EDITORIAL
City of London’s Foolish Coup against Italy Will Hasten a Financial Crash
May 29 (EIRNS)—The London-centered eurodollar elite have just used Italy’s State President to block its democratically elected majority government from taking office, effectively carrying out a coup against Italy.
Now, can any doubt remain, that British intelligence circles and European Union elites simply refused to accept Donald Trump’s election as U.S. President, and started a drive which still continues, to force him out of the White House?
Both Italians and Americans committed the same offense, of electing a government, or a President, who defied British geopolitics by wanting great-power cooperation with Russia and China, and who refused to follow orders and “market rules” of City of London financial powers’ on economic policy.
And in the case of Italy’s coup’ed majority government, its parties were even more open than was candidate Donald Trump, to enacting Glass-Steagall bank separation and national bank credit for productive employment and new infrastructure projects—elements of Lyndon LaRouche’s “Four Laws” for economic revival.
It has become an outrage that London and Brussels EU elites, as well as neo-cons in the United States, denounce China and Russia as authoritarian dictatorships, while reserving to themselves the power to veto or overthrow any government which opposes British geopolitical, zero-sum policies. As the arrogant European Union Commissioner Günther Oettinger pronounced to an interviewer today, “The markets will teach the Italians to vote for the right thing.”
Helga Zepp-LaRouche stated today that this London-centered geopolitical paradigm—claiming to represent “Western values”—is, in reality, now shamed by the New Paradigm of mutual economic and scientific progress represented by China’s Belt and Road Initiative (and by its programs of space exploration, development of fusion energy, etc.).
A Bloomberg News editorial today acutely called the coup in Italy “Mattarella’s Folly,” referring to the Italian State President who vetoed the government on behalf of London and Brussels. Whereas Glass-Steagall and Hamiltonian national banking were muted issues in the elections in March, they will now be far more important in the new national elections for the Fall. In fact, the issue of obeying the austerity rules of the Eurozone, or perhaps, even leaving the euro, will now become as passionate as the aroused issue of fighting for democratic freedom itself.
Not only that: London’s Mattarella blunder gave Europe, at least, a hard new shove towards a major financial crash which was already threatening. With Germany’s biggest bank already in serious trouble, bank stocks led the plunge of stock and bond markets across Europe and in the United States. As this major financial crisis comes on, Glass-Steagall and LaRouche’s “Four Laws” will become fighting issues in the 2018 American elections as well.
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
European Central Bank Staged a Coup against the Legitimate Italian Government
May 29 (EIRNS)—The following abridged statement was issued today by Liliana Gorini, Chairwoman of MoviSol (Movimento Internazionale per i Diritti Civili—Solidarietà), the association of Lyndon LaRouche in Italy.
With an intervention which goes against the most fundamental rules of democracy and international law, Europe vetoed the “government of change” which was being formed in Italy and which had a clear parliamentary majority. Europe imposed yet another technocratic government, which had been ready for months, led by Mr. Spending Review, Carlo Cottarelli, whose plan is just to cut the debt, and who has only the support of the Democratic Party (PD) which lost the legislative elections on March 4th.
This is the latest example of that “suspension of democracy” demanded a year ago by the European Union when it introduced the balanced budget as the only aim of each and every European government, or the “market-compliant democracy” of Angela Merkel. The paradoxical aspect, which has no precedent in the history of the Italian Republic (which is a parliamentary Republic and not a Presidential one), are the reasons given by the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella to explain why he vetoed Prof. Paolo Savona, renowned economist, former minister and head of Confindustria, as Finance Minister in the new government. Mattarella said he did it in order not to upset “foreign investors” who fear that Italy might leave the euro. This, despite the fact that in the government program agreed between the Lega and the Five Star party, and also in the statement of Professor Savona last Sunday, there was no mention of leaving the euro, only the demand to change the failed policy of austerity which in Italy created “poverty, reduced incomes and inequalities” (Professor Savona).
In the days before this unacceptable coup against a legitimate government, which was anticipated with great hope by Italians, Mattarella was apparently often in touch with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, that Mario Draghi who in 2011 imposed the technocratic government of Mario Monti, not elected by any Italian, with a letter which dictated the tasks of the government. Also French President Emmanuel Macron interfered with this decision, by calling up incumbent Premier Giuseppe Conte, before he was received at the Quirinale [presidential residence] with his list of ministers, to ask him to remove Paolo Savona from that list, and then afterwards by supporting Mattarella for rejecting Savona.
