The European Project: the future of the EU.

[bc1]

Helicoper money to the poor doesn't work either: France has been doing it for decades, and the their poor mostly buy cheap foreign stuff, which does not help grow the french economy.
There is no need to continue repeating the same boring socialist or capitalist stuff over again, it's always the same eat or plant your seed thing, no one will ever agree.

 

[Snowygerry]

It doesn't matter that the federal state is in debt if the population is rich. In that sense distributing wealth works, can't speak for the situation in France.

Was Belgium's record €22 billion retail bond buy a one-off?

Last year the Belgian government set a new record by selling debt direct to its citizens. All eyes are on what happens when it matures next week.

www.euronews.com

Indebted governments endlessly worry about how they’ll fund their deficits – usually done by selling bonds to big banks or pension funds.
Last September, Belgium broke all records when it took an innovative path, selling €22 billion in government debt, not to financial institutions, but to its own citizens.

The federal state of Belgium is essentially our own public held hedge fund.

“Imagine putting €5 million on the state note electronically ... it’s impressive, isn’t it? That happened,” he said.
“I had to tell the whole story to the Reserve Bank of India in Mumbai: ‘Tell us how you do that’,” he added, also citing interest from China, the US and South Korea.

 

[Akka]

Helicoper money to the poor doesn't work either: France has been doing it for decades, and the their poor mostly buy cheap foreign stuff, which does not help grow the french economy.
There is no need to continue repeating the same boring socialist or capitalist stuff over again, it's always the same eat or plant your seed thing, no one will ever agree.

I keep throwing facts at you, you keep making claims ignoring these facts. You're right it's pointless to repeat the same stuff that you'll simply blindly reject out of dogmatism, but you should maybe get down from ideologyland to check reality down here.

 

[bc1]

opinions are not facts, sorry. if you really had a magic solution for the economy you should run for world leader

 

[AdrienIer]

opinions are not facts, sorry. if you really had a magic solution for the economy you should run for world leader

Saying that when you literally said that there was only one solution for the french economy and it was to go the way of Argentina is quite ironic

 

[bc1]

that's not a solution that's a crash

 

[soundjata]

The fall is not important. What's important is the landing.

 

[Joij21]

It's hard to pinpoint a specific thing about the french economy. Our strengths are luxury items and tourism (compared to other countries), but as a percent of GDP it's not that significant. Our other strengths are transportation (airbus along with other EU countries, Alstom for trains) and energy. Also a few major banks, and a large construction industry. But even if one of those strengths were to have major issues, it wouldn't tank the french economy by much (except for banks, like everywhere else).

Well I think we can see the obvious weakness of luxury items and tourism.

Transportation will suffer from competition with China and other emerging markets. (If it isn't already)

Energy doesn't really do much unless you're exporting it or actually intensively using it (manufacturing, AI) and like you say it isn't actually getting cheaper because of some weird EU energy regulations.

Banks only matter if they're big enough to be international and service other countries (Santander comes to mind, so Spain has an edge here) or if there is enough economic activity going on domestically say from development (hence developing countries having an edge here even if their banks aren't yet international) but France is already developed.

And construction, do they do international projects in the developing world? If no than it's not really that great if you're not intensively developing. If yes then you'll find plenty of competition from Chinese construction firms who are moving in to develop the global south.

Add in population aging, plus inflation.

 

[AdrienIer]

Why comparing France to other countries who got into huge financial issues in the past 20 years is a mistake :

To answer to Joji, some of what you say is true but much of it is overstated. Transportation is still a strength, we have the biggest insurance company in the world + the 4th 9th and 10th biggest banks in the world (BNP Paribas is huge), and our construction industry is working in Africa a lot (due to lots of links dating back to colonization).

 

[Verbose]

Well I think we can see the obvious weakness of luxury items and tourism.

Transportation will suffer from competition with China and other emerging markets. (If it isn't already)

Energy doesn't really do much unless you're exporting it or actually intensively using it (manufacturing, AI) and like you say it isn't actually getting cheaper because of some weird EU energy regulations.

Banks only matter if they're big enough to be international and service other countries (Santander comes to mind, so Spain has an edge here) or if there is enough economic activity going on domestically say from development (hence developing countries having an edge here even if their banks aren't yet international) but France is already developed.

And construction, do they do international projects in the developing world? If no than it's not really that great if you're not intensively developing. If yes then you'll find plenty of competition from Chinese construction firms who are moving in to develop the global south.

Add in population aging, plus inflation.

