“NINETEEN people have died on my route. NINETEEN people in the last FOUR months. It’s normal for one or two to go in about a year period of time…. I am freaking out. Some of my favorite people have died…”

DIED SUDDENLY: USPS Worker Has Had NINETEEN People DIE in the Last FOUR Months. USPS er United States Postal Service

Bilderberg: Politicians are again secretly cooperating with the powerful

By Norbert Häring

A commentary by Norbert Häring / APOLUT.
Translation LN

During the weekend up to 21 May, high-ranking politicians, also German, met completely “privately”, i.e. without democratic accountability, in Lisbon behind closed doors with the Bilderbergers, the powerful from the media, business, military and intelligence services from North America and Europe. Only the list of participants and a brief agenda are made public. The list of participants at least provides an interesting insight into the balance of power in the North Atlantic region.

The meeting has now been going on for almost 70 years. Representatives of important media were there according to the list of participants, but they do not report. They only allow themselves to be influenced in their reporting. The Chatham House rule applies. You can use what you learn, but you cannot reveal where you got it from. This is of course maximally unfavorable to people who want to know the interests behind what they read in the newspaper or magazine.

The Anglo-Saxon media with international agenda-setting power, such as The Economist and the Financial Times, are regular participants, often – as this year – with several representatives. Also included in this category is the Bloomberg news agency. Anne Appelbaum of The Atlantic is also likely to be there because of her very close contacts in the military and intelligence community. The head of the Springer Group (Bild, Welt and others) is also a regular participant.

Since the Bilderberg meetings regularly deal with the very large geopolitical and geo-economic issues, and usually only the highest level of management is represented there, with the possible exception of politics, one can certainly draw conclusions from who is invited about which ones are particularly important.

The Chancellery Minister was there

From Germany, three politicians and four top managers from companies, Deutsche Bank, Axel Springer, BASF and Merck, attended this year.

The politicians were Chancellery Minister Wolfgang Schmidt (SPD), Bundestag member Norbert Röttgen (CDU), vice-chairman of the Atlantic Bridge and a foreign policy hawk, and Anton Hofreiter (Greens), chairman of the Bundestag’s European Affairs Committee.

The heads of government included Mark Rutte from the Netherlands, Mette Frederiksen from Denmark and Sanna Marin from Finland.

Many heads of government appear to be reluctant to attend the meeting as the lists of participants have been published. Therefore, the second level of ministers is much more represented in politics than in business. In principle, only those heads of government who have no reputation to lose in terms of excessive closeness to corporate interests, such as Mark Rutte, who openly and clearly implements the World Economic Forum’s agricultural agenda against his farmers, or Sanna Marin, Young Global Leader at the World Economic Forum, and of course Chrystia Freeland, who finds nothing wrong with sitting on the board of the World Economic Forum business lobby in addition to her positions as Canada’s Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister.

On the other hand, EU powerhouses are very well represented, with Commission Vice-President and Commissioner for External Relations Josep Borrell, Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe, European Parliament President Roberta Metsola and Energy Commissioner Paolo Gentilioni.

Remarkably, David Lammy, the British Labour Party’s shadow foreign minister, was already invited and in attendance. The Bilderbergers continue to build when a change of power becomes likely.

It is important to note that there is a good alternative for top politicians who shy away from the bad reputation of Bilderberg meetings but still want to socialize with the most powerful companies. For them, the World Economic Forum has organized a round of business leaders at the annual Davos meetings that almost nobody knows about and nobody reports on: IGWEL, the Informal Gathering of World Business Leaders.

The fact that the Chairman of the World Economic Forum, Børge Brende, attended the Bilderberg meeting, in addition to Forum Chairman Freeland, helps to merge the two rounds of corruption.

What I wrote last year on this occasion still applies:

“Are we really to believe that the officials are representing with due determination and independence the economic, fiscal and data protection interests of EU citizens against companies like Pfizer, Facebook and Goldman Sachs, having just flirted with them and probably made them understand how important the American digital, pharmaceutical and financial companies are for the preservation of the geopolitical dominance of the West? Of course, the heads of the CIA and NATO must be able to discuss things in secret with EU representatives. But should Facebook, Pfizer, Goldman Sachs, BP and Palantir really be there? There is no theory of democracy that justifies such a format.”

The center of power

Which companies are (regularly) represented gives a pretty good idea of which industries and companies are either particularly powerful or particularly important to the powerful. Traditionally, the vast majority of participants come from the financial sector. This is logical, as this sector’s decisions on the allocation and retention of financial resources are associated with a great deal of potential power.