The press which speaks for the City of London and the financial lobbies, which are responsible for the 2008 crisis with their speculations, allowed itself to insult not only the Lega and the Five Star party, who worked together to write down a government program aimed at promoting jobs and fighting poverty, but also all Italians as a people, calling them “barbarians” (Financial Times) and “freeloaders” (Der Spiegel)….
The question many ask is: Why impose by force a technocratic government which will last no more than three months, since it does not have a majority in the Parliament; and which, according to PD politician Massimo D’Alema, will increase the votes of the Lega-Five Star government coalition from 60% to 80%? Are financial markets so desperate that they need to buy time, even only three months?
This seems to be the true reason for the coup d’état. Deutsche Bank is on the verge of bankruptcy, its exposure in derivatives has reached such a level that even its chief economist David Folkerts-Landau exposed the fact that it has become a hedge fund. As Italian economist Alberto Bagnai, elected to the Italian Senate with the Lega, declared in a radio interview: “The euro could blow up, but not because of us. Deutsche Bank is ready to fire 7,000 employees. All of these big banks have heavy exposures in derivatives. Let’s suppose that it is the German private finance to blow up instead of the Italian public debt. We have to be ready for such an event.”
Also, the leader of the Five Star party Alessandro Di Battista, in a prime time national TV interview on May 28th with Lilli Gruber, reported that “They prevented this government because they are terrified of banking separation and a state bank for investments.”
So, rather than the fear of an Italexit, what freaked out the markets is the fact that the Salvini-Di Maio government had in its program two points which are dear to the LaRouche movement, reinstating Glass-Steagall and national banking, in order to issue credit for the real economy. The present financial system is so rotten and ready to explode, that it does not allow debating, let alone including such points in the government program of an important country such as Italy, one of the founders of Europe. In order to keep this rotten system alive, previous Italian governments, from Monti to Gentiloni, imposed draconian austerity measures.
Europe, the EU, the Troika, the ECB, the economists, and press outlets of the establishment refuse to understand that in the last years a New Paradigm has been asserting itself, and found its expression in the Brexit, Trump’s election victory in the U.S., the “No” in the Italian referendum to change the Constitution, and now the Italian vote on March 4th. It finds its expression also in the fact that two-thirds of the world joined the Belt and Road Initiative of President Xi Jinping, with its win-win policy of economic cooperation, as opposed to the geopolitical policy of confrontation with Russia and China leading to war.
They managed to prevent the government of change, which will be there again in a few months, as Salvini said; but they cannot prevent the New Paradigm, which is asserting itself all over the world….
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Russia’s Diplomacy May Allow Syria To Regain Sovereignty in Its South
May 29 (EIRNS)—There appears to be intense diplomacy underway involving Russia, the United States, Jordan, Iran and Israel to create conditions whereby Damascus can reimpose sovereignty over southern Syria along the Israeli and Jordanian borders. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov indicated as much during a joint press conference yesterday with Mozambican Foreign Minister Jose Pacheco during which he said that only Syrian troops should be on Syria’s southern border according to the de-escalation zone agreement with the United States and Jordan.
Under the agreement “all non-Syrian forces would eventually withdraw from this part of the Syrian Arab Republic,” and such withdrawal should be mutual. Lavrov was referring, here, specifically to southern Syria, but he also referred earlier to the U.S. military base at al-Tanf, about which he reported that Russia has “accumulated a lot of evidence that strange things are going on” there, including the presence of extremist groups in and around the Rukban refugee camp. When Syrian President Bashar al Assad visited Moscow May 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, among other things, that the time was ripe for the start of a more active phase of the political process, part of which will be that “foreign armed forces will be withdrawing from the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic.” This clearly includes the U.S. troops in Syria, as well.
According to the Jerusalem Post, citing a report on Israel’s Channel 2, Lavrov’s comments are part of an understanding reached between Israel and Russia to keep Iranian and Hezbollah forces away from Syria’s border with Israel on the Golan Heights. According to the reported agreement, Israel will not intervene to prevent the deployment of Assad’s troops to the southern border and the Golan Heights, effectively reasserting Assad’s control there, and Moscow will make sure that these troops do not include Iranian or Hezbollah forces.
The Post also cites the London-based Arabic daily Al Sharq al Awsat reporting that U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield has been working on a deal that would see, among other things, withdrawal of all Syrian and non-Syrian militias to 20-25 km from the Jordanian border; the Syrian government has proposed arrangements to allow local councils to govern in Syrian Golan, and revival of the 1974 agreement allowing UN peacekeepers to patrol the DMZ between Israel and Syria.
