruption and cost cutting after a railway station canopy collapsed in Novi Sad.<\/a><\/p>\n .Another Candidate Has Been Barred from Standing in the Romanian Election. <\/strong><\/p>\n Diana Iovanovici-Sosoaca is, besides being a Presidential contender, an MEP in the European Parliament. She is claiming that the EU commission was behind the decision to bar her from running in the Romanian Presidential election. The reasons given, so far, for banning her was because her anti-Semitic and anti-Western public statements, along with proposing closer relations with Moscow, meant she was a danger to democracy<\/a> and the country\u2019s position in the European Union and NATO. Last week her opponent, and leading contender in the race, Calin Georgescu, was banned from running for alledgedly lying about campaign contributions. There will, of course, be an investigation after the EU\u2019s choice has been safely elected.<\/p>\n Romanian \u2018far-right\u2019 party leader George Simion, who had dropped out of the race in order to support Georgescu, is being allowed to contest the election. He came fourth in the first round with only 13.9% of the vote. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Simion called Russian president Vladimir Putin a war criminal and said that international sanctions against Russia \u201cwere not enough\u201d, so he is more acceptable to the EU and NATO. He is currently the vice-president of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party.<\/p>\n The most likely winner of the Romanian election is going to be Marcel Ciolacu<\/a>, who is currently the Prime Minister. He got 19.15% in the cancelled first round of the election behind Georgescu (22.94%) and Elena Lasconi (19.18%); but he is acceptable to the EU, because of his pro-war and anti-Russia views, and so he will benefit from positive press coverage from the European Media.<\/p>\n The Economist Intelligence Unit<\/a> rated Romania as a \u201cflawed democracy<\/a>\u201d in 2023. As of 2025, it was classified as a hybrid regime<\/a> behind a constitutional fa\u00e7ade. According to the Copenhagen Criteria,<\/a> Romania should never have been allowed to join the EU in the first place.<\/p>\n Italy Is One of the Reasons for the \u201cDemocratic Recession\u201d in Europe.<\/strong><\/p>\n According to the Civil Liberties Union for Europe<\/a> (funded by George Soros\u2019 Open Society Foundation<\/a> and the Ford Foundation), Italy was one of five \u201cdemocracy dismantlers\u201d \u2013 along with Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania and Slovakia \u2013 that \u201cintentionally undermine the rule of law in nearly all aspects\u201d. Hungary was also mentioned as a persistant offender in their report; however, France and German were held up as \u201crole-model democracies\u201d.<\/p>\n Starmer Is Attacking Labour\u2019s Core Voters<\/strong><\/p>\n If there is one group of people that are consistent Labour voters, it is people in the creative industry. So, it doesn\u2019t behoove a Labour Prime Minister to annoy them, but Kier Starmer has blundered his way into an almighty row with them by blithely proposing to hand over their work, free of charge, to AI companies. Moreover, it could be costly for the economy.<\/p>\n Statistics from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) confirmed that the creative industries generated \u00a3119.6billion in gross added value (GAV) to the economy in 2023, accounting for 5.2% of all UK GVA. In 2022 the creative industries grew twice as fast as the UK economy as a whole. IT, software and computer services were the biggest sub-sector, generating \u00a355.4billion GVA, followed by Film, TV, video, radio and photography\u00a0 with \u00a320.8 billion. In March 2024 there were 268,080 creative businesses, representing almost 10% of all UK registered business. The vast majority (93%) of these companies were micro businesses, employing less than ten people.<\/p>\n I hate to break the 4th<\/sup> wall but I must declare an interest here. I published 3 English Grammar textbooks, in the UK, on the areas where people have the most difficulty with the language; namely, verbs<\/a>, prepositions<\/a> and how and when to use \u2018the\u2019<\/a>. They are textbooks with cross referencing so they are exactly the type of \u201cdata\u201d the AI developers want. They took a long time to write; so, why should they just be handed over by ministerial fiat?<\/p>\n A legal opinion from top copyright lawyer Nicholas Caddick KC says that Sir Keir\u2019s plan may break the Berne Convention \u2013 which established that creators\u2019 work is protected the moment it is written or recorded. Mr Caddick believes Labour\u2019s proposal contravenes at least two, if not all three of the conditions pertaining to granting an exception, which are: the exception must apply only in specific, special cases, the use must not deprive the rights holders of income and it must not harm the copyright owner\u2019s interest.<\/p>\n A Government spokesman managed to make matters worse by saying: \u201cThe Berne Convention does not make any specific provisions for the interaction of copyright law and artificial intelligence. The Government will continue to consider all international legal commitments and obligations\u2026 and any eventual solution will take all of these into account.\u201d<\/p>\n Britain has some of the best out of copyright material, especially books, available and they\u2019re all downloadable at no cost from the Project Gutenberg website<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Kursk Pocket Is Deflating<\/strong><\/p>\n The Kiev regime\u2019s hope, that the incursion by the Ukrainian army into the Kursk region of Russia would provide leverage during peace negotiations, has just been dashed. The Ukraine Army is surrounded there and Trump <\/a>begged Putin to spare their lives after his call for a ceasefire was rebuffed by Moscow. <\/p>\n During the battle of Ilovaisk<\/a>, back in 2014, the Ukrainian Army was surrounded and Angela Merkel begged for a ceasefire, which Putin achieved over the objections of the Donbass militias doing the actual fighting. The Ukraine army was able to remain intact and so it could be rebuilt. <\/p>\n The ceasefire led to the sham Minsk agreements<\/a>, which the two main Western guarantors (Germany and France) had no intention of abiding by. This was confirmed by Hollande<\/a> (French President) and Merkel <\/a>(German Chancellor) later.