Free Republic

Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has designated AfD as a right-wing extremist organisation, citing xenophobic stances as the reason. Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution on Friday designated the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a right-wing extremist organisation that poses a threat to democracy and the constitutional order. The office, also known as BvF, cited the AfD’s xenophobic stances on ethnicity as the reason for the decision, stating the party was being discriminatory towards non-ethnic Germans. According to the statement released on Friday, the office's experts have examined whether the AfD's...

Seriously, what is the point of defending Europe? Well, maybe to defend the Louvre and some monuments to a once-great culture? I can't think of many other reasons, now that the continent has descended once-again into the 1930s-style of fascism (no, not the Nazis of the late thirties and 40s, but more Mussolini-style fascism). Elections are being canceled, censorship is running amok, people are getting arrested for speaking, and now the most popular party in Germany is on the edge of getting banned because it threatens the power of the German elite. There is no doubt that the AfD is,...

Germany's Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has been designated as right-wing extremist by the country's federal office for the protection of the constitution. "The ethnicity- and ancestry-based understanding of the people prevailing within the party is incompatible with the free democratic order," the domestic intelligence agency said in a statement. The AfD came second in federal elections in February, winning a record 152 seats in the 630-seat parliament with 20.8% of the vote. The parliament, or Bundestag, will hold a vote next week to confirm conservative leader Friedrich Merz as chancellor, heading a coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats. The...

What a difference a couple of months of lies and betrayals make. Two days ago, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, led by Alice Weidel, was in a statistical tie with Chancellor-Elect Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats (CDU). AfD was, however, still iced out of any government participation, even as Merz lied and finagled his way in efforts to form a coalition government with anyone but them. The German public, watching Merz's negotiations go down, their votes for change cast aside in the frenzied deal making, and their few remaining freedoms cast to the wind, had an almost instantaneous case of...

AfD and CDU continue tied at 24.5

Six weeks after voters in Germany went to the polls for the federal elections, there appears to be growing dissatisfaction with the outcome, as more Germans shift their support to the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. According to the latest survey from Insa on behalf of the Bild newspaper, the AfD has soared to a record 24 per cent support. This puts the upstart party on par with the election-winning ‘Union’ of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), which collectively also now stand at 24 per cent in support.

Germany’s likely new coalition government, expected to be formed between the conservatives (CDU) and the Social Democrats (SPD), is planning a law that could effectively ban politicians deemed ‘unpleasant’ or ‘populist’ from standing for election. A draft coalition paper, presented to the press last week, proposes a significant tightening of the country’s already repressive ‘incitement of the masses’ law. Under the proposal, politicians convicted more than once under the law would no longer be allowed to stand as a party candidate. Germany’s law against incitement of the masses (Section 130 of the Criminal Code) has long been a tool to...

The EU Parliament has lifted the immunity of AfD foreign policy spokesman Petr Bystron because he shared a photo of Angela Merkel on Twitter in 2022. The reason? Bizarre: since Merkel is seen raising her arm in the image, it’s being interpreted as a Nazi salute – but only because Bystron posted it. Prosecutor: Waving is not a Nazi salute This farce has a backstory: In 2022, during a protest against COVID-19 measures, Bystron waved to the crowd. The public prosecutor immediately launched an investigation: “Nazi salute!” In response, hundreds of AfD supporters filed complaints against Angela Merkel, who had...

As an openly gay politician who lives with her Sri Lanka-born partner in Switzerland, Alice Weidel was an unusual choice to many to lead Germany’s far-right AfD into Sunday’s elections, where it scored its best-ever result. To her legions of political foes, Weidel serves as a “fig leaf” for a party that has railed against asylum seekers, Islam and multiculturalism and some of whose top figures have voiced revisionist views on Germany’s Nazi past. On Sunday the 46-year-old, who says Margaret Thatcher is her political idol, led the Moscow-friendly AfD to a record result of around 20 percent. She told...

That German election? As I wrote last August: Here is an all too typical Euro-headline: 'Tens of thousands demonstrate against AfD after stabbings in Solingen' Gotta love the commitment of the diversity lemmings. Even as they're on the ground punctured by multiple stab wounds, they'll be fretting that the amount of their blood all over the sidewalk risks provoking even more 'Islamophobia' from the 'far right'. So yes, the AfD had a good night, coming second and doubling their share of the vote to a smidgeonette under twenty-one per cent. But the remaining seventy-nine per cent voted to keep stabbing...

