Free Republic

BERLIN (Reuters) - The German army's battle-readiness is less than when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, military officials, lawmakers and defence experts told Reuters.Even if a new government boosts defence spending, it will remain hamstrung for years, particularly by a lack of air defence, artillery and soldiers, they said."Before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, we had eight brigades at around 65% readiness," Colonel Andre Wuestner, head of the German Armed Forces Association, told Reuters in an interview. Sending weapons, ammunition and equipment to Ukraine, as well as accelerating Germany's own drills, took a toll on the available equipment, he said."Together, this...

Elon Musk waded into Germany’s election on Friday, expressing his support for a far-right anti-immigrant and anti-Islam party that's being monitored by the country’s domestic intelligence agency. “Only the AfD can save Germany,” the tech billionaire wrote on X, referring to the Alternative for Germany party. The German government declined to comment at its regular press conference on Friday. Europe’s most populous country is expected to vote on Feb. 23. On Monday, Chancellor Olaf Scholz's center-left coalition government collapsed after he lost a confidence vote. It is only the sixth time such a vote has been called in the country...

Germany's ruling coalition has collapsed after Chancellor Olaf Scholz dismissed Finance Minister Christian Lindner just hours after Donald Trump's US election win. The coalition collapsed due to disagreements over budget policy, with Lindner opposing tax hikes and debt increases. Scholz plans a parliamentary confidence vote on January 15, potentially leading to a snap election by March 2025. Germany’s conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz said there's "absolutely no reason" to wait that long. "There is absolutely no reason to wait until January of next year to ask for a vote of confidence," he said. "The traffic light coalition no longer has...

A closed-door meeting of left-wing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) was held on January 16, 2003, in Washington, D.C. to consider how to apply international financial pressure through a global tax on the U.S. Bruno Jetin, a representative of ATTAC France, spoke to the gathering and acknowledged in private conversation that his group works hand-in-glove with the French Communist Party and the "Socialist parties on the Left." A representative of the embassy of France in the U.S. was listed as a participant. ATTAC stands for the Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens. The International ATTAC Movement...

German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht on Thursday warned against drawing a link between the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, meant to transport natural gas from Russia to Germany, and the differences with Moscow over Ukraine. "We should not drag (Nord Stream 2) into this conflict," Lambrecht told the broadcaster rbb in an interview. "We need to solve this conflict, and we need to solve it in talks - that's the opportunity that we have at the moment, and we should use it rather than draw a link to projects that have no connection to this conflict."

BERLIN — Millions of Germans will head to the polls in a federal election on Sunday that will determine who will succeed Angela Merkel after 16 years as Germany's chancellor. According to the latest polls, Germany's center-left Social Democratic Party is narrowly ahead of Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian partner, the Christian Social Union. They're closely followed by the Greens, the far-right Alternative for Germany and the libertarian Free Democratic Party, all holding onto double-digit poll numbers going into Sunday's election. Josef Janning, a senior associate fellow with the German Council on Foreign Relations, says the...

German lawmakers are calling for a ban on private parties, after the number of coronavirus infections in the country reached a four-month high. Saskia Esken, chairwoman of the Social Democratic Party, said those continuing to hold parties at home were risking the freedoms of others in society. “We must not risk forcing kindergartens and schools to close again and that children to stay at home for weeks because we have allowed an increased infection rate by holding family celebrations with too loose rules,” she told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS). Ralph Brinkhaus, parliamentary leader of the Christian Democratic Union, said...

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 feeling of relief in the room was palpable as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Christian Social Union boss Horst Seehofer, and Social Democratic Party Leader Martin Schultz walked up to the stage to announce a breakthrough in their coalition government talks after 24 straight hours of haggling.  For Germans used to quick and smooth transitions of power after parliamentary elections, the announcement from the three leaders was taken as the beginning of the end of four months of political uncertainty.Some of the most significant public policy issues in German politics today were included in the 28-page draft agreement, from refugee...

A Russian loan to France’s National Front. Invitations to Moscow for leaders of Austria’s Freedom Party. Praise for Vladimir Putin from the head of Britain’s anti-European Union party. As the diplomatic chill over Ukraine deepens, the Kremlin seems keener than ever to enlist Europe’s far-right parties in its campaign for influence in the West, seeking new relationships based largely on shared concern over the growing clout of the EU. […] The fact that many of Moscow’s allies are right to far-right reflects the Kremlin's full turn. Under communism, xenophobic nationalist parties were shunned. Now they are embraced as partners who...

Fun Gun Reviews Presents: "3 Top Semi-Auto DA Pistols". Comparing the Sig P226, Sphinx SDP and the HK P30 pistols and thoughts about what places them at the top of the heap over lesser expensive handguns.

Israel’s ongoing settlement construction is damaging efforts to reach a negotiated peace agreement, visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Monday. Berlin’s top diplomat was in Israel for a 24-hour visit to discuss the peace process, which was largely overshadowed by the death at the weekend of Israel’s controversial former prime minister Ariel Sharon, who was laid to rest on Monday. […] But the German diplomat dodged a question on possible European Union sanctions against Israel, saying only that he would discuss the matter of settlements with his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman when they met later on Monday. …

German industry is largely in favor of a minimum wage, a new survey shows. Yet despite the opposition Social Democrats putting it high on their agenda, managers still do not trust the party with the economy. A survey of German managers conducted for the Handelsblatt business newspaper showed 57 percent wanted a mandatory minimum wage in the country. Those in service industries were the most in favor, with 61 percent saying they wanted a minimum wage. An hourly rate of €8.88 ($11.60) was considered suitable, the managers told pollsters from Forsa who carried out the survey. This is more than...

The two Swedish women who have brought sex charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange boasted about their relationship with him days before going to cops. Based on information available on various websites quoting police and court papers, here's an account of what happened. The story goes back to August this year, when Assange was in Stockholm to speak at the invitation of Sweden's Social Democratic Party. The event organizer was 31-year-old Anna Ardin, who has been described as a feminist, leftist, social democrat and opponent of abortion. She has worked at the Uppsala University, handling equality issues for the students'...

Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's Social Democrat Party suffered a resounding defeat in its historical heartland yesterday when voters in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) rejected almost 40 years of rule by the party.Defeat to the Christian Democratic Union caused Mr Schröder's party to call for general elections to be brought forward to the autumn. The outcome of the vote, which is seen as a dry-run for the next federal election, will have repercussions way beyond the state that has driven the German economy since the war, and amounts to the biggest shake-up for the political landscape in almost a...

Less than a week after his narrow re-election, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder is already under pressure to break a key campaign promise not to raise tax. Tensions had been expected between the Social Democrats and their Green Party coalition partners who want to increase eco-taxes on fossil fuels but yesterday demands were coming from within Mr Schröder's party. Edmund Stoiber, the defeated Conservative Social Union candidate, accused Mr Schröder and Hans Eichel, his finance minister, of damaging the trust between voters and all politicians. "They have serious credibility problems now because, after the election, they have to admit what they...