Free Republic

A new poll carried out in the wake of a far-right scandal in Thuringia has shown impressive gains in support for the Left party and a significant tumble for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) in the eastern state. The poll was conducted by infratest dimap and commissioned by the public broadcaster MDR. The CDU in has been accused of colluding with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Thuringia to get a conservative candidate elected state premier, despite the fact that his party — the laissez-faire Free Democrats (FDP) — barely cleared the 5% hurdle to get into Thuringia’s...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced she will give up leadership of her center-right Christian Democrat Union (CDU) party after 18 years in the post, German media has reported. Merkel announced during a meeting with officials that she will not seek to run for re-election at the party's convention in December. But she made clear that she wanted to remain as chancellor, a position she has held since 2005, CNN affiliate RTL reported, citing party sources. Angela Merkel's Bavarian allies lose majority in crushing vote The announcement is a sign of Merkel's weakened power within her own party, and waning...

The 583 delegates of Die Linke (The Left) voted on Saturday in Leipzig in favor of the party executive’s motion which included its refugee policy. The party has a formal commitment for all who are looking for protection in Germany not to be turned away. The executive motion was based on a trio of proposals: bringing an end to conflict, including an end to arms exports; a social program for everyone in Germany to solve housing and employment difficulties; and finally, safe and legal escape routes as well as open borders for people seeking protection. The divisions within the party...

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) have their nose ahead of the other minor parties in Germany, putting them on course to become the third largest party in the Bundestag after September’s election, a new poll has found. The poll published by INSA and Bild on Tuesday found that the far-right AfD are on course to win 10 percent of the vote at the September 24th vote. That would put them in third place behind the Social Democrats (SPD) on 25 percent and Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) on 37 percent. The far-right party, who were set up in 2013 and...

German opposition leader Sahra Wagenknecht on Tuesday added her voice to calls to dissolve the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the wake of US President-elect Donald Trump’s controversial remarks concerning the military alliance. “NATO must be dissolved and replaced by a collective security system including Russia,” Wagenknecht told Germany’s “Funke” media group. Wagenknecht, who leads the opposition Left Party in parliament, added that comments made by the future US president “mercilessly reveal the mistakes and failures of the [German] federal government.” …

Green and Die Linke (Left Party) politicians are asking that NSA surveillance whistleblower Edward Snowden be allowed into Germany for an ongoing investigation. The Green and Die Linke politicians wrote a letter to the Federal Court of Justice, asking that Snowden be allowed to be questioned in Germany for an ongoing inquiry into NSA surveillance. According to DPA sources, they want to break a blockade by the coalition government against having Snowden come for questioning about surveillance by the US National Security Agency (NSA). …

Berlin (AFP) - Nearly 40 percent of German voters think Chancellor Angela Merkel should quit over her liberal asylum policy after almost 1.1 million newcomers arrived last year, a poll showed Friday. As the mood in Germany has shifted from a euphoric welcome for people fleeing war and persecution last September to growing doubts about the country's ability to accommodate and integrate the record influx, the popular Merkel has come under increasing pressure. However, the poll for Focus news magazine conducted by the independent opinion research institute Insa among 2,047 German citizens showed that a larger share -- nearly 45...

Germany's opposition Left party has expressed its suspicions of a "dirty deal" after German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen raised the prospect of sending troops to Libya to support a potential unity government in the fractured North African country. [...] Germany is one of a number of states (including Italy, France and Britain) currently discussing Libya in Rome, alongside representatives of the European Union and the United Nations, and van Aken claims that not only is a senior Bundeswehr officer among the German delegation, but the countries are planning to send in ground troops. "The plans for Libya go...

The German far-left look set to make history this week in a deal that will lead to them taking their first regional state premiership since the Berlin Wall fell a quarter-century ago. Bodo Ramelow, 58, a member of the Linke, the successor to the former East Germany's ruling Marxist-Leninist Social Unity Party (SED), will break political taboos by signing a deal that will see him appointed regional prime minister in the state of Thuringia next month. The move is part of a power-sharing deal with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and environmentalist Greens to be signed this week and then...

Germany has moved closer to getting its first state governor from a party with communist roots as the 25th anniversary of the Berlin Wall’s fall approaches. Germany’s main center-left party, the Social Democrats, said Tuesday a party ballot in eastern Thuringia state showed 70 percent favoring negotiations to join a regional government led by Left Party candidate Bodo Ramelow. […] Ramelow himself wasn’t a communist, but his party is descended partly from East Germany’s communist rulers. …

A quarter-century after the Berlin Wall crumbled, an election this weekend may show whether Germany is ready for its first state governor from the party descended from East Germany’s communist rulers. The opposition Left Party hopes to end the 24-year grip of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives on the governor's office in eastern Thuringia state Sunday. While his party emerged from the old communist guard, Left Party candidate Bodo Ramelow is anything but a throwback to Soviet times. The 58-year-old, a practicing Protestant and West German native, went east when Germany reunited in 1990 as a labor union official and later...

Germany’s socialist Left party want a 100 percent tax on anyone earning over €500,000 ($683,100) and will be including the policy in their general election campaign platform, a newspaper reported on Friday. “We are suggesting that no-one should earn over 40 times the societal minimum,” said The Left’s co-leader Katja Kipping in the party's draft election platform, which was seen by regional newspaper the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. The party paper said the total tax on those taking home over €40,000 ($54,648) per month would be used to fund social welfare and investing in the country’s future. …