Part of this, at least, seems to be confirmed by Sputnik International. “All areas on the (southern) border will be transferred to the government of Syria, an agreement on the UN Zone for Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) will be resumed on the Golan Heights, the presence of Iranian forces in the border areas is not stipulated,” a source “familiar with the situation” said.
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
UN Official Lauds Belt and Road as ‘Grand Design for the Future’
May 29 (EIRNS)—UN Under-Secretary Shamshad Akhtar, speaking to China Daily May 28, praised the Belt and Road Initiative of infrastructure great projects as “an initiative on a more integrated frame, [and] of a scale, that no one has talked about before.” Akhtar is executive secretary of the UN’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
“China leads the regional cooperation and the integration of Asia, with its Belt and Road Initiative strengthening intra-and intercontinental ties,” she told China Daily, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Forum at Fudan University. “It’s a grand design. Moving the Belt and Road Initiative forward not only connects Asia internally, but bridges it closer to Europe and Africa.”
She said, “Over the years, China’s shift from quietly forging bilateral relationships, to building multilateral and broad-based diplomatic structure has underscored its commitment to deepening its footprint in regional cooperation and integration.”
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
President Trump Optimistic on Summit with North Korea
May 29 (EIRNS)—President Donald Trump tweeted this morning, “We have put a great team together for our talks with North Korea. Meetings are currently taking place concerning Summit, and more. Kim Yong Chol, the Vice-Chairman of North Korea, heading now to New York. Solid response to my letter, thank you!”
South Korean media reported that Kim Yong Chol was on the passenger list for a flight today from Beijing to New York. A former military intelligence chief, now a Vice-Chairman of the D.P.R.K. Central Committee, he is the highest-level North Korean official to travel to the United States since 2000. Kim’s U.S. interlocutor has not yet been announced.
The U.S.-led United Nations Command cancelled a press tour of Panmunjom scheduled for May 30, and all other media events there are cancelled until after June 12 because of security preparations for Korean diplomacy.
American and South Korean officials have not confirmed details of the pre-summit negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang at the border. While some hard-line proposals are being mooted, Kim Jong-un has in two summits with Chinese President Xi Jinping in March and May, called for a phased and synchronized process, in which every action he takes is met with a reciprocal move from the United States.
Seoul has been advocating an approach in which the North’s comprehensive commitment and credible actions toward denuclearization are followed by a phased but compressed process of inspection and verifiable dismantling. AP reports that before he cancelled the summit, Trump did not rule out an incremental approach with responses from the U.S. along the way.
President Trump’s press secretary Sarah Sanders announced on May 29, “The United States continues to actively prepare for President Trump’s expected summit with leader Kim in Singapore.” Sanders outlined other steps, reported by today’s Washington Times:
- President Trump will meet with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan on June 7 at the White House;
- Kim Yong Chol, Vice-Chairman of North Korea’s ruling Central Committee, is traveling to New York and will meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later this week;
- A U.S. delegation is meeting with a North Korean delegation in the demilitarized zone between North Korea and South Korea;
- White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin and a U.S. pre-advance team are in Singapore, coordinating the logistics of the expected summit;
- National Security Advisor John Bolton has had calls with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts virtually every day.
Obama Spied on French Presidential Candidates’ Plans for Financial Meltdown
May 29 (EIRNS)—The Nobel Peace Prize laureate, then-U.S. President Barack Obama ordered U.S. intelligence to spy on French Presidential candidates’ plans to handle financial crises, Julian Assange documents, according to Natural News website.
Katie Pavlich, on Fox News’s “Outnumbered” program of May 22, said, “Barack Obama spied on reporters. Why wouldn’t he spy on a political campaign when his legacy was at stake and he needed Hillary Clinton to win?” Natural News senior writer J.D. Heyes reports that according to new information released by Julian Assange at WikiLeaks May 28, Obama ordered the CIA to spy on right- and left-leaning candidates’ plans for financial crises during France’s 2012 elections.
Assange responded to a tweet by President Trump: “SPYGATE could be one of the biggest political scandals in history!” the President wrote on May 23. WikiLeaks responded on its official Twitter account, “Obama already did it to the French.” It said the targets of three CIA tasking orders from Obama included the French Socialist Party (PS), the National Front (FN) and Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), together with then-President François Hollande (PS), former President Nicolas Sarkozy (UMP), and Marine Le Pen (FN).
