The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Angela Merkel

  • Germany’s Neuer will be first-choice if he makes World Cup – Bierhoff

    Manuel Neuer will be Germany’s first-choice goalkeeper at next month’s FIFA World Cup if he makes the final squad, team manager Oliver Bierhoff said on Thursday.

    The former Germany striker said this even against the background of the fact that the 2014 World Cup winner has not played a competitive game since September.

    Neuer missed almost the entire season after breaking a bone in his foot and undergoing surgery.

    His comeback for Bayern Munich was repeatedly delayed and the 32-year-old has had no match practice ahead of the tournament starting in Russia on June 14.

    He played in both recent training matches against Germany’s Under-20 team at their training base in Italy and is set to play in their friendly international against Austria on Saturday.

    Read Also: Phil Jones out of Super Eagles Friendly

    “Manuel will go to the World Cup as our number one,” Bierhoff told reporters at their training camp in Eppan, northern Italy. “If he makes the squad, then Marc-Andre (ter Stegen) will be number two.”

    There are four goalkeepers, including FC Barcelona’s ter Stegen, Paris St Germain’s Kevin Trapp and Bayer Leverkusen’s Bernd Leno, in coach Joachim Loew’s 27-man preliminary squad, preparing in the Italian Alps.

    He will cut four players, including one goalkeeper, on Monday for his final 23.

    “Manuel is already full on track. He does not need to get back on it. All the players have left a big impression here and it is as very difficult decision,” Bierhoff said.

    “On the evening before the team announcement there will be the final thoughts among the coaching staff. By noon the next day the players will be informed.”

    The Germans also expect Chancellor Angela Merkel to drop in on their camp this week.

    “My information is that on Sunday she will drop by. Before our training camp we visited her and she had hinted that she wanted to say hello without too much fanfare,” Bierhoff said.

    “It’s kind of a tradition. It is nice to hear from her and how she sees the team’s situation going into the tournament.”

    The Germans, who also face Saudi Arabia in Leverkusen on June 8 in their final warm-up match, are in World Cup Group F with Sweden, South Korea and Mexico.

    The tournament starts on June 14.

    NAN

  • Buhari congratulates German Chancellor Merkel on re-election

    President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, on her re-election for another term.

    In a letter to the German leader, the President said he was “most delighted to learn of the successful conclusion of the inter-party negotiations to form a new government after the last election in Germany.”

    ALSO READ: Merkel to launch coalition talks on Wednesday

    President Buhari, according to a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, told Merkel that her victory “is a testimony of your hard-work, competence, trust of the German people and qualities which are much admired in many parts of the world especially here in Africa.”

    He said: “We greatly value your humanity and concern for refugees.”

    On behalf of the Government and people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he wished his German counterpart and her new cabinet a successful new term of office.

    “We look forward to greater cooperation between our two countries as we strive to confront shared challenges,” President Buhari stated.

     

     

  • Merkel says no need to make national anthem gender-neutral

    Merkel says no need to make national anthem gender-neutral

    German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, says she does not see the need to change the lyrics of the country’s national anthem amid reports of a proposal to make the song more gender-inclusive.
    “Merkel is very happy with the traditional form of the anthem,’’ Government Spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said on Monday.
    Seibert was responding to a move by the government’s Equality Commissioner, Kristin Rose-Moehring, reported in the German press.
    The Sunday edition of the Bild tabloid had reported that a letter circulating in the Family Ministry, for which the commissioner works, said that words such as “fatherland” in the anthem should be changed to “homeland.”

    Read Also: Merkel to launch coalition talks on Wednesday
    Also the phrase “brotherly with heart and hand” should be changed to “pluckily with heart and hand.”
    Canada recently voted to make its national anthem “O Canada” gender-neutral. The second line of the anthem has been changed from “in all thy sons command” to “in all of us command.”
    Austria also added the word “daughters” to its national anthem where previously there had only been “sons.”
    A spokesman for the Family Ministry said that the letter had been a “personal contribution” from the equality commissioner.

    NAN

  • Merkel to launch coalition talks on Wednesday

    Merkel to launch coalition talks on Wednesday

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel is to launch talks on Wednesday aimed at forging a new coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), an SPD leader confirmed on Friday.

