[We are indebted to a reader for providing us with a copy of Klartext [Clear-Text], Citizens’ Paper Fir Rhein-Main-[Neckar] Area of Germany. It is issue 19, dated April/May 2025
Below is a translation of its front page story, which concerns the first steps being taken towards digitalising the Euro. Words in square brackets are inserted by the translator]
Subjugation Bit By Bit
The Programmed Euro : A Turning Point
The introduction of programmable Central Bank currencies [CBDCs] is no longer a futuristic dream. The European Central Bank [ECB] is working at full speed on the development of the digital (T)Euro [Thousand Euro], and these could be a European reality by 2028. While this might seem a harmless advance, could it in reality turn out to be a historic turning point: the end of money as we know it—and with this the end of a chunk of individual freedom.
Public announcements portray the Digital Euro as complementary to Cash: as an alternative medium of payment which is secure, modern and a way of countering money-laundering and tax-evasion. But there is a lot more to it, hidden between the lines and in the technical minutae of the plans.
The fact is that the particular feature of a Digital Central Bank Currency is not just that it is digital. It is its Programmability. That is to say: every single transaction can be controlled by means of centralised rules.
What at first sounds like a more sensible way of regulating (“targeted funding”, “climate-friendly incentives”) on closer inspection turns out to be an instrument with the potential to be highly dangerous.
Tangible Examples From Every-Day Life.
* You want to send your nephew a substantial sum of money as a Christmas present? The System can block it: “Limit for private gifts exceeded!”
* You make a snap decision to go on holiday by air? The system blocks you: “CO2 Budget Exceeded!”
* You would like to help a Farm Shop, or to help an Alternative Community Newspaper neither of which, however, are officially registered? “Payment denied!”
What might today seem inconceivable to many has long since been muted in Strategy Papers. The ECB already commissioned tenders for systems which will accurately identify individuals through their phone numbers or email addresses and accurately record their payment streams. At the same time expiry dates for certain sums of money are being discussed—money that will lose its value after a given period: to provide a stimulus to the economy.
This Is No Longer An Economic Theory. It Is A Social Question.
For, with a Programmable Euro we lose far more than a simple medium of payment. We lose the capacity to make our own decisions. Taken for granted today: I pull a note from my wallet and choose for myself. Tomorrow perhaps: I apply for a transaction, and a machine decides.
What Happens To Cash?
The official story is that Cash will remain. But, at the same time the number of Bank Branches diminishes, cash machines disappear, and it gets dearer and dearer to use Cash. In countries like Greece cash payments of over 500 Euro are banned already.
The European Commission itself admits that the introduction of the Digital Euro will lead to a further drop in the use of cash. And, with every percentage point drop in use, it becomes easier for legislators to further cut back the use of cash.
Cash Equals Freedom In Your Trouser-Pocket
It is anonymous; it can’t be manipulated; it is direct. No System, no Server, no Algorithm can hinder your cash payment or document it.
And Then Comes Artificial Intelligence
Critics are often asked: “Who is to regulate all this?” The answer is simple: Machines! Artificial Intelligence takes over: creating profiles, evaluating transactions, analysing behaviour patterns.
Algorithms already steer our news-stream, our advertisements, our view of the world. Tomorrow they could decide whether or not we are allowed to make a payment.
There won’t be a Hotline any more, No human intervention. Just the cold verdict: “Not authorised!”
Some Comments:
Quiet Capitulation—Or Time To Be Counted?
It is noteworthy how quietly these changes are coming into effect. Whilst the USA under President Trump has introduced a legal ban on the introduction of CBDCs [Central Bank Digital Currency], in this country individuals, media groups, and politicians are still pushing for it. Citizens complain about rising prices, but allow themselves to be diverted by sideshows! Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the greatest instrument for control of the modern era is in preparation.
And yes—I have experience of this myself:
If you stand up in a market place, speak out, enlighten people about what is going on—it isn’t just the Mighty who get nervous. Others do too: the passive ones, those who are resigned, those who long ago decided that they could not change a thing. As far as they are concerned, the one speaking out is a provocateur. A mirror.
But that is exactly what we need.
Silence Means Consent!
Anyone believing that the Digital (T) Euro is “only a technical modernisation” is making a mighty mistake.
The fact is that it is the gateway to a society in which parents do not determine how people behave: that is done by Technology. Anyone against that has to act now.
Powerlessness is not a natural given—it is a feeling. A feeling when disappears as soon as the first step is taken.
> Cash is the foundation stone, which we must not remove from the wall.
> Our political demand is: Maintaining A Supply Of Cash and Accepting Payment By Cash must be made a Constitutional Prerogative.
> No secret abolition of cash; no algorithms over us, judging us.
This is the precise moment for speaking out!
If we remain quiet, others will do our talking for us. If we remain static, others will steer us.
It is up to every single one of us: are we to be spectators—or are we to remain free individuals?
Author: Chris Barth
[A link is provided to a Cash-Online-Petition:]
A reader writes:
Catherine Fitts Austin has written about the development of a Central Banksdigital transaction ‘system’ which transmogrifies into a human “control” system.
Long piece at Catherine Fitts: Power Grids, Bankers vs. the West, Secret Underground Bases, and Extinction Events <https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=z8pA2TDXtew&t=540s> but worth a listen!
See also President Trump’s promotion of Crypto-Currency at: https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-89/
Irish Political Review 