Free Republic

Germany faces criticism from all directions for its authoritarian actions against the country's largest opposition party ... The German government appears to be seriously preparing for a ban of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party after the country’s powerful domestic spy agency classified the party as “definitely right-wing extremist.” Now, world leaders are reacting to the classification, with Hungarian Prime Minister saying he backs the party and its co-leader Alice Weidel. After the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) gave the AfD its new designation, which paves the way for a ban of the entire party, Orbán asked...

The Democrat Party is on an impressive losing streak. The Dems comprehensively lost the 2024 presidential election, they're obsessively focused on being on the 20 side of the 80-20 transgender athletes issue, and then they elected David Hogg as the Democratic National Committee's Vice Chair. Hogg, not known as one of the country's brightest thinkers, is using his newfound importance as vice chair to make media appearances and demonstrate in exact detail why he was a terrific choice to lead the party. If you're a Republican. In a CBS News appearance this week, Hogg said in an interview that his...

Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a high-profile meeting with his Hungarian counterpart, Viktor Orbán, in Budapest. Argentina’s libertarian president, Javier Milei, has called Orbán his “comrade in this fight for the ideas of freedom,” and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni is Orbán’s “Christian sister.” Last year, Donald Trump hosted the Hungarian leader three times at Mar-a-Lago. How did this one country in Europe become a beacon for right-wing ideas—and leaders—around the world? Once upon a time, Hungary was the poster child of “regime change”—the peaceful transition from communism to democracy. The process was indeed peaceful. But was it...

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) refused to consent to a reporter's plea "so do you denounce the violence against Tesla products, dealerships and cars?" Instead, he asserted that "Elon Musk s a disaster for America and America knows it. A poll conducted by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) at Rutger's University found that 48% and 55% of poll respondents believe that murdering Musk and Trump, respectively, might be justified. We shouldn't be surprised that some might strike back against the damage these two have done to our country through violence." Musk pointed out that "the 48% and 55%...

In his highly quoted speech to the Munich Security Conference, Vice President J.D. Vance singled out a country unfamiliar to many Americans: Romania. Mr. Vance condemned what he described as Europe’s crackdown on free speech and mentioned Romania’s election annulment. In December, “Romania straight up canceled the results of a presidential election based on the flimsy suspicions of an intelligence agency and enormous pressure from its continental neighbors,” he said. “The argument was that Russian disinformation had infected the Romanian elections, but I’d ask my European friends to have some perspective. If your democracy can be destroyed with a few...

The French authorities insist that the conviction of Marine Le Pen, which disqualifies the leader of the National Rally (RN) from standing for election as president of France, is not political. No, they say, it simply reflects the neutral ‘rule of law’ and the ‘independence of the judicial system.’ Really? Strange then, that supposedly ‘independent’ judges and officials across Europe and America have all reached remarkably similar verdicts against right-wing politicians. It looks less like judicial independence and the old-fashioned rule of law than a globalist establishment plot to use the courts as a political weapon against the rising national...

A bite-sized chunk of my big-picture piece from Quadrant has now been excerpted in Australia's national newspaper, The Australian: The biggest story of our time is that the entirety of the western world is sliding off the cliff – and most citizens of the west are not even aware of it, and have no desire to be made aware of it. In that respect, I envy them. It is comforting to paddle one's canoe and insist that the ever louder roaring sound from up ahead is the crowd at a Taylor Swift gig and not Niagara Falls. To be sure,...

I've written and talked for some years now about the emerging "Post-Democratic Era". But it has advanced significantly in recent months. On Sunday, Romania's "Central Electoral Bureau" ruled that Călin Georgescu was ineligible to be on the presidential ballot on the grounds that he "doesn't meet the conditions of legality" because he "violated the very obligation to defend democracy, which is based precisely on fair, honest and impartial elections." Mr Georgescu is ahead in all the polls. From the most recent: New polling (MKOR, Feb 25-28) shows Călin Georgescu dominating with 44.1%, far ahead of establishment-backed candidates. That's getting pretty...

We are witnessing the most radical counter-revolution in the last 100 years, as the Trump administration attempts to slash government spending and the federal bureaucracies. It insists on reciprocal tariffs with friendly, neutral, and hostile nations alike. It will vastly expand energy production, end once and for all illegal immigration, fire the DEI industry and its overt racism, reboot public health policies, redirect the Pentagon, and, in general, reexamine almost every entrenched left-wing government institution and policy of the last 50 years.

