Free Republic

The three-time Italian premier, who has made a career out of rebounding from legal woes, personal scandal, heart trouble and political setbacks, is running for the European Parliament in May elections. The 82-year-old Berlusconi announced his candidacy with his center-right Forza Italia party Thursday in Sardinia. He said he wanted to “bring my voice to a Europe that should change, a Europe that has lost profound thinking about the world.” Berlusconi had been barred from running for public office for nearly five years due to a tax fraud conviction. Citing his good conduct, a court last year ruled that he...

Marine Le Pen delivered a speech in Paris to thousands of her National Rally party supporters, who chanted “Macron, resignation!” as she spoke. She denounced Macron and the EU as agents of globalisation with contempt for ordinary people. She also said the European Parliament elections in May ought to be a referendum on whether Macron stays in office. “If Macron does not have the wisdom to go back to the people by dissolving parliament, then let the political arbitrage come from European elections,” she said. “The European Union as it stands is a menace to our identity and to our...

In a resounding 509 to 138 result, the Bundestag has voted to classify the northern African states of Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco — along with Georgia in the Caucasus — as safe countries of origin for the purposes of German immigration law. As a result of the vote, it will be easier for German authorities to deport migrants from these countries who have arrived without visas. The SPD’s Helge Lindh said the move was necessary to remove false hope that citizens of the listed countries may have of applying for asylum or refugee status in Germany. While the CDU/CSU and...

BRUSSELS/PARIS - In Tehran on Jan. 8 during a meeting with European envoys, Iranian officials abruptly stood up, walked out and slammed the door in an extraordinary break with protocol. The next day, the European Union imposed its first sanctions on Iran since world powers agreed the 2015 Vienna nuclear arms control deal with Tehran. The sanctions were largely symbolic but the stormy meeting encapsulated the unexpected shift in European diplomacy since the end of last year. Smaller, more dovish EU countries have joined France and Britain in a harder stance on Tehran, including considering new economic sanctions, diplomats say....

The United States is expected to churn out far more oil in 2019 than what international analysts originally forecasted. The International Energy Agency, a Paris-based organization that helps coordinate energy policies for industrial countries, released its latest oil market report Friday, noting exceptional numbers for the U.S. fossil fuel industry. The agency reported U.S. oil production is expected to rise by 1.3 million barrels a day in 2019. While this number is lower than the record-smashing 2.1 million increase producers enjoyed in 2018, it’s more than double what the IEA initially expected to see in 2019. The forecast illustrates the...

... Senior AfD politician Kay Gottschalk told German news agency dpa on Thursday night that Poggenburg had declared his resignation. Last March, Poggenburg resigned from his leadership role in Saxony-Anhalt after a series of controversies regarding speeches, online comments and leaked WhatsApp messages. The former party leader for the state told German daily Die Welt on Friday that he and other disenchanted AfD members had founded a new party called "Aufbruch deutscher Patrioten — Mitteldeutschland" (Uprising of German Patriots — Central Germany). Poggenburg's differences with the AfD party leadership in Berlin had "ultimately taken on an insurmountable scale, leading me...

... The BfV is empowered under the German constitution to act against perceived threats to the democratic order. Some statements by AfD leaders have been condemned as encouraging neo-Nazi extremism. AfD activists took part in far-right rallies in the eastern city of Chemnitz last year, marred by clashes with police.

A parliamentary worker for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been accused of ordering a false flag arson attack in an attempt to discredit Ukraine's government. Three men are on trial in Poland following last February's firebombing of a Hungarian culture center in Uzhorod, western Ukraine. According to Polish authorities, the attack was to be attributed to Ukrainian neo-Nazis in order to sour relations between Ukraine and Hungary. One of the accused, named only as Michal P., told the court that the attack, in which Molotov cocktails were used, was ordered by Manuel Ochsenreiter, who works in the office...

Live coverage of the run up to tonight's BREXIT vote in Parliament.

The parliamentary leader of Germany's largest opposition party has urged the dissolution of the NATO alliance. "NATO must be dissolved and replaced by a collective security system including Russia," Sahra Wagenknecht told Germany's "Funke" media group. Germany's Left Party has previously called for warmer ties with Russia and scrapping the security alliance.