<\/p>\n One of the main reasons for the collapse of the Kursk pocket in 4 pictures:<\/p>\n When the Ukraine army stormed into Kursk the pipeline was blown up.<\/p>\n Russian soldiers spent 4 days underground and then crawled 15 Kilometers through the pipeline into the heart of the Ukrainian defense stronghold in Sudzha.<\/p>\n Once the 800 Russian soldiers had crawled through the pipeline the attack begins.<\/p>\n The army groups taking part were: Akhmat (Chechens) special forces, Marines, 11th Airborne Brigade and the 30th Motorized Rifle Regiment \u201cveterans\u201d unit (who led the assault). Contrary to Western Media reports there were no North Koreans involved in the attack.<\/p>\n There are DPRK soldiers in Russia\u2019s Far East where they are currently undergoing training and their fitness levels are being brought up to an acceptable standard.<\/p>\n You can watch details of the attack here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Germans Helped to Liberate Syria<\/strong><\/p>\n According to the MSM the Syrians rose up and liberated the country; however, according to reality the \u2018liberators\u2019 were a group of Jihadis, under the control of Turiye and paid for by the USA (thanks Mike Pompeo<\/a>). A significant number of these mercenaries are from Germany something that the Jerusalem Post<\/a> was warning about back in 2013. They even set up their own townships<\/a> in North West Syria\/Southern Turkey, like the one they had in Pakistan. And these were not all swarthy looking men. For example, here is a pale skinned German Islamist in Syria saying Shia Muslims must convert or be killed, hinting at how many victims there are likely to be.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>The Fog of War Gets Murkier Macron is determined to commit troops to Ukraine<\/a>, even though the French people are not happy about it. Demonstrations are taking place in Paris with protestors chanting \u201cWe will not die for Ukraine<\/a>\u201d. Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said that sending NATO peace-keeps to Ukraine will heighten tensions<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n Macron, together with Keir Starmer, was defiant saying that they didn\u2019t need permission from Russia to deploy their troops. President Putin has said that if EU peacekeepers are deployed in Ukraine, it would be viewed as an act of war<\/a>. President Donald Trump, however, has said that Russia would allow NATO peacekeepers in Ukraine<\/a> after the SMO is over, but Russia disputed his claim<\/a>.<\/p>\n Europe Is Coming after its Citizens\u2019 Savings<\/strong><\/p>\n The EU currently does not have enough cash to restart their moribund collective economy. But Christine Largarde, the President of the European Central Bank<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0has a plan. She intends to liberate the \u20ac33.5 trillion<\/a> in household (i.e. private) savings \u00a0\u2013 more than double the collective EU GDP \u2013 that is \u2018stuck in banks\u2019 because households prefer cash over market investments. <\/p>\n This push to divert private citizens\u2019 savings into EU \u2018investment\u2019 has been brewing since early in 2024 when former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta said that the EU\u2019s fragmented capital markets have created a big opportunity to spark growth and future investment in the 27-country single market, by taking people\u2019s savings. This will help the EU put its citizens\u2019 finances to work<\/a> in the context of the need to find an extra trillion euros a year to fund the digital and green transitions and to meet defense needs. Managing climate change alone calls for finding 2.6 percent of GDP per year.<\/p>\n Countries in Europe have been scrambling to find extra sources of finance in order to boost defense spending towards the \u20ac800 Billion that Ursula von der Leyen has called for<\/a>. The new German Government is being applauded for its plan to lift the debt brake<\/a> to boost defense spending, even though it increased the country\u2019s borrowing costs, with 30 year bonds rising 25 points to 3.08%, the highest since the fiscal crisis in 1998.<\/p>\n The UK has a different approach to the same problem. Tony Blair, fresh from his \u2018success\u2019 as the erstwhile Middle East Peace Envoy has another plan. He wants to \u2018unlock\u2019 Britain\u2019s private pension funds<\/a> by taking them away from professional actuaries and turning them into giant superfunds, no doubt controlled by his namesake institute. He said that the root cause of the problems associated with the pension crisis in 2022 (when Truss was, briefly, the Prime Minister) can be traced to accounting and regulatory changes to the UK\u2019s tax and pension systems in the early 2000s. In other words, he caused the problem, as he was the Prime Minster when these changes occurred<\/a>, but he and his team are just the people needed to fix it. <\/p>\n The current UK Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, backs Blair\u2019s ideas about pension reform, superfunds and the need to \u2018unlock\u2019 Britain\u2019s pensions, which she outlined during her Mansion House Speech<\/a>. She also said she was aiming to direct pension savings into higher risk, higher growth UK companies. Much of this investment will actually be earmarked for the defense industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n The EU can\u2019t follow the Blair Institute\u2019s lead because some of them have already taken their private pensions<\/a> to fund budget shortfalls.<\/p>\n Unsurprisingly European defense firms\u2019 share prices have been rocketing during the Ukraine SMO and will soar<\/a> further on the news.<\/p>\n If there is any topic you\u2019d like to see covered or have any suggestions then please leave a comment below.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.nakedcapitalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/romania-again-1.jpg\")
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