Representative Mike Quigley (R-IL) said Friday on CNN’s “News Central” that President Donald Trump should be thanking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky because he had been fighting for democracy. When asked about his reaction to the Oval Office meeting between Trump and Zelensky, Quigley said, “I just think people should appreciate the fact that we are fundamentally a different nation than we were just weeks ago. We are alone in the world, and we are less safe.”

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) argued that “the prices at the grocery store are going up because democracy is being taken away.” And “The impact on you in terms of your health care, 770,000 people in Illinois will lose health care as a result of what Donald Trump and Elon Musk and the Republican Congress are doing right now, it’s a danger to your way of life, and that’s what people need to understand.” Pritzker said, “When you lose, as is happening in my state –we’re losing our meat and poultry inspectors....

The most shocking political events took place on February 26 in Bucharest, where the front-runner in Romania’s presidential elections, Calin Georgescu, was seized by the police on the street in broad daylight and brought in for “questioning”. In true autocratic government style, this happened just before he was going to formally submit his candidacy to enter the electoral contest. A large number of police raids have also been ordered against members of Mr Georgescu’s campaign team and other political associates. Background Ostensibly, all this is related to an inquiry by the Prosecutor General into Mr Georgescu’s first presidential campaign in...

She lost the election, but she’ll always have the NAACP Chairman’s Award. Former Vice President Kamala Harris reemerged in the public limelight for her first major speech since departing the White House Saturday night and took not-so-subtle shots at both President Trump and tech mogul Elon Musk. During an acceptance speech at the 56th annual NAACP Image Awards, Harris painted a bleak picture of the state of the country and urged attendees not to lose hope as her own party struggles over its direction amid Trump’s return. “While we have no illusions about what we are up against in this...

Vice President J.D. Vance spoke Friday at the Munich Security Conference to address America's NATO Allies.

Former Biden Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Ana Cabrera Reports” that the United States had gone from a democracy to a monarchy under the Trump administration. Cabrera said, “Let’s talk about what we know of that’s happening inside your old building. CNBC reports that Elon Musk’s DOGE team has taken over some of the departments highest officials offices. In fact, they describe it as what’s happening in there rearranging furniture, setting up white noise machines to muffle their voices. DOGE says it’s already terminated roughly $900 million worth of contracts, writing on social media that it’s terminated...

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Monday on CNN’s “The Source” that President Donald Trump has America “staring the death of democracy in the eyes.” Partial transcript as follows: COLLINS: Senator Murphy, as we look at the developments that have happened, in the last 48 hours, what are your concerns about this moment that we’re at with the courts, with the President, and with this suggestion from two of his top advisers that maybe they defy the court’s rulings? MURPHY: Yes, listen, I mean, this isn’t hyperbole to say that we are staring the death of democracy in the eyes, right...

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “All In” that the Trump administration is bringing America to a “tipping point” where democracy will soon be unattainable. Murphy said, “So I just think there’s a tipping point at which you can’t get your democracy back. And I see all of these very purposeful lines of effort that the Trump administration and Elon Musk are taking. And I think we just have to be right now, at this moment on, you know, red alert mode. And what I see, right, is the normalization of violence. I don’t think you can underscore...

An LGBTQ group in Ecuador tapped into a $25,000 grant from the Biden State Department to produce a two-day drag workshop intended to promote diversity and inclusion abroad. Footage obtained by The Post showed drag queens donning makeup, strutting around topless wearing nothing but pasties and crowing about how the displays could be used as a “political tool.” Fundacion Dialogo Diverso, a nongovernmental organization that aims to promote democracy and the “LGBTIQ+ population” of the South American country, organized the drag show and published footage of it last July. The State Department footed some of the bill for the show...

On MSNBC on Monday, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) argued that Democrats have “got to be at top volume level every single day. And I think if you are, your credibility of that the message that you’re sending, the oligarchy is forming, our democracy is falling, the corruption is beginning, it just has a lot more weight if you’re consistent about it.” Murphy said, “We are meeting every day, later today, to begin to build out that campaign that’s going to stop, hopefully, not just a couple of these nominees, but stop that billionaire tax cut. Again, we have faith because...

It’s hard to say who is the worst attorney general in American history. The candidates are many and comprise a veritable rogue’s gallery of sadists, reactionaries and incompetents. They range from A. Mitchell Palmer, mastermind of the original Red Scare that decimated the left in the wake of the First World War, to Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III and William Pelham Barr, who sacrificed the rule of law in service to Donald Trump. Merrick Garland may not share the malignancies of his fellow train wrecks, but he deserves to be in the discussion. Decades from now, historians will memorialize Garland not...