A source with knowledge of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian election meddling pushed back Tuesday on a new report claiming Mueller called on Deutsche Bank to submit data pertaining to its client relationship with President Trump. But the source tells Fox News there has been no subpoena from Mueller’s office to Deutsche Bank about the president’s finances.

Germany's defense minister has revealed a controversial European joint army is "already taking shape"- thanks to her French allies. Germany and France are now the "driving forces" in European defense and they would stand together in the face of any land assault, said Ursula von der Leyen.

Spahn, a conservative heavyweight among Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats who recently lost a contest to become the party's leader, described a knock-on effect of countries attracting doctors from neighboring countries, as is the case with Switzerland taking in German physicians. "I can understand them. Switzerland is a beautiful country. But what is clear is that there is a shortage of these professionals in Germany. And then Polish doctors work in our country, and in turn there is a shortage of them in Poland," he told Swiss tabloid Blick am Sonntag.

A 25-year old asylum seeker from Afghanistan stabbed a pregnant woman in the German city Bad Kreuznach so badly, her unborn baby died. The incident took place in a hospital in Bad Kreuznach Friday night. The man and the woman, a 25-year old Pole, had a dispute. He stabbed her several times with a knife. The victim was life-threateningly injured, but could be saved during operation. Her unborn child didn’t survive.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said on Saturday he will force a vote soon on a resolution to disapprove the Trump administration's decision to relax sanctions on three Russian companies connected to oligarch Oleg Deripaska…{snip} ...The U.S. Treasury announced on Dec. 20 that it would lift sanctions imposed in April on the core businesses of Deripaska, including aluminum giant Rusal its parent En+ and power firm EuroSibEnergo, watering down the toughest penalties imposed since Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea. After lobbying by European governments that followed the imposition of sanctions, Washington postponed enforcement of the sanctions...

A newly-released video is casting doubt on allegations made by a far-right German political party claiming one of its members suffered serious injuries after being attacked by three people in the northern city of Bremen. According to a statement on the AfD Bremen Facebook page, Frank Magnitz was the target of an “assassination attempt.” AfD says Magnitz was knocked unconscious with a piece of wood when he left a New Year's reception at a theater in the city. The party said the attackers continued to beat Magnitz on the head after he was down.

“In one of contemporary history’s intriguing caroms, European politics just now is a story of how one decision by a pastor’s dutiful daughter has made life miserable for a vicar’s dutiful daughter. Two of the world’s most important conservative parties are involved in an unintended tutorial on a cardinal tenet of conservatism, the law of unintended consequences, which is that the unintended consequences of decisions in complex social situations are often larger than, and contrary to, those intended.” That’s the elephantine lead of George Will’s recent column, headlined “Today’s Germany is the best Germany the world has seen.” The real...

Germany’s defence minister has confirmed that “a united EU military is becoming a reality,” after her ally and Chancellor Angela Merkel backed Emmanuel Macron’s call for a “real European army.” “Europe’s army is already taking shape,” Ursula von der Leyen wrote in an opinion piece for Handelsblatt on Thursday. “Germany and France are the driving forces in defense,” Ms von der Leyen boasted, adding that “We’re moving even further ahead with our close partner France” after the two countries agreed to sign a “new Elysèe Treaty” which, amongst other efforts to, in effect, merge aspects of the two countries, includes...

His new party Aufbruch der deutschen Patrioten (Awakening of German Patriots) will use a cornflower against the background of a German flag. The small blue flower was used as a secret symbol by the then-banned National Socialists in 1930s Austria before the Anschluss of 1938 brought the Nazis to power in the country.

Germany has told France to give its permanent seat at the UN Security Council to the European Union so that the bloc can “speak with one voice” as it advances its defence plans. German vice chancellor and finance minister Olaf Schloz made the proposal during a speech on the future of the EU in Berlin on Wednesday claiming it would be a “bold and smart goal,” reports The Brussels Times. “If we are to take the European Union seriously, the EU should speak with one voice within the UN Security Council. In the medium term, France’s seat could be converted...