Merkel is fanatically pursuing a  stronger EU. When the 7th and final treaty is signed, possibly in the summer of 2009, democracy is over in Europe. In Britain's case this would mean the end of our Monarchy, Parliament and political parties.

Legislation is already in place to ensure that mere criticism of the EU comes under the term xenophobia, a crime for which the Europol police can arrest you in the UK and try you under the auspices of EuroJust in Brussells. This is Totalitarianism.

As I mentioned earlier, just because we will not have a command economy does not mean we will waive all the other manifestations of Communism that went with it - Totalitarian one party rule, the 5am knock on the door, the re-education camps, possibly even the Gulag for avowed dissidents.

All these things went on whilst Merkel was active in the party perpetrating them. On this very site interviews with a man who knows better than us, Vladimir Bukovsky, tells of his torment and torture by the Communists and how he sees their second coming in the EU. Do 100 million deaths mean nothing?

If you believe in democracy Merkel must be seen as an enemy, rather than someone to be accomodated. We are already semi-totalitarian, when a party whose ultimate aim is total control ignores the EU referendun votes of the people again and again then you should know in which direction they are heading.

As they gain more power, they will use that power to gain ultimate power. The fact that some posters here seem not to understand our future leaves me flabbergasted.

Finally, Vaclav Havel came to power in 1989 in Czechoslovakia having served years in Jail as a dissident.

What both of you fail to note is that the Deutsche Demokratik Republik had the highest degree of party control in the entire Eastern Bloc. It is perfectly reasonable to assume that if Merkel was interested in politics, she would have had to enter it through Communist channels and be a champion of the SED, even if she privately believed otherwise. Every leader who ended communist rule in the Soviet bloc was originally a communist. Furthermore, much of the DDR's military establishment were ex-national socialists. It will take a generation before the political elite in the former Soviet bloc will not be tainted by membership in communist parties. I would give Merkel the benefit of the doubt; she is leftist by American standards, but right by German ones. Putin is more of a worry to me than Merkel...

You point out the early activities of Angela Merkel.  Some would say that her involvement ceased with the dissolution of the East.  Many, if not most, persons who are communist are not and would never be identifiable with a formal Communist Party.  Few communists are capable of leaving strictly disciplined communism without suffering severely.  I am not aware enough of Merkels policies and beliefs to agree or disagree, but the wiki article on her gives background confirming that which you point out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Merkel

It is difficult to determine with assurance who is and is not a true enemy of freedoms and liberties since the media portrays leftism with heroic terms and titles and promotes"feel good" social concepts as if they are practical remedies for complex problems.  Legitimate concerns about leaders backgrounds and policies are branded with labels and proponents castigated as daft, racist or representative of narrow interests.  The nature of leftists operations are not open, but have much pretense of being so.

The basic structure of communist cells is six to eight persons, with one as a leader or handler.  That structure is carried throughout, with only the handler knowing his members and communicating with other handlers who know only their members.  Higher level operatives may not know any of the lower level members, but the interconnected structure allows top level decisions to be carried out faithfully.  The higher level handlers are particularly careful about being identified as party members or operatives.  A network of fronts such as charitable foundations, think tanks, business conferences has arisen to provide them more "cover" and legitimacy.  Their first and primary goals are influencing and controlling communications and education.  They can then spread easily from there, utilizing unknowing converts to do work for them.

I can't say for sure that Merkel still retains characteristics because so many have similar views and are able to camoflage them with assistence of media and other higher level colleagues.  I do know that I would trust her as much as some who are running for office in the USA who have never been publically identified with an association whose goals they harbor and seek to implement.  Their early achievements in communications and education are likely to pay off handsomely at the expense of our freedoms.  Have you ever had a liberal arts professor who taught that leftism is a monolithic movement?  Of course not.  They would not teach that anywhere in the world!

"Of course this absolute freedom is in her case not in fact absolute as she has already suggested that she would like to make holocaust denial a criminal offence right across the EU. "

The 20th century WAS the Holocaust.  100 million murdered?  How did it come to only being applied to Jews?  300,000 Dutch starved to death in winter 1945 after the Nazis took the harvest and all you ever hear about is Ann Frank.  Maybe 80,000 Jewish refugees and Dutch jews died from the accounts I have heard. 

Merkel was the Secretary for Agitiation and Propaganda in the Communist Youth Wing whilst studying at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig in the 1970's.

She remained a communist activist right up to 1989. Today, she is attempting to ressurect the EU Constitution previously voted down by France and Holland. She, and president Barroso (an ex maoist) seem determined to push through the expansion of EU powers contrary to the peoples wishes.

Fully seven other EU Commissioners out of twenty seven are ex-communists. They are also unelected and unanswerable.

If, in March this year, Merkel gets the EU Constitution ratified without recourse to referendums (Britain has already indicated that Parliament will bypass the electorate if the Constitution is watered down) we can expect an EU Superstate in 2009.