Energy in France is nuclear in a big way, and it exports it. It's already a sunk cost for France since decades. Now they benefit. And if the French industry can't use it all, then Germany at al. can. It's part of the point of the Common Market. (It¨s less "Drill baby, drill" and more "Split baby, split"m – but if the first is supposed to be good for the US, the second certainly is no disadvantage for France.)

As for demographics, France has one of the absolutely healthiest demographics in Europe. It's population pyramid resembles the US one, except people live longer in France (including about eight years more of healthy life expectancy).

 

[innonimatu]

You truly believe your own propaganda pieces!?
Show me the free media scrutiny from russian sources then.

Do you know how I am aware that I live in a true free, heavily scrutinised, country?
Media even if sometimes heavily left biased will tell the rot and failures of my country and the people who govern it.
Does the media in Russia does that?
I am pretty sure any EU media can run a story about dirt they found on Ursula without fear of repercussions. Can a Russian media outlet do the same about Putin?

Your self-righteous protestations of living in a "free contry" just show how brainwashed you are. A free country has its own foreign policy, economic policy, currency, institutions, it is sovereign. And only when all that is determined by internal political processes can it be a democracy. Portugal is not any of that for decades now. You can vote for whatever managers you please, pick the faces, but policy is dictated from the outside. When has any vote for anything that the "european" commission and courts disaprove has counted? You can vote against anything but unless you are french that thing is happening all the same. And even if you are french that thing is shoved down your throat after a change of label. Remember the renamed constitution all those foreigners gathered in Lisbon to sign? I do.

There have been for the past two years or so a growing pathetic breed of self-professed young (teenager, in mind when not in body anymore) "conservatives" who parrot and support every idea and institution of the liberal consensus which produced the things they pretend to worry about, they pretend to oppose as "conservatives". The old childish rebelling against the fathers without risking losing the allowance!

They will play their role in the ongoing collapse of political systems by, more than merely voting, staffing make-belive "extreme right" parties who are no more, in their directions (party bosses) than the very worst among the liberals, the failed ones, the incompetent and most criminal ones*, who believe that the collapse of a system is but a game of musical chairs that is opening nre opportunities whete they will finally get all they alwats deserved. Well, it isn't. It will turn violent if it goes on. These man-children, who do not know end of a gun from another, will be in for a rude forced growth once they "win". The people with the guns tend to have low tolerance for incompetents and fools crashing the country - they are a threat.

*here the oligarch-sponsored "exteme right" screams against pedophiles and has pedophile candidates, screams about arsonists and has arsonist candidates, etc - as everywhere else, they collect the scum of society and package it as "new politics".

 

[Ordnael]

I wrote about media freedom as a measure of democracy a week and a half ago as an argument against your propaganda piece that Russia is stable and democratic more so than any EU member and you retort with voluntary loss of sovereignty to be a EU member!?
English do you understand it!? Or is moving the goalposts on any given premise your only way of spreading your seething pro muskovian propaganda against the EU?

 

[EvaDK]

If someone defines their own personal definition of democracy, a definition that does not correspond to the commonly accepted definition, you can choose not to engage in a discussion with them.

 

[Ordnael]

If someone defines their own personal definition of democracy, a definition that does not correspond to the commonly accepted definition, you can choose not to engage in a discussion with them.

The thing is the dude is a compatriot of mine! Hard to let his moth ridden propaganda go by...My guess is that he's still butthurt we didn't instate a communist autocracy after we kicked the former autocracy.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

It is very telling how self-proclaimed 'communists' are fanboys of extreme right populists, fascist, and anything anti-democratic. I think it is not about ideology but a fascination for strong male authoritarian figures, common among incels and other weak frustrated guys who unconsciously look for a strong leadership because they are unable to accomplish anything by themselves. Freud probably has some book about it.

In general, I think the world is now in an authoritarian drift, but it's starting to fail. When the failures of Trump, Putin, Miley, Orban, Netanyahu, and other similar excrements start to hit, the rebound to the other side is going to be quite strong.

 

[EnglishEdward]

Freud was a fraud.

 

[EvaDK]

It is very telling how self-proclaimed 'communists' are fanboys of extreme right populists, fascist, and anything anti-democratic. I think it is not about ideology but a fascination for strong male authoritarian figures, common among incels and other weak frustrated guys who unconsciously look for a strong leadership because they are unable to accomplish anything by themselves. Freud probably has some book about it.

