Nelson de Sá: US-Europe ‘trade war’ becomes news in German Politico

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The CEO of the German group Axel Springer, Mathias Döpfner, gave an interview to the American magazine New York, announcing the expansion of the Politico website by up to 150 journalists, to advance to other capitals around the world.

In a previous interview with the Washington Post, he had already said that his goal is to be the leader in digital journalism around the world, competing in the English language with Americans like The New York Times —and promising to be more impartial.

What was possible to observe about Politico, since the German acquisition a year ago, is that it started to pay attention to agendas of European interest, which Anglo-American competitors do not report or highlight little.

The main one is the “trade war”, as he called it, between the United States and the European Union, an effect of American protectionism, which intensified with Joe Biden and the so-called Inflation Reduction Act.

For weeks, Politico has highlighted that the German and French leaders have “threatened trade retaliation against Biden” (above) because the law affects their countries’ auto industry. It gives subsidies to “convince companies to move production to the US”.

Specifically, the American taxpayer can now deduct US$ 7,500 from the tax spent on the purchase of an electric car, if it is “assembled in North America and has a battery with metals from the USA, Canada or Mexico”.

After the threat, in a hurry, reported Politico, “the US trade representative traveled 6,000 kilometers to avoid a transatlantic trade war, but her European colleagues signaled that they will be difficult to convince.”

The agenda persists, now with “Trade war threatens to overshadow EU-US summit”. Worse, Japan and South Korea are already allied with France and Germany against Biden.

But Döpfner’s ambition is not to be the voice of Europe and even less of the German Social Democrat Olaf Scholz. In charge of the main right-wing newspapers in the country, Bild and Die Welt, he has ideas close to American libertarians.

As New York points out, Döpfner “want to be a press baron for the digital age, part Rupert Murdoch but also part Elon Musk. And still very German.” Friend of the now owner of Twitter, he was spotted giving ideas to Musk:

“We manage for you and establish a true free speech platform.”

PARIS LEAVES LONDON BEHIND

In the French financial Les Échos, with a photo of LVMH, the largest listed company in the city and owner of the newspaper, “Paris takes the place of the first stock exchange in Europe from London”.

From the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung to the American Bloomberg, it was news around the world, but the London Financial Times took two days to record it — and it did so by saying that Paris only “challenges” London.

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