Germany

Heiko Maas, the German Minister of Justice, was unable to finish his Labor Day celebration speech on the 1st of May as he was loudly booed and chased off the stage by the German people. The people repeatedly shouted "traitor", "leftist rat", "get out!", "we are the people" and "Maas must go!", eventually getting him to cancel his speech and flee to his armored Mercedes escorted by his armed bodyguards.

It appears as though the ECB has had enough of the thorn in its side that is Germany in this latest round of back and forth, and has taken to what it does best: jawboning. In an article published today in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper, executive board member Benoit Coeure writes a rambling article defending ECB's policies, tells Germany that the ECB is the reason for its economic success, and downplays the issues that any savers may be having under NIRP.

One week after Austria was shocked by the news that its right-wing, anti-immigrant Freedom Party, had swept the competition, gathering over 35% of the vote and leaving the other five candidates far behind, Europe's anti-immigrant juggernaut just added to its momentum when neighboring Germany's populist AfD party adopted an anti-Islam policy on Sunday in a manifesto that also demands curbs to immigration according to AFP. The biggest surprise however, is that the three year-old party is now also Germany's third strongest party.

The initial refugee welcome in Germany is rapidly turning to rejection as the nation plan to ban EU migrants from most unemployment benefits for five years after arrival as a senior German politician has called for an "Islam law" that would limit the influence of foreign imams and prohibit the foreign financing of mosques in Germany.

Perhaps it is merely a coincidence but just weeks after Deutsche Bank became the first bank to admit to rigging the gold market (and agreeing to rat out fellow manipulators) yesterday afternoon the head of Deutsche Bank's "integrity committee" announced he would resign two years before his time, which is a polite way of saying he was fired.

As the FT reports, Georg Thoma has been fired from Deutsche Bank’s supervisory board two years before his contract ends "after coming under fire from other board members in a battle over how to deal with the German bank’s past scandals."