The fabric of the European Union is becoming frayed around the edges. George Friedman of Stratfor has pointed out in writing for that site that immigration is a much higher priority among many European voters than maintaining the euro. It is not talked about in polite circles, but it shows up in the polls. In line with that thought, Dennis Gartman, who has never been accused of being politically correct, asks some very hard questions. In a few paragraphs with the provocative heading “And By the Way, Close Your Borders Too While Your At It…” He writes:
“The enmity between Greece and her northern European ‘cousins’ such as Germany and Austria is already high and wide, but it is growing higher and wider by the moment. It is almost to the point where the polite bounds of political correctness are about to be broken asunder, for German and Austrian political figures are now asking that Greece seal her borders and stop the flow of ‘foreigners’ through Greece and into the rest of the EU.
“Yesterday, the Austrian Home Affairs Minister, Ms. Johanna Miki-Leitner, minced few words and opened the rather racist front when she said, ‘We need to put real political pressure on Greece to implement their asylum authority as rapidly as possible. This border is as open as a barn door.’
“There you have it … out in the open for all to see: northern European dissatisfaction and open disdain for the South and for ‘foreigners’ generally. And it is not just Greece that the Austrians and Germans fear as a port of entry for ‘foreigners’ into Europe; they fear Italy too, for Italy has been a port through which North Africans, fleeing the lesser chaos of Tunisia but the greater chaos of Libya and of Egypt, have arrived in shockingly large numbers to European shores. Indeed, more ‘foreigners’ have gotten access to Europe through Italy than have through Greece, but for the moment it is easier for an Austrian official to take on Greece than it is to take on Italy, and so Greece bears the burden at this point.
“As the German Minister of Justice, Mr. Hans-Peter Friedrich, rather ominously said yesterday, ‘The question remains, what happens when a country is not capable of securing its borders, as we see in Greece. Is it possible to reinstate border controls? I want to clarify that this is still part of our discussion.‘
“Which then raises the question: Will Germany take it upon itself to secure Greece’s borders? Oh my, we don’t want to go down that path now, do we?”
iPeopleFINANCE 