Psychoanalyst Alfred Adler wrote about what he called the 'Inferiority Complex'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferiority_complex

 

[Birdjaguar]

Denmark Says New Drone Flights Over Military Base, Airports Are ‘Hybrid Attack’​

Drones were spotted over at least four airports, including a military air base housing most of Denmark’s F-16 and F-35 jet fighters​

By Sune Engel Rasmussen
Sept. 25, 2025 6:49 am ET

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Denmark’s Aalborg Airport was closed for a few hours on Wednesday following a drone incident. Photo: bo amstrup/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

​

Drones were observed over Danish airports, including a military air base, marking the second such incident in less than a week. Denmark said it had suffered a hybrid attack by a professional actor after drones were observed over several airports late on Wednesday, the second time in less than a week that unmanned aircraft have disrupted air traffic in the Nordic nation, a NATO member.

Drones were spotted over at least four airports in the western part of the country, including a military air base housing most of Denmark’s F-16 and F-35 jet fighters. The Danish government said it considered calling for consultations under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Article 4, under which member states can raise issues of national security concern for discussion within the North Atlantic Council.

“We currently don’t know who is behind it. But everything suggests that it is a professional actor, given that it is such a systematic operation against so many locations, practically simultaneously,” Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said Thursday.

He added there was currently no evidence linking the drone activity to Russia, and the unmanned aerial vehicles didn’t pose a military threat to Denmark. Poulsen said the UAVs were launched from Denmark’s vicinity, “not from far away,” and said Denmark needs to improve its drone-detection abilities, possibly with help from Ukraine.

Drones spotted over Danish and Norwegian airports​

Source: staff reports Daniel Kiss/WSJ
“This is what I would define as a hybrid attack with different types of drones. These are actions that could endanger our safety and freedom,” Poulsen said. “I understand the concern among the Danish people, but we cannot today present a solution that removes the threat from drones.”

Hybrid warfare usually describes the use of a mix of conventional and unconventional tools—such as nonlethal technology—to inflict damage on an adversary, often without leaving clear evidence of who was responsible. Denmark’s police and military are still investigating drone sightings that forced airports in Copenhagen and Oslo to close for several hours late Monday, which the Danish prime minister called the most serious action to date against the country’s critical infrastructure.

The drone incidents in Denmark are the latest in a string of disruptions to the airspace of European NATO members, some of which have been blamed on Russia.

Danish officials held a press conference in Copenhagen on Thursday. Photo: emil helms/epa/shutterstock/Shutterstock

NATO jet fighters last week intercepted Russian warplanes that violated Estonia’s airspace for 12 minutes. Earlier this month, NATO radar and warplanes engaged some of the 19 Russian drones that flew deep into Polish airspace. Both nations called for consultations under NATO’s Article 4, as Copenhagen is now considering doing.

President Trump this week said NATO allies should shoot down Russian planes that violate alliance members’ airspace.

Also last week, cyberattacks hit check-in and boarding systems at four of Europe’s main airports, including Berlin, Brussels, Dublin and London’s Heathrow, causing days of flight cancellations and delays. Wednesday’s drone incidents in Denmark occurred over airports in Aalborg, which was closed for a few hours, Esbjerg and Sønderborg, as well as Fighter Wing Skrydstrup, an air base of the Royal Danish Air Force. The drones were similar to the ones spotted in Copenhagen earlier in the week, shining lights that were visible from near the airports, police said.


What’s News
Drones Close Denmark’s Airspace for Second Time


“Let me be completely clear: The aim of this type of hybrid attack is to create fear. It is to sow division and to frighten us,” Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard said. Danish armed forces refrained from downing the drones, because of concern for the safety of citizens on the ground, the country’s defense chief, Michael Hyldgaard, said. He characterized the recent drone activity as “actual operations.”

The Danish government said it would expedite a law, which has been in the works for two years, giving airports more authority to shoot down drones. Danish police said it had raised its crisis preparedness to the highest level since a string of terrorist attacks across Europe in 2015.

 

[Verbose]

Apparently Denmark has decided to procure long-distance stand-off missiles capable of hitting targets inside Russia if need be. It's a first, in the sense that Denmark didn't use to have that capability. The official Russian (un)diplomatic representation to Denmark has not taken it all that well:

Denmark Says to Buy 'Long-Range Precision Weapons' Amid Russia Threat

Denmark said it would for the first time acquire "long-range precision weapons," citing the need to deter Russia.

thedefensepost.com

 

[EvaDK]

We just detected the Russian warship Aleksandr Shabalin in hiding with its transponder turned off, just outside Southern Danish territorial waters. Or I should say, the media and public just got this information.

Danish authorities are being criticized atm for not having a proportional response that can deal with this threat. It's very entertaining to watch the news here today.