Harald Schumann

Η νονά

Stelios Kouloglou

Ulrich Beck, Beppe Grillo

Α few years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, an unknown physicist from Eastern Germany, who was not interested in politics, is the most powerful woman in the world. Her teacher in the small town where she grew up remembers that she was the smartest student he ever had. Those who have worked with her claim that “Merkiavelli” exercises power without moral barriers, just as Machiavelli taught. A journalist, who knows her well, claims that she uses the methods of a Mafia godmother. In 2008, the German Chancellor was asked to handle the international financial crisis. The countries of the South were placed in the test tube. “If I had to write a book on the Shock Doctrine at this moment,” says Naomi Klein, “it would be on Greece.” How did Merkel manage to impose German hegemony in Europe?

Das Microsoft-Dilemma

Arpad Bondy, Harald Schumann

Microsoft is generally considered the dinosaur of the digital age. However, the US Corporation is more powerful today than ever before. The power of its monopoly is nowhere more apparent than in Europe: from Finland to Portugal, from Ireland to Greece, the information technology of every state administration and its institutions (military, police, fiscal authorities etc.) is based on Microsoft programmes. Since digital systems are constantly expanding and increasing in importance, countries are becoming more and more dependent on this single company. This dependence causes continually rising costs and prevents technical progress in state authorities. It systematically undermines European procurement and competition laws, it leads inevitably to the company having an overwhelming political influence, while it exposes state IT systems along with citizens’ data to a high technical and political security risk. Is Europe’s digital sovereignty at stake?