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Helmut Kohl dies, get's EU State Funeral 
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http://time.com/4822651/germany-helmut- ... -obituary/

Kohl died on Friday, Junker wants to give him the first ever EU State Funeral.

Kohl was German Chancellor for many years and was instrumental in the unification of Europe, as well as the re-unification of Germany, and was a big player in the move to the Euro as a single currency in Europe.

Late in his carreer he was hit with a financial scandal and stepped down (1998). A few years ago he was relegated to a wheelchair.

He always said, that he was politically motivated to have a single Europe, it wasn't economical. He really saw himself as a European first and a German second.

Allegedly he tried to convince Thatcher that she should be more in on Europe. They met and he tried to show her how European he was. When she got back on the plane to fly back to the UK, she told her aid, "he is so German!"

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Mon Jun 19, 2017 4:31 am
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The EU can't have state funerals. Germany can though, and you'd say he deserved one.


Mon Jun 19, 2017 8:15 am
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That's the point. Junker is bringing before the EU Parliament this week, that they want to be able to give him a state funeral.

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Mon Jun 19, 2017 8:20 am
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big_D wrote:
That's the point. Junker is bringing before the EU Parliament this week, that they want to be able to give him a state funeral.

So they want to start doing 'state funerals' even though they're not a state? Oh, I'm more pro-EU than most but that's not a good idea. It's just ammunition for every anti-EU campaigner across Europe. The last thing the EU should be doing is 'pomp & circumstance'. He's German, his greatest achievement is successfully unifying Germany after the fall of the Berlin wall (which is nothing to do with the EU), as far as I know he was never an EU official or dignitary... The job of commemorating him should belong to Germany.

In fact, if I was German, I'd feel slightly affronted that the EU was trying to muscle in on things to be honest.


Mon Jun 19, 2017 10:48 am
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He is getting a proper funeral in Germany, then trundled off to Brussels, then he comes back, will be moved across the Spree on a military flotilla and then put on display in the church where all previous heads of state are buried...

That said, this is a special case, at the moment, he is one of 2 people to have been awarded an Honorary Citizenship of Europe. Not listed is also his award from Poland, he received the highest civilian award for his work on the Polish German relationship:

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Helmut Kohl received numerous awards and accolades, as well as honorary titles such as doctorates and citizenships. Among others, he was joint recipient of the Charlemagne Prize with French President François Mitterrand for their contribution to Franco-German friendship and European Union.[110] In 1996, Kohl received the Prince of Asturias Award in International Cooperation from Felipe of Spain.[111] In 1998, Kohl was named Honorary Citizen of Europe by the European heads of state or government for his extraordinary work for European integration and cooperation, an honor previously only bestowed on Jean Monnet.[112] After leaving office in 1998, Kohl became the second person after Konrad Adenauer to receive the Grand Cross in Special Design of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bill Clinton in 1999.[113]


At the moment, the opinion seems to be 50-50, about whether it is a good idea.

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Mon Jun 19, 2017 12:26 pm
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