Merkel: Coronavirus Shows Limits of ‘Fact-Denying Populism’

The coronavirus pandemic is showing the limits of “fact-denying populism,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the European Parliament on Wednesday.

In her speech, Merkel set out her country’s plans for its six-month presidency of the European Union.

Germany took over the task of chairing EU meetings on July 1.

It faces the challenge of seeking a compromise on a coronavirus recovery fund for the 27-nation bloc as well as the EU’s budget for the next seven years, as the continent faces up to the task of pulling out of a deep recession.

Merkel said there is no time to waste, given the “depth of the economic decline”, adding that “only the weakest would suffer” from a delay.

Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron in May proposed creating a one-time 500 billion-euro (563 billion US dollar) recovery fund that would be filled through shared EU borrowing.

That is a big step for Germany, breaking with its long-standing opposition to any kind of joint borrowing.

The EU’s executive Commission expanded on the proposal, putting forward plans for a 750 billion-euro fund made up mostly of grants.

It faces resistance from countries dubbed the “Frugal Four” – Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden – that oppose grants and are reluctant to give money away without strings attached.

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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked East Alpine country in the southern part of Central Europe. It is composed of nine federated states, one of which is Vienna, Austria’s capital and its largest city.

It is bordered by Germany to the northwest; the Czech Republic to the north; Slovakia to the northeast; Hungary to the east; Slovenia and Italy to the south; and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west.

Austria occupies an area of 83,879 km2 (32,386 sq mi) and has a population of nearly 9 million people. While German is the country’s official language, many Austrians communicate informally in a variety of Bavarian dialects.

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Denmark, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe.  The capital is Copenhagen. Denmark proper, consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of 443 islands.

The Kingdom of Denmark comprises Denmark proper and the two autonomous territories in the North Atlantic Ocean: the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Home rule was established in the Faroe Islands in 1948; in Greenland home rule was established in 1979 and further autonomy in 2009.

Denmark has highly developed mixed economy. Denmark became a member of the European Economic Community (now the EU) in 1973, but negotiated certain opt-outs; it retains its own currency, the krone. It is among the founding members of NATO, the Nordic Council, the OECD, OSCE, and the United Nations; it is also part of the Schengen Area. Denmark has close linguistic ties to its Scandinavian neighbours.

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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central and Western Europe. It lies between the Baltic and North seas to the north, and the Alps to the south.

Germany is a federal parliamentary republic led by a chancellor. With over 83 million inhabitants of its 16 constituent states, it is the second-most populous country in Europe after Russia, as well as the most populous member state of the European Union. Its capital and largest city is Berlin, and its financial centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr.

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The Netherlands, informally Holland, is a country primarily located in Western Europe and partly in the Caribbean, forming the largest constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In Europe, it consists of 12 provinces that border Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, with maritime borders in the North Sea with those countries and the United Kingdom. In the Caribbean, it consists of three special municipalities: the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. The country’s official language is Dutch, with West Frisian as a secondary official language in the province of Friesland, and English and Papiamentu as secondary official languages in the Caribbean Netherlands. Dutch Low Saxon and Limburgish are recognised regional languages (spoken in the east and southeast respectively), while Sinte Romani and Yiddish are recognised non-territorial languages.

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