Free Republic

Amid increasing frustration over lockdown measures to curb the coronavirus pandemic, multiple protests took place across Europe on Saturday to demand businesses reopen. In Warsaw, Poland, law enforcement used tear gas on protesters, while police made arrests at a demonstration in London's Hyde Park. Police in several German cities enforced distancing rules as thousands of people gathered to vent anger over economies in freefall and perceived losses of freedom. Police in Stuttgart said that the number of demonstrators exceeded the permitted threshold of 5,000; they directed other protesters to another open space. Police said they were enforcing a mask requirement...

MPs are due to vote on the government's plan to ban low-skilled immigration as the UK moves towards a new points-based system. The government says the new points-based system will treat EU and non-EU citizens equally and aims to attract people who can contribute to the UK's economy. Home Secretary Priti Patel described the new points-based system as "firmer, fairer and simpler". She said the new law gives the UK "full control of our immigration system for the first time in decades and the power to determine who comes to this country." She added: "It will attract the people we...

France: Vandals cut down monumental and iconic iron cross, “symbol of the entire Languedoc region” MAY 16, 2020 2:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER This attack could have perpetrated by militant atheists, angry ex-Catholics, any number of people. But such people have been in France for years, and there have not been incidents of this kind. However, France has seen a large influx of Muslim migrants in recent years, many of whom believe that it is an insult to Allah to say that Jesus is the Son of God (cf. Qur’an 19:35), and that Jesus died on the cross (which the...

When Covid-19 came to Europe it was Italy that was hit first - and hit hard. Little help came from its European neighbours in those first weeks in February and March, as hospitals in the north were overwhelmed. As Italy counts its 31,000 dead, concern is mounting over the economic impact too, and there are signs of a rise in the number of Italians losing faith in the EU. The Treaty of Rome launched the then European Economic Community in 1957, with Italy a founding member. "I have changed my mind a little on Europe. We are facing an absolute...

Police in Warsaw, Poland used tear gas to subdue protesters demanding a quicker end to stay-at-home orders in the country, Reuters reported Saturday. Like the U.S., Poland has begun reopening some business in parts of the country at the start of the month in an effort to salvage the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. The protesters, who claimed the shutdowns in Warsaw has threatened their income, have staged demonstrations in the capital city since late last month. The organizers planned a march that was blocked by police who cited government restrictions temporarily banning public gatherings amid the pandemic. “Unfortunately we...

Cherbourg, France: Jean Dussine, president of an association for aid to illegal migrants was killed at his home on Tuesday, May 12, by the Afghan he was housing. Mr Dussine and came to the aid of migrants through the Cherbourg association Itinérance, of which he had been the president since 2016. The man was hospitable enough to accommodate a migrant of Afghan origin in his own house in Bretteville-en-Saire. And this infidel was duly rewarded for his kindness. Witnesses said the victim “was sleeping when the Afghan migrant, in his 20s, attacked him with an iron rod. He could not...

The outbreak of COVID-19 has had serious consequences for human rights, with authoritarian leaders taking advantage of the pandemic to exert greater authority, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told the Bundestag on Friday. “We are observing with great concern how the crisis is boosting authoritarians,” the Social Democrat (SPD) politician said during a debate in the German parliament in Berlin. Maas listed repressive measures taken against journalists in Russia, Venezuela, Iran, Turkey and China as examples of responses to the pandemic, all of which are designed to repress freedoms. However, matters closer to home were also of concern to Maas....

The German economy contracted 2.2% in the first quarter of 2020, the worst result since the 2008 financial crisis. Experts had expected a contraction of around 2%. The latest data, released by the federal statistics authority Destasis on Friday, also showed revisions to 2019 fourth-quarter figures from zero growth to a contraction of 0.1%. This means Germany is now in a recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth. The first quarter figures are only a partial indication of how much the pandemic has harmed Europe’s largest economy. […] GDP is expected to shrink even further in the...

In a stunt to encourage social distancing, a German restaurant gave its diners hats with pool noodles upon its reopening. Cafe & Konditorei Rothe in Schwerin, Germany reopened last week as the country begins to lift certain coronavirus restrictions. It posted a photo of its diners on Facebook, showing them in straw hats with colorful pool noodles pointing in three different directions to encourage social distancing from all sides. "In these difficult times it's a pleasure to make others smile," restaurant owner Jacqueline Rothe said about the stunt, according to The New York Post.

NETHERLANDS: Muslim party leader tells native Dutch to “get the hell out of the country” if they don’t like Muslim “diversity” MAY 14, 2020 BY BARENAKEDISLAM We don’t seem to hear much about the Netherlands and its Muslim problem anymore, so even though this story is from 2018, it bears reading/watching as there is no doubt the problem there has only grown much worse since then. Voice of Europe Tunahan Kuzu, the political leader of the DENK party in the Netherlands, has caused some serious controversy, Dutch broadcaster NOS reports. “If they don’t like a changing Netherlands in which people...