    The exploratory talks between the SPD, Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and the CDU’s Bavarian-based ally, the Christian Social Union (CSU), bring Europe’s biggest economy closer to ending months of political deadlock following September’s inconclusive national election.

    “No matter what comes now or how it turns out, I believe that we need both more political argument but also more alignment between the CDU-CSU and SPD,” SPD parliamentary leader Andreas Nahles told German radio.

    She confirmed that Wednesday had been set aside for the launch of coalition talks after SPD members attending a party congress on Thursday reluctantly voted to meet with Merkel.

    SPD chief Martin Schulz told the 600 or so delegates attending the conference in Berlin that the party would ensure that key elements of its programme form part of any new coalition pact with Merkel.

    Those elements include a new immigration law and a reimagining of the EU as well as education and health reform.

    In addition to Schulz and Merkel, Wednesday’s talks are to be attended by CSU chief Horst Seehofer, SPD leader Nahles, leading CDU parliamentarian Volker Kauder and the CSU’s Alexander Dobrindt, party officials said.

    NAN

  • Forbes names Merkel as world’s most powerful woman for 7th time

    Forbes names Merkel as world’s most powerful woman for 7th time

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been named the world’s most powerful woman for the seventh time in a row by Forbes magazine, the publication announced on Thursday.

    “Merkel this year won a hard-fought election that saw the far-right Alternative for Germany party creep into the Bundestag.

    “She’ll have to continue to hold tight to the EU rudder as she faces oncoming storms from Brexit and the growing anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe,” Forbes said in a statement.

    British Prime Minister, Theresa May, took second place in the ranking, while Hillary Clinton, who was ranked the world’s second-most powerful woman in 2016, fell to 63rd place after her election defeat to U.S. President Donald Trump.

    Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, who has been serving as a White House advisor in his administration, ranked 19th on the list, while the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, came in 43rd.

    Melinda Gates of the Gates Foundation, Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook and Mary Barra, the head of General Motors, took third, fourth and fifth place, respectively.

    NAN

  • Turkey asks Germany to extradite 81 citizens over failed coup

    Turkey asks Germany to extradite 81 citizens over failed coup

    Turkey has asked the German government to extradite 81 of its citizens for suspected involvement in a failed military coup in 2016, the Justice Ministry said in response to a question from the Left Party.

    The government of President Recep Erdogan has accused Germany of harbouring supporters of Fethullah Gulen, an exiled preacher and former ally of the president whose movement is accused of orchestrating the coup.

    The answer to the Left Party’s question, seen by dpa on Monday, does not reveal how many extradition requests Ankara submitted for people it accuses of terrorism-related activities.

    In November 2016, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Turkey was seeking the extradition of “more than 4,000” supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party ( PKK ).

    “Regardless of the measures the Turkish side uses to exert pressure, the federal government must not extradite,” said Left Party lawmaker Alexander Neu.

    “Instead, it must exert pressure itself in order to finally free German hostages from custody.”

    Turkey is currently holding a handful of German citizens, including journalists and human rights activists, on terrorism-related charges, causing strained diplomatic relations to reach an unprecedented low.

    Turkey’s relationship with Germany was severely strained after it refused to allow Turkish politicians to hold campaign rallies in February.

    Erdogan repeatedly threw Nazi slurs against Angela Merkel and accused the country of Nazi practices.

    Berlin’s decision to grant asylum to some of 414 army officers and government workers only added fuel to Turkey’s escalating animosity toward the country.

    NAN

  • Angela Merkel’s example

    Angela Merkel’s example

    For the perceptive, the September 2017 German Bundestag elections is a clear lesson for Nigeria on how to interpret elections and draw the appropriate lessons from both victory and defeat. With Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU conservatives winning 32.9 percent of the votes, and the far-right, anti-immigrant AFD taking an unprecedented 12.6 percent, the first time in 60 years, Germany may be set for very trying moments. The result has been seen as a referendum on Mrs Merkel’s policy of admitting about a million refugees into Germany, leading to a fear of cultural dilution and social and political distortions.

