Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt

In fact, the North American fund is among the institutional shareholders of some of the leading arms companies in the European Union (EU): Rheinmetall (Germany) [1], Dassault (France) [2] and Thales (France) [3], the British company BAE Systems (Great Britain) [4], Leonardo (Italy), and even the European aerospace company Airbus have shareholder links with the company chaired by Larry Fink [5].

The same US investment funds Investment fund
Investment funds Private equity investment funds (sometimes called ’mutual funds’ seek to invest in companies according to certain criteria; of which they most often are specialized: capital-risk, capital development funds, leveraged buy-out (LBO), which reflect the different levels of the company’s maturity. operate in large companies both in the United States and within the European Union, where they share Share A unit of ownership interest in a corporation or financial asset, representing one part of the total capital stock. Its owner (a shareholder) is entitled to receive an equal distribution of any profits distributed (a dividend) and to attend shareholder meetings. ownership with the states themselves

In a recent article published by Público [6], Marga Ferré cites work carried out by Investigate Europe showing how the same US investment funds operate in major companies both in the US and within the European Union, where they share ownership with the states themselves. These funds include BlackRock, Vanguard, Fidelity, State Street and Capital Group. According to an Investigate Europe article from 2022 [7], “The top five European military companies that receive the lion’s share of this new EU funding are not only part-owned by the state, but they also have among their shareholders a list of American investment funds. [...] BlackRock, for example, owns percentages of Airbus (around 5%), as well as Leonardo (3%), Thales (just above 1%), Indra Sistemas and Dassault. The fund also owns percentages in their rival US companies: Boeing (3.9%), Lockheed Martin (4.9%), Raytheon (4.8%), Northrop Grumman (4.2%) and General Dynamics (3.9%).”

The following graph shows this clearly:

In other words, large US investment funds have infiltrated the very core of the European military sector. And it is to these funds that, according to Marga Ferré, “unless we stop them, will rake in a substantial portion of the €800 billion that the European elite is demanding—completely irrationally and irresponsibly, because we’re talking about money for weapons, wars, and the death industry.” For Ferré, “it is obvious that what they want is to impose austerity through militarization.”

That is why Ferré is expressing outrage and urging that “we seriously oppose an arms race that leads us to a war economy that only benefits the elite who promote war. If they want to make money from more wars, more weapons, and more deaths, we must not let it be done in our name nor with our money.”

Even before taking over officially as Germany’s chancellor, Christian-Democrat (CDU) Friedrich Merz succeeded in getting the German Parliament, with the support of the Social Democrats and the Greens, to approve a massive investment plan in defense and infrastructure that required a constitutional amendment to authorize increased indebtedness and spending of close to €1 billion [8].

Concretely, he succeeded in exempting military spending from strict federal rules on national debt, known as the “debt brake” (Schuldenbremse) (see https://invezz.com/news/2025/03/18/germanys-debt-brake-snaps-whats-next-for-europes-largest-economy/)

Germany, the first country to be governed by a former BlackRock executive

It turns out that between 2016 and 2020, Merz was chairman of the supervisory board of BlackRock, the German subsidiary of the world’s largest asset Asset Something belonging to an individual or a business that has value or the power to earn money (FT). The opposite of assets are liabilities, that is the part of the balance sheet reflecting a company’s resources (the capital contributed by the partners, provisions for contingencies and charges, as well as the outstanding debts). management company [9]. In an article published in February of 2025, Thomas Fazi wrote “if Merz is elected, Germany will become the first country to be ruled by a former BlackRock official.” [10].

In defense of his multi-billion-dollar war plan, Merz used the words “whatever it takes” [11], recalling the speech given by the then President of the European Central Bank Central Bank The establishment which in a given State is in charge of issuing bank notes and controlling the volume of currency and credit. In France, it is the Banque de France which assumes this role under the auspices of the European Central Bank (see ECB) while in the UK it is the Bank of England.

ECB : http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/Pages/home.aspx , Mario Draghi, in 2012, in the midst of the European sovereign debt Sovereign debt Government debts or debts guaranteed by the government. crisis [14]. Former Goldman Sachs executive Draghi, like former BlackRock executive Merz, is another pawn of US finance at the top of the European hierarchy.

Global Economic Outlook 2014: Laurence Fink and Mario Draghi. (25/01/2014). World Economic Forum/swiss-image.ch/Photo Yolanda Flubacher. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The incriminating photos: European leaders with Larry Fink
“Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends UNGA” CC BY-NC-ND 2.0."

“The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie,” wrote Marx and Engels in the Manifesto of the Communist Party in the middle of the 19^th century [12]. Nearly two centuries later, that statement still holds true.