The far-right populist AfD has emerged as the second strongest political force in Germany's election. Despite its success — and support from Elon Musk and JD Vance — it has no chance of participating in government. It is a historic result for the Alternative for Germany party (AfD): just twelve years after the party was founded, it has become the second largest political force in Germany. With around 20% of the vote, it almost doubled its result from the last general election in 2021. In eastern Germany, it has even become the strongest political force. On election night, the AfD...

BERLIN (AP) — Exit polls show opposition leader Friedrich Merz’s conservatives leading in Germany’s national election. They indicate that Alternative for Germany is heading for the strongest showing for a far-right party since World War II. The exit polls for ARD and ZDF public television show Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats on track for their worst postwar result in a national parliamentary election, and expected to be in third place. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below. BERLIN (AP) — German voters are choosing a new government in an election Sunday dominated by worries about...

Germans are going to the polls after an intense election campaign dominated by their country's faltering economy and a succession of deadly attacks that have made migration and security a focal issue. Friedrich Merz, the 69-year-old conservative leader, is in pole position to become Germany's next chancellor, in a vote closely watched in Europe and the US. He promises to fix most problems in four years - a tall order for Europe's biggest economy and a creaking infrastructure. If Merz's Christian Democrats (CDU) win, he will need to forge an alliance with at least one other party, most likely Olaf...

Jean Marie Le Pen has left his mark on French politics and was the catalyst for the rise of far-right parties in Europe. The National Front that he founded remains an essential party, a movement that is officially part of the French political spectrum, capable of presenting a candidate in the second round of the presidential elections. We can no longer ignore it but fight it. We respect the choice of millions of French people to vote according to their choice. Certainly, we do not have the right or the pretension to intervene in the internal affairs of France, or...

Pushing dyed blonde hair from her dark eyes, Nicole Kursch squints at her phone. Braced against the freezing Saxon cold, she taps the envelope logo on her screen to open the encrypted messaging app Telegram. Nicole, 26, scrolls through the many direct conversations and semi-private group chats to get information about the upcoming German election. Often she is scared by what she sees: videos of terrorist attacks, buildings exploding with fireworks and warnings about women’s safety. All, in her eyes, are bound together by one overriding threat: immigration. “People are talking a lot about migration in the Telegram groups I’m...

Markus Roscher, a German lawyer, was fined €3,000 under a controversial speech law for criticizing government officials on X, highlighting growing concerns over free expression and political dissent in Germany.. The debate over free speech in Germany has taken a new turn following the case of Markus Roscher, a 61-year-old lawyer from Braunschweig, who was fined €3,000 for criticizing the government’s heating law. Roscher described Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock as “malicious failures” in a post on X back in 2021. He was subsequently issued a penalty notice under the controversial Paragraph 188...

The co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany praised Donald Trump as the “right man” to end the war in Ukraine and urged her country to remain a “neutral mediator” in a heated four-way televised debate ahead of general elections next Sunday. Europe’s largest country is entering its final week of campaigning as it grapples with a stagnating economy, a fraught immigration debate and profound angst over the fast-deteriorating transatlantic relationship under the new Trump administration, which has openly swung behind the AfD. During a two-hour primetime show, AfD candidate Alice Weidel emerged as the prime target of Social Democratic...

MUNICH, Germany – Vice President J.D. Vance took a lecturing tone against a room full of European “elites” at the Munich Security Forum this afternoon, slamming leaders who fail to abide by the wishes of their electorates and condemning the censorship and persecution of conservatives, Christians, and others.Speaking at the Bayerischer Hof hotel, Vance boldly declared, “A new sheriff is in town,” referring to his boss, President Donald J. Trump, and a new American approach to the nation’s partners and allies.“We gather at this conference, of course, to discuss security, and normally we mean threats to our external security,” Vance...

U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance has called for Germany’s establishment parties to reconsider their policy of shutting out the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Vance said, “I think, unfortunately, the will of voters has been ignored by a lot of our European friends.”“It’s really about censorship and about migration, about this fear that President Trump and I have, that European leaders are kind of terrified of their own people,” the Vice President explained to the press ahead of his address to the conference.“It’s really about censorship and about migration, about this fear that...

GERMAN DEMISE: Unless Germany takes an additional credit of 12-15 billion Euros, due to Ukraine, the government will have to cut: - Pensions - Road maintenance and construction - Railway maintenance and construction - Health spending - Health insurance spending ...