Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said on Friday that Germany had been right to oppose the US-led war in Iraq, driving home his defiant message by repeatedly using the German word for "power," which leaders have long eschewed because of its associations with the Nazi era.
Schroeder, in a speech marking the 13th anniversary of German reunification, described the country as a "civil power" and an "economic power," responsible for fueling the growth of the EU.
The word "macht", or "power," has been laden with meaning since Hitler used it to describe a Germany bent on dominating its neighbors. But Schroeder talked about Germany's "civil power," which he said manifested itself in a peaceful foreign policy that could be spread throughout the world.
"German peace polices are policies for Europe and beyond," he said in a nationally televised speech. "I think we can be proud of the way Germany has accepted growing international responsibilities in recent years."
The chancellor's remarks came a week after he and President Bush exchanged a hearty handshake at the UN in a bid to mend the frayed ties between Germany and the US over Iraq.
On Friday, though, Schroeder won thunderous applause by reaffirming Germany's decision to sit out the war.
"When we were convinced that the assumed threat did not justify the dangers and consequences of war, we had the courage to say `No,'" he told a crowd of 1,400.
Schroeder's speech, delivered in the east, was clearly aimed at a domestic audience. His antiwar stance has been particularly popular among eastern Germans, helping to lift him to a razor-thin victory against a conservative challenger last fall.
Much of Schroeder's message was calculated to win support for his campaign to reform Germany's calcified economy. The unemployment rate in eastern Germany is close to 20 percent, after a decade of subsidies from the west that have failed to bring prosperity.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
DEMONSTRATIONS: A protester said although she would normally sit back and wait for the next election, she cannot do it this time, adding that ‘we’ve lost too much already’ Thousands of protesters rallied on Saturday in New York, Washington and other cities across the US for a second major round of demonstrations against US President Donald Trump and his hard-line policies. In New York, people gathered outside the city’s main library carrying signs targeting the US president with slogans such as: “No Kings in America” and “Resist Tyranny.” Many took aim at Trump’s deportations of undocumented migrants, chanting: “No ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], no fear, immigrants are welcome here.” In Washington, protesters voiced concern that Trump was threatening long-respected constitutional norms, including the right to due process. The
RSS