    The AFD, which takes about 87 seats in the parliament, has promised to put Mrs Merkel on her toes. The implication is that the governing CDU/CSU alliance, in addition to its two coalition parties, will be opposed virtually every step of the way on many issues, including refugee policies. Ominously, the AFD has promised to pursue policies that would help Germans to ‘take their people and their country back’, apparently from the influx of refugees from Syria and other Arab countries. There will undoubtedly be fireworks in the years ahead, fireworks that may be complicated by any minor or even existential threat posed by refugees who flout the laws of the land or dilute the cultural homogeneity of their hosts.

    But rather than hit out self-righteously at the far-right party, especially the Nazis who constitute a significant percentage of its membership, and rather than threaten the AFD and assail it with real or imaginary constitutional bugaboos, Mrs Merkel has suggested that she and her party would do everything to regain the confidence of voters who bolted from the CDU/CSU alliance — about eight percent of them — and embraced the anti-immigrant party. She would win them back, she promised ruefully. She added that her party would ‘listen to the concerns and anxieties’ of the voters who repudiated the CDU/CSU alliance, thereby enabling her conservative alliance to achieve a victory that ‘was not as good as she had expected’.

    Contrast Mrs Merkel’s diminished and chastening victory to Nigeria’s All Progressives Congress’ victorious candidate in the 2015 presidential election, Muhammadu Buhari, who sneered at the voters who repudiated him. He had promised to give much better attention to the 97 percent who voted for him than the five percent who didn’t endorse him, without however being unjust to anyone. In both his victory speech and inaugural address, there was nothing in President Buhari’s statements that acknowledged any regional colouration in the map and demographics of his victory, let alone recognise the overt and covert messages and anxieties in the texture and tapestry of the small repudiation he seemed to growl at. Unable to conduct this elementary distinguishing exercise, it was not surprising that the humility that should accompany his understanding of his victory was supplanted by a messianic euphoria that flowed from his massive and unprecedented electoral margin.

    Two years after his great victory, President Buhari has still not understood the role and significance of the APC as a party in his victory. He has also not said a word about the worldviews of those who repudiated him, and why they rejected him, not to talk of appreciating the narrowness of his victory even in some regions where he was accepted. In speech after speech, he has spoken (or more accurately, given impression) only vaguely of the messianic role he conferred on himself, refusing to undergird it with the stirring philosophical and ideational supports required by law and politics. Unfortunately, this has complicated his approach to governance and set him on a collision course with the Southeast.

    It is not clear exactly what kind of relationship and synergy exist between the president and his party. But if they still listen to each other, it may be time for the party to help their president see what he has so far failed to see: that his victory, as robust as it was, is neither eternal nor immutable. They should help him see the complex realities of that 2015 victory, appreciate the hidden messages in it, and decode the future from the interplay of routine but engaging electoral back and forth, acceptance and rejection. They should help steer him away from the stifling insularity of his deep longings, and get him to open up to the vast array of possibilities the DNA of his victory signals.

  • Merkel, Macron pledge to lead EU forward post-Brexit

    Merkel, Macron pledge to lead EU forward post-Brexit

    French President, Emmanuel Macron, won backing from Angela Merkel for plans to reform the EU after Brexit, founded on what the German chancellor called “intense” cooperation between Paris and Berlin.

    But during an EU dinner in Estonia that lasted till midnight ahead of a formal summit on Friday, some leaders sounded wary of the youthful new French leader’s ambitious ideas, set out in a speech at the Sorbonne on Tuesday, for deepening EU integration.

    Merkel, re-elected for a fourth term on Sunday but weakened by the rise of an insurgent eurosceptic opposition, met Macron for half an hour before dinner and, according to a French aide, welcomed his speech as “visionary” and a return of co-founder France as a driving force in the European Union project.

    But she also noted differences.

    Some of her potential new coalition partners, along with northern governments like the Dutch and Finns, are very dubious about his suggestions for pooling budgets with less fiscally austere states in the south.

    “As far as the proposals were concerned, there was a high level of agreement between Germany and France.

    “We must still discuss the details, but I am of the firm conviction that Europe can’t just stay still but must continue to develop,” she said.

    French officials said Macron, who they said spoke again with Merkel at length after the late-night dinner, was not trying to impose his ideas but to show others that they were in their common interest and recognised that some needed time to reflect.

    “The idea is not about forcing people to give a binary response.

    France cannot force things,” one said, adding that Paris hoped leaders could agree on a way to work on the ideas in the coming weeks before an October summit in Brussels.