The people and police who will then run us will answer only to a group of unelected, unashamed communists or communist sympathisers with the blood of 100 million on their hands.

They will not interfere with our economies, but they will interfere with US, if we dare criticise them. Merkel wishes to bring about an end to democracy and the beginning of a Totalitarian State.

I am amazed that some people who have the wherewithal to find and read this site are unaware of both her, and the direction she intends to take us.

Yitzak, your post shows that you think that prohibiting holocast denial is desireable.  I think it is not.  Why should an event which is a major part of history not be discussed?  We discuss other aspects of WWII (or any other war).  Discussion involves some disagreement on most subjects.  Prohibiting discussion of this will not change history or facts.  It will make people more certain that something is hidden and encourage radical thoughts.

There is plenty of speech and writing today which should be prosecuted.  I hear and read items often which should be prosecuted as being treasonous.  We should stop speech and/or acts which aids and abets our enemies in time of war or which gives out information that is harmful to the nation's security.  Our energies should be directed toward that and prosecution of violators. Freedom of speech should apply on any other matter.

I am wondering how you reconcile what you post and what is on your blog, "If Islamic world expect to earn respect they should first learn to respect other religions if they expect world to take them seriously they should show same reaction when an Arab news paper publish an anti-Semitic cartoon or publish an anti-Semitic propaganda “like protocol of elder of Zion” etc...." ? I happen to agree with your blog statement. I just find it inconsistent with your post here.

1. Attacking Muslim immigration not for Europe's sake, or because Muslims both envy and despise Europeans, but because of Muslim attitudes to a tiny minority of the population which is not even statistically significant
2. Empty bullsh*t posts by Bob Doney, even though no one's counting

What should be really banned? Accusations of anti-Semitism any time Israel is criticized.

How predictable. I am surprised why you even post on this blog considering its subject matter is Europe as opposed to Israel, the Palestinians, or anti-Semitism. If you cannot comment on Europe as a whole, rather than special interests in Europe and abroad, why are you here?

It’s about time that EU criminalizes Holocaust denial. The alarming raise of Right wing Nazi ideology throughout EU makes it perfectly understandable to put a stop on this madness before it’s too late.

There have been countless annihilations and attempted annihilations throughout human history, including both genocide and democide - nearly all of which are available for unbiased popular and academic debate. Secondly, the Holocaust is not limited merely to the Shoah, but is comprised also of those campaigns waged by the Germans and their allies against the Gypsies, Poles, Ukrainians, Byelorussians, Russians, Yugoslavians, and the reprisals against civilians in Greece, Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Denmark, and Norway. Indeed, the Gypsies suffered greater per capita losses and suffered more harshly during the Holocaust than the Jews, yet this fact has: (a) not gained the same public attention as the Shoah, and (b) has not received recognition from other Holocaust survivors. Good primers can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porajmos.

If the Armenian, Congolese (under Belgian administration from 1890-1910), and Gypsy genocides, and Soviet and Communist democides can be scrutinized and debated, so too can the Shoah. If more people died under Mao's administration than any other political figure and if Stalin was responsible for more deaths than Hitler, why is the latter more evil? Because of gas chambers, which were used on other groups such as Gypsies as well? How is famine and firing squad "better" than gas? Unfortunately, any revision of the Shoah's place in World War II history would result in major changes in the international relations between Germany and the rest of the world and Israel and the rest of the world; neither the United States, Israel, nor Germany's European partners will allow for that guilt to be altered in the least...

It seems to me that Ms. Merkel is one of the few European politicians spouting any sense these days.  I'm not sure why you need to take a shot at her for her issue on the Holocaust, even if you are right on principle.

We must not forget that the Holocaust is a very dark chapter of German history and one many of them still have trouble believing their country is guilty of carrying out.  Her interest in outlawing the denial of this, although against the ideals of free speach and thought, is weighed against the even greater danger should a strong belief take hold that it never happened, losing a great lesson in the history of mankind.

We need more people like her in power and should save our criticisms for those more derserving.

Lord, grant me the strength to change the things I can;

the serenity to deal with the things I cannot change;

and the wisdom to know the difference.

Europe is a community of nations whose civilisation is based upon:

1. Popular national sovereignty
2. National self-determination
3. Competition
4. The scientific method
5. Greco-Roman values
6. Teutonic values
7. Christian values
8. Property rights (for individuals and groups)
9. Individual liberties (limited by group needs)
10. A significant role for the State in national life

Freedom is not a value inherent to any one people or group of peoples, it is an option that is exercised a great deal by some and seldom by others. If freedom is all that Merkel can come up with than she is claiming that Europe has no soul other than being the aggregate of those cultures that colonise it.

Somebody should of asked her the difference between her said 'Soul' and the concept/idea of 'Nation'. Can anyone conceive a EU with a soul or nation...sounds like ending up with a State, a United one. Sorry, won't work, can't accept it, sayonara.