Heyes reports the documents supporting WikiLeaks’ claims are marked “NOFORN”—which means the document is “Not Releasable to Foreign Nationals.” “Obviously, in this case, the Obamaites didn’t want our French allies to know that they were doing….”
The CIA claimed to justify the spying to “prepare key U.S. policymakers for the post-election political landscape.” The “opposition espionage tasks” are to find out “ ‘what policies do they promote to help boost France’s economic growth prospects?’ and ‘What are their opinions on the German model of export-led growth?’ ” which “resonate with a U.S. economic espionage order from the same year. That order requires obtaining details of every prospective French export contract or deal valued at $200 million or more,” according to the WikiLeaks statement.
The orders also demand the attitude of the candidates on the EU economic crisis, “centering around their position on the Greek debt crisis; the role of France and Germany in the management of the Greek debt crisis; the vulnerability of the French government and French banks to a Greek default; and ‘specific recommendations and proposals’ to deal with ‘the euro-zone crisis,’ ” writes WikiLeaks.
This “advance work” on candidates’ reactions to a financial blowout foreshadows Italian President Sergio Mattarella’s refusal to accept the elected government of Italy this week.
SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE
UN Space Agency Hails China Space Station as Future Space Home for All Mankind
May 29 (EIRNS)—At a ceremony yesterday in Vienna, the United Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and China’s Manned Space Agency invited UN member states to conduct scientific experiments aboard China’s future space station. “The China Space Station (CSS) belongs not only to China, but also to the world,” said Shi Zhongjun, China’s Ambassador to UN organizations in Vienna. “Guided by the idea of a shared future, the CSS will become a common home in space for all humankind. It will be a home that is inclusive and open to cooperation with all countries, a home of peace and good will, and a home of cooperation for mutual benefit.”
UNOOSA Director Simonetta Di Pippo praised the Chinese space program, as one of the most “technologically advanced in the world.” She further stressed, “This is space diplomacy in action.”
There are three ways open for orbital experiments in this first round of opportunities: Conducting experiments the applicants develop; conducting experiments using facilities provided by the Chinese; conducting experiments exposed to the space environment, outside the station, developed by the applicant.
In 2016, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the two organizations to develop the space capabilities of UN member states to participate in the Chinese station. Now applications are invited for proposals for experiments, to be submitted by Aug. 31. Institutions from developing countries are particularly encouraged to apply.
OTHER
Zepp-LaRouche Webcast: Banker’s Coup in Italy Won’t Stop Rebellion against Bankrupt Empire
May 29 (EIRNS)—The rejection of the new government of Italy by its President, Sergio Mattarella, is a coup, ordered by the same bankers of the City of London and the European Central Bank (ECB) whose policies have nearly destroyed the Italian economy, as well as the economies of most of the member nations of the European Union. Mattarella would not accept Paolo Savona as Finance Minister, even though he was selected by the leaders of the two parties which had the most votes in the March 4, 2018 Italian election, the Five Star Movement (M5S) and the League (Lega). Savona, a respected former government minister, had the audacity to challenge the failed policies of the European Union and the ECB. In place of the coalition led by the two parties, Mattarella named an austerity advocate, Carlo Cottarelli, a former official of the International Monetary Fund, as Prime Minister designate.
Last week, on her webcast, Helga Zepp LaRouche pointed to the Italian crisis as a moment of truth. Would the failed bankers running the ECB overturn the results of the recent election, in which the former governing parties were smashed by a revolt of the voters, who are sick and tired of austerity and lies from their government, and bailouts and bail-ins for the banks? She said the rejection by voters of the former major parties all across Europe, combined with the Trump victory in the U.S. and Brexit, have sent an unmistakable signal, one likely to again be rebuffed by the arrogant would-be Masters of the Universe, who preach “democracy” to Russia and China while running coups against democratic choices in the U.S. (Russiagate) and in Italy.
There is no guarantee that these elites will again succeed in crushing the popular will, especially as the New Silk Road policy of China continues to gain support, not just in Asia and Africa, but also in Europe. And while British-led geopolitical networks have launched one provocation after another, to bring down Trump, and isolate Presidents Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China, while risking the launch of World War III in the process, these have not succeeded in slowing down the momentum for a New Paradigm coming from Asia and Eurasia.
The stakes for humanity could not be higher! Join Mrs. LaRouche for her strategic webcast this Thursday, May 31, at 12:00 EDT (18:00 CET) as she reports on latest developments, and presents the pathway to insure the success of the New Paradigm.
