(LifeSiteNews) –– Following a June 19 warning by the International Monetary Fund, reports continue to reinforce a growing sense of economic crisis in Europe.
Speaking to Euronews, the IMF’s Kristalina Georgieva said the European Union is faced with a long phase of constant inflation.
The IMF is known for its recommendation of severe neoliberal “reforms,” which often undermine social welfare, wages and general living standards whilst promising stability.
Accordingly, Euronews reported that “…the IMF’s Managing Director says that more stringent measures could become the norm given the current economic situation in Europe.”
What might these measures mean? There was an allusion to the cause of this current crisis, but no suggestion that the cause may be related to any potential solution.
“…while Europe has shown remarkable resilience in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the largest period of trade shock in several decades, economic activity has weakened and inflation ‘although gradually declining’ remains elevated.”
The IMF’s director stressed that “[t]he most important thing for Europe is to get a handle on inflation.”
With the economic climate changing for the worse, the proposals of the European Central Bank have been met with anger today – notably from Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni, and the deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini.
Hot air
With no acknowledgment of the cause of an energy crisis which is crippling German industry, and which is forecast to worsen over the winter of 2023, it seems that inflation will be a permanent feature of European life as long as the sanctions on cheap Russian energy continue.
The head of the European Central Bank made two announcements which produced outrage and disbelief in equal measure.
She spoke to the ECB Forum on Central Banking in Sintra, Portugal on June 27 to declare the second interest rate rise in two months. Whilst she did manage to allude to the reason for the worsening crisis, she could not say when these rate rises would end.
According to Reuters:
The issue, Lagarde argued, is that what was initially a transitory, energy-shock driven inflation has now seeped into the broader economy and could linger.
‘It is unlikely that in the near future the central bank will be able to state with full confidence that the peak rates have been reached.’
Her remarks, which carefully exclude the obvious remedy of lifting the sanctions and restoring Germany’s gas supply, came swiftly on the back of an even wilder analysis.
Speaking to the Summit for a New Global Climate Pact in France on June 23, Lagarde repeated a line she has been fond of invoking in place of any explanation related to reality. The blame for inflation can also be placed on “climate change.”
ECB boss Christine Lagarde claims: Inflation is due to climate change! 🤡
It is never their own policies or printings trillions of Euros or $$$ or ZIRP.
It’s climate change and you need to pay more taxes to fix it.
🔊
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) June 27, 2023
‘Unilateral economic disarmament’
The EU maintains it will completely halt Russian gas imports by 2027. Measures such as buying Russian oil through India, or Russian gas through Azerbaijan notwithstanding, the strategy relies on a very “green” idea: reducing demand.
This ingenious plan, which has encouraged the Dutch government to shut down its domestic gas fields, and the Germans to warn that industry may have to shut down due to energy shortages, is going to bring European economic activity closer to “Net Zero” than its carbon activity.
Germany’s transition to the new future has been shocking and rapid. As The Wall Street Journal said on June 23, “Europe’s largest nation and its main growth engine has become the biggest drag on its economy.”
Britain is not immune to this madness. Though its people did vote to leave the EU, the international agenda continues its “green” business as usual.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Andrew Orlowski argues that a “Net Zero elite” is pressing ahead with plans which amount to “unilateral economic disarmament.”
To sum up: Western policy elites have embarked on the electrification of society, replacing hydrocarbons in housing and transport, but without the technology to replace it well.
The plans drawn up by the “the laptop elites of Davos” have been surprised at the progress of their green agenda so far, says Orlowski. Yet the new phase – of the large scale electrification of the West – is an impossible feat for which they have no real plan.
Crisis management
The political climate in Europe is one which is rapidly changing. Along with Italy, Finland and Sweden, Greece, Spain and even Germany look likely to elect populist leaders in a sharp shift to what is called the “right.”
Parties such as the German AfD (Alternative for Germany) and the outspoken French commentator Eric Zemmour have presented themselves as an alternative to the national euthanasia of the parties of liberal consensus. Zemmour has described the mass immigration into France as “Francocide,” warning of a second threat to the European way of life presented by the liberal elite.
Meanwhile, the AfD is committed to reversing the insane green agenda which has accelerated Germany’s rapid decline. With windmills replacing reliable energy, an open borders policy and the celebration of the “rainbow” agenda, the Green party has seen its support collapse, and that of the AfD rise to a record 20 percent.
As Gavin Mortimer wrote in the U.K. Spectator on June 27:
If the EU, the UN and the left persist in their state of denial, more outraged by the rhetoric of the likes of Zemmour than they are the stabbing of toddlers in their pushchairs, it won’t be long before the right rules Europe in its entirety.
Germany is now in its third month of recession. There are riots in Paris. Whilst these nations rapidly decline under their management, the political class of Europe is responding – with attacks upon democracy.
Both the French and German leadership are advancing moves to abolish the right of EU member states to veto policies. This is the removal of any meaningful say in the management of the EU for its smaller, satellite members.
Alongside this, the German interior minister is planning to outlaw the rising German opposition party.
The political class of the liberal consensus have long maintained that there is no reasonable alternative to themselves. Now, with a crisis facing Europe that they cannot solve, they are considering measures to make it legally impossible to choose one.