Goldman Sachs regularly participates with several representatives, this time with two. Deutsche Bank and French Axa also have a representative. The credit rating agency S&P was there, as was IFRS, a foundation for the standardization of accounting rules. The power of these two organizations can hardly be overestimated, but is often greatly underestimated. Libertarian technology investor Peter Thiel was also present.

The second largest sector in terms of numbers is direct media. However, if one were to take into account the enormous market capitalization, i.e. power, of companies like Google and Microsoft, the digital surveillance industry would come first or second. In addition to the two mentioned, the artificial intelligence stalwarts Open AI and Deep Mind were also represented, as well as Palantir, a company that works even more closely than the others with the military and intelligence agencies.

The military and intelligence agencies, especially the US, are also very strongly and highly represented at the Bilderberg meetings.
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A sorted list

To get a better overview, I have sorted most of the 130 or so participants into more strongly represented sectors and groups. Professors (Harvard is of course particularly important here), foundations (Carnegie Endowment etc.) and companies from weaker industries are not included. However, this was not a research exercise, but only a relatively quick and not necessarily completely systematic and error-free sorting.

Financial sector

Deutsche Bank AG: Achleitner, Paul M.
Goldman Sachs: Barroso, José Manuel
Goldman Sachs Waldron, John (USA)
S&P Global; Yergin, Daniel (USA)
Prudential plc;; Vadera, Shriti (GBR), Chair,
Thiel Capital LLC; Thiel, Peter (USA)
Banco Santander SA: Botín, Ana P.
DNB ASA: Braathen, Kjerstin
AXA SA: Buberl, Thomas
Newbridge Advisory Ltd.; Sawers, John (GBR)
CVC Capital Partners; Rappard, Rolly van (NLD), Co-Founder and Co-Chair
PSP Investments; Orida, Deborah (CAN)
IFRS Foundation Trustees; Liikanen, Erkki (FIN)
Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB; Wallenberg, Marcus (SWE)
Brookfield Asset Management: Carney, Mark
Institut Montaigne: Castries, Henri de (FR)
KBC Group NV: Debackere, Koenraad (BEL)
Acciona SA: Entrecanales, José M. (ESP)
Aker ASA: Eriksen, Øyvind (NOR)
AXA: Gosset-Grainville, Antoine (FRA), Chair,
Nova Credit Inc.: Goulimis, Nicky (GRC)
Citadel LLC: Griffin, Kenneth (USA)
Zeno Partners; Moreira, Duarte (PRT)
ASML Holding NV; Wennink, Peter (NLD)

Surveillance technology (IT, AI)

Palantir Technologies Inc., Karp, Alex (USA)
OpenAI, Altman, Sam (USA)
DeepMind, Hassabis, Demis (GBR)
Microsoft Corporation; Nadella, Satya (USA)
Google LLC; Schmidt, Eric E. (USA)

Media

Axel Springer SE: Döpfner, Mathias (DEU)
Kurier; Salomon, Martina (AUT)
Bloomberg LP; Micklethwait, John (USA)
The Economist, Joshi, Shashank (GBR)
The Economist; Minton Beddoes, Zanny (GBR)
Financial Times; Rachman, Gideon (GBR)
Financial Times; Yang, Yuan (GBR)
The Atlantic; Applebaum, Anne (USA)
T24 News Website; Yinanç, Barçin (TUR)
La7 TV, Gruber, Lilli (ITA),
Le Temps, Holzen, Madeleine von (CHE)
Warner Bros. Discovery Poland, Kieli, Kasia (POL)
Umicore and Mediahuis; Leysen, Thomas (BEL)
El Español; Ramírez, Pedro J. (ESP)

Military/Secret Services

Director of National Intelligence, Haines, Avril D. (USA),
Supreme Allied Commander Europe: Cavoli, Christopher
National Security Council (USA): Chhabra, Tarun
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency: Easterly, Jen (USA)
GCHQ: Fleming, Jeremy (GBR)
Kissinger Associates Inc., Kissinger, Henry A. (USA)
Kravis, Henry R. (USA), Co-Chairman, KKR & Co. Inc.
NATO; Stoltenberg, Jens, Secretary General,
National Security Council; Wright, Thomas (USA), Senior Director for Strategic Planning,

Energi

Shell plc; Beurden, Ben van (NLD)
Vattenfall AB: Borg, Anna
BP plc; Looney, Bernard (GBR)
TotalEnergies SE; Pouyanné, Patrick (FRA)
Green Power Denmark, Jensen, Kristian (DNK)

Politiker kungeln wieder im Geheimen mit den Mächtigen | Von Norbert Häring