    “The dinner,” a Macron aide said, “Was a chance to share further the Sorbonne project … Things are on the move.”

    An EU official said that the dinner had shown there was a “strong and shared willingness to maintain the unity” and that the EU should be “open to address new ideas” while continuing to work to deliver concrete results for citizens.

    Summit Chair, Donald Tusk, would consult governments in the coming two weeks and make proposals for how to follow up on the debate about reform at a summit in Brussels on Oct. 19-20.

    European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, proposed similar but different reforms earlier this month and called for a landmark summit of the 27 in Romania on the day Britain leaves the EU in 18 months time, on March 30, 2019.

    British Prime Minister, Theresa May, also attended the dinner in spite of Britain’s increasing isolation as it prepares to quit.

    She took the opportunity of Friday’s “digital summit” in Tallinn to visit British troops on a NATO mission in northern Estonia and pledged post-Brexit security cooperation with European neighbours confronting Russian threats.

    May arrived with a better sense of whether her keynote major Brexit speech last Friday has succeeded in unblocking talks in Brussels on Britain’s divorce package.

    The chief EU negotiator, Michel Barnier, praised on Thursday a “new dynamic” to Brexit negotiations created by concessions made by May although progress was still not sufficient to allow discussions on future trade relations.

    EU officials said she should not expect direct feedback in Tallinn from the other leaders.

    But she was expected to talk to Merkel and others individually as she pursues her quest for agreement to open talks on close ties with the bloc.

    Friday’s talks on a “digital agenda” for Europe will range from ways to ease cross-border flows of data while protecting privacy to cyber security and taxing online businesses.

    NAN

  • Buhari congratulates Merkel over victory at German polls

    Buhari congratulates Merkel over victory at German polls

    President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated German Chancellor Angela Merkel on her victory at the polls.

    President Buhari also congratulated the German Chancellor’s party for producing the country’s leadership for over 12 years and winning another opportunity to sustain the legacy of good work.

    In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, the President recalled his interactions with Merkel over the years, especially at the G8 meeting in 2015 and during his visit to Germany in 2016.

    “During the interactions, the President got strong impression about Merkel’s commitment to building stronger ties across the world,” the statement added.

    President Buhari wished the German Chancellor a successful tenure in office.

  • Oil gains as producers say market is rebalancing

    Oil gains as producers say market is rebalancing

    Oil prices kept most of their gains from the previous session as major producers meeting in Vienna said the market was well on its way towards rebalancing.

    The WTI crude front month discount to the same month of Brent futures hit 6.28 dollars, the widest since August 2015, as U.S.crude was pressured by hurricane damage to U.S. refineries.

    Brent therefore rises to 63.19 dollars as report media hide price with ambiguous  coverage.Add 56.91 plus 91 dollars.

    Brent crude futures was up 0.05 per cent at 56.88 dollars a barrel, not far from a 6-1/2-month high of 56.91dollars set on Friday.

    The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries ( OPEC ), Russia and several other producers have cut production by about 1.8 million barrels per day (bpd) since the start of 2017, helping lift oil prices by high numbers n the past three months.

    Kuwaiti Oil Minister Essam al- Marzouq, who chaired Friday’s meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, said output curbs were helping cut global crude inventories to their five-year average, OPEC’s stated target.

    The dollar index was up 0.2 per cent against a basket of currencies.

    The euro slipped after Germany’s election showed surging support for a far-right party that left Chancellor Angela Merkel scrambling to form a governing coalition.

    Russia’s energy minister said no decision on extending output curbs beyond the end of March was expected before January, although other ministers suggested such a decision could be taken before the end of this year.

    Iran expects to maintain overall  crude and condensate exports at around 2.6 million bpd for the rest of 2017, a senior official in the nation’s state oil company said.

    Meanwhile, the UAE’s energy minister said its compliance to supply cuts was 100 per cent.

    Nigeria is pumping below its agreed output cap, its oil minister said.

    “Oil is relatively underpriced compared with other markets, but any steep rise would be offset by rising shale oil production,” said Tomomichi Akuta, senior economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting in Tokyo.

    Markets were also eyeing developments in North Korea. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Sunday said President Donald Trump wants to avoid nuclear war with North Korea and “will do everything we can” to avoid conflict.