It’s not just Merz or Von der Leyen. British Labour leader Starmer, French liberal Macron, and Spanish socialist Sánchez also feature in embarrassing photos with Larry Fink. In France, Mediapart reported that BlackRock was whispering its pension policy advice in authorities’ ears [13]. In December last year, the Morning Star illustrated the following headline with a picture of Larry Fink sitting opposite Keir Starmer at a negotiating table in Downing Street: “Going to bed with BlackRock. At what price?” [14]

Starmer himself posted the photo on his X account with the caption:

“I’m determined to deliver growth, create wealth and put more money in people’s pockets.

This can only be achieved by working in partnership with leading businesses, like @BlackRock, to capitalise on the UK’s position as a world leading hub for investment.”

I'm determined to deliver growth, create wealth and put more money in people’s pockets.

This can only be achieved by working in partnership with leading businesses, like @BlackRock, to capitalise on the UK’s position as a world leading hub for investment. pic.twitter.com/qDPpEYEYAh

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) November 21, 2024

(Which raises a question: Put more money in which people’s pockets?)

In line with Merz, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who is a member of Merz’s CDU party and also Germany’s former defense minister, announced a plan last March to remilitarize Europe (ReArm Europe), which aims to have member states mobilize up to €800 billion in defense spending over the next four years. How? The plan involves activating the general escape clause of the Stability and Growth Pact, allowing member states to deviate from the EU’s strict fiscal rules that limit debt and deficit levels to 3% and 60% of GDP GDP
Gross Domestic Product Gross Domestic Product is an aggregate measure of total production within a given territory equal to the sum of the gross values added. The measure is notoriously incomplete; for example it does not take into account any activity that does not enter into a commercial exchange. The GDP takes into account both the production of goods and the production of services. Economic growth is defined as the variation of the GDP from one period to another. , respectively [15]. In other words, war spending would not count when assessing the deficit and debt. This does not mean that it does not exist, but rather that Brussels does not count when auditing the accounts.

The plan allocates €150 billion to a mechanism whereby the EC will tap debt markets so that states can make joint purchases (at least two member states or one member state and Ukraine) through loans that will have to be repaid. These loans are part of a legislative initiative called SAFE (which sounds like the brand name of BlackRock’s future new financial product). In order for this package, entitled “Readiness 2030,” to be launched, this agenda to remilitarize Europe must be approved by the Council of the EU, but Von der Leyen will bypass the European Parliament by invoking Article 122 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. This information was revealed by elDiario.es [16].

The EU itself recognizes that sooner or later, increased military spending will lead to social cuts or tax increases [17]. This has already happened in the United Kingdom under Labour leader Keir Starmer [18]. The truth is that the European Union’s public debt is at excessive levels that are beginning to alarm some EU institutions [19]. In the third quarter of 2024, public debt in the Eurozone stood at 88.2%, while in the EU it was 81.6%, according to Eurostat data [20]. At that point in time, the highest public debt-to-GDP ratios were reported in Greece (158.2%), Italy (136.3%), France (113.8%), Belgium (105.6%), and Spain (104.3%), and the lowest in Estonia (24.0%), Bulgaria (24.6%), and Luxembourg (26.6%).

A Trojan horse inside the EU?

Beyond its political influence, BlackRock owns shares in many of Europe’s leading listed companies, including strategic defense, banking, energy, telecommunications, and media firms. In Spain alone, BlackRock, Vanguard, Capital Group, and Fidelity control €90 billion in the Ibex 35 index, according to calculations by the financial newspaper Expansión [21]. This participation extends to listed companies on other stock exchanges across the Old Continent, acting as a kind of Trojan horse from the US inside the EU [22].

Although his intercapitalist interests do not necessarily coincide with those of the current occupant of the White House, as is the case with Ukraine, Larry Fink’s opportunism prompts him to bend to Donald Trump’s whims when necessary, taking advantage of the shock doctrine imposed by the volatile US president wherever possible. One example is his supposedly “green” investment policy. Fink has gone from being a champion of “sustainable finance” to abandoning the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative (NZAMI), promoted by an international group of managers focused on climate change [23]. Recently, he has resumed meetings with companies that support Trump’s new guidelines [24]. Another example has been the Trump-approved deal for BlackRock to purchase Panamanian ports from their Chinese owners [25].

On the eve [26] of the presentation of her white paper on the Future of European Defence [27], Von der Leyen committed to “buying European” [28]. We have already seen what “buying European” means in the EU defense sector. We had already said in these pages during the pandemic year 2020 that Ursula von der Leyen’s is committed to dollar green [29]. That green is now tinged with main-battle-tank gray and also BlackRock shadow black.