Two of the six far-left extremists Antifa suspects involved in the brutal beating of a German television crew have been revealed as coming from a privileged middle-class background, originally from a well-off Swabian town. The two suspects, 27-year-old Miriam S. and her 25-year-old brother Simon S., were arrested shortly after the attack on a camera crew of German broadcaster ZDF on May 1st in Berlin that sent four members of the crew to the hospital with various injuries suffered during the brutal assault. The background of the pair has now been revealed by German newspaper Die Welt which reports that...

A PREGNANT nurse was raped by an illegal migrant as she headed home from the front line treating coronavirus patients, it's reported. The 48-year-old was targeted while waiting at a bus stop shortly after leaving work at around 3pm on Sunday afternoon in Naples, Italy. Italy: Illegal Muslim migrant rapes pregnant coronavirus care nurse as she waits for bus after work It is no secret that mass Muslim migration has brought numerous woes upon the European Union, prompting former Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini to declare that his efforts to stop suicidal immigration were about “saving Europe from Islam.” Last...

A ruling by Germany’s constitutional court has sparked serious fears of the unravelling of the European Union. It’s a delayed judgment from an old fight that has hit the EU at its most vulnerable. A group of German academics, including a former leader of the far-right party Alternative für Deutschland, Bernd Lucke, took a case in 2015 to challenge the bond-buying programme of the European Central Bank (ECB). They hardly hoped to win, but thought they could make a political point. During the euro zone crisis, as now, the ECB was buying the debt of economically weaker EU countries to...

...Sweden has a higher rate of deaths in care homes than Norway or Finland, and lockdown enthusiasts have struggled to explain why keeping bars open would be killing people in housing for the elderly. But there is a crucial difference between Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish care homes. A decade ago, in Sweden, 13% of the workers in care homes were immigrants, while only 5% in Norway and 1% in Finland were. Currently, 28% of care home workers in Sweden are foreigners, but in Stockholm, where the real dying has occurred, 55% of the care home workers are foreign immigrants...

The alleged killer of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn is “wanted internationally” after an Interpol Red Notice was issued for her arrest, a family spokesperson has said. The 19-year-old died when his motorbike crashed with a car outside a US military base in Northamptonshire in August last year. Anne Sacoolas, the alleged driver of the car and the wife of a US intelligence official based at RAF Croughton, claimed diplomatic immunity following the crash and was able to return to her home country, sparking an international controversy. Sacoolas, 42, was charged with causing death by dangerous driving in December but an...

Hungary rejects EU domestic violence treaty for ‘gender as social construct’ language 'If something contradicts the Fundamental Law, it cannot be adopted by Parliament,' a Hungarian diplomat explained. BUDAPEST, May 11, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Hungary is refusing to ratify a Council of Europe human rights treaty on combating violence against women and domestic violence because its definition of “gender” denies there are only two sexes and because it could open the door to illegal immigration. Hungary’s Parliament voted overwhelmingly last week not to ratify the Istanbul Convention because of its “unacceptable approach to defining gender” and to lobby the European...

FRANKFURT/LONDON - Bicycles could play a central role in more major European cities as governments scramble to get commuters back to work without crowding buses or trains after coronavirus lockdowns are eased. Britain, a laggard compared to its continental neighbours when it comes to cycling to work, is now encouraging people to get in the saddle as part of a 250 million pound ($308 million)emergency active travel fund announced last week. And in France, home to the world’s most famous bike race, the government plans to invest 20 million euros ($22 million) to develop and subsidise two-wheel travel, which like...

PARIS - Plastic barriers and millions of masks appeared Monday on the streets of Europe’s newly reopened cities, as France and Belgium emerged from lockdowns, the Netherlands sent children back to school and Greece and Spain further eased restrictions. All faced a delicate balance of trying to restart battered economies without fueling a second wave of coronavirus infections. Social distancing was the order of the day but just how to do that on public transit and in schools was the big question. With Monday’s partial reopening, the French did not have to carry forms allowing them to leave their homes...

The great waves of plague that twice devastated Europe and changed the course of history had their origins in China, a team of medical geneticists reported Sunday, as did a third plague outbreak that struck less harmfully in the 19th century.

Is this the stronghold of freedom fighter William Wallace? It’s pretty overgrown now, but a combination of drone flight and 3D tech appears to have found “Wallace’s House” in southern Scotland. From this fort, the legendary thorn in England’s side planned an attack on nearby Lochmaben Castle in Dumfries and Galloway. The Scotsman reports how Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS) – in association with Skyscape Survey – launched an aerial exploration of the site. Drone footage was taken over a “massive earthen rampart and the promontory where the waters of the Black Linn (River) and the Tor Linn meet.” From...