Germany: ‘Decapitating’ Freedom of the Press?

Police question witnesses to the double-murder in Jungfernstieg subway station in Hamburg, Germany. (Image source: Daniel J./Heinrich Kordewiner video screenshot)

 

• If it was indeed the authorities’ plan to censor the news and keep the information of the beheading under wraps, then it backfired. Due to the reports about the raid, thousands of people have seen the video, and hundreds of thousands have heard about the botched censorship attempt.
• Hamburg’s government is still trying to conceal the beheading. Among other things, they [the AfD party] wanted to know whether the child had been beheaded. The administration — in breach of its constitutional duty — refused to answer. It also censored the questions by blacking out whole sentences.
• Why the beheading should be kept a secret is anyone’s guess. What has become clear is how easily authorities in Germany can censor the news and punish bloggers who spread undesired information. They have a vast toolbox of laws at their disposal. It does not seem to bother them that the law invoked in this case stipulates explicitly that it shall not be applied to the “reporting of contemporary events.”

In an apparent attempt to sweep under the rug a recent double homicide in Hamburg, Germany, authorities there censored the story. They also raided the apartments of a witness who filmed a video describing the murder, and a blogger who posted the video on YouTube.

The murder, which made headlines worldwide, occurred on the morning of April 12. The assailant, Mourtala Madou, a 33-year-old illegal immigrant from Niger, stabbed his German ex-girlfriend, identified as Sandra P., and their one-year-old daughter, Miriam, at a Hamburg subway station. The child died at the scene; her mother died later, at the hospital. The woman’s three-year-old son witnessed the murders.

Angela Merkel Down for the Count?

 

 

There are some saying that Angela Merkel will be overthrown in a matter of weeks and others saying that there is no plot to remove her. Nevertheless, scandal rising in Germany over the refugee crisis keeps brewing behind the curtain. Cyclically, 2018 may be a peak in Merkel’s career despite what people are trying to deny.

Angela Merkel was born in Hamburg, West Germany, on July 17, 1954, and was actually trained as a physicist. She entered politics after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. She eventually rose to the position of chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union party becoming Germany’s first female chancellor. Moreover, Merkel has actually become the best-known politician in Europe whose face is more recognized than anyone else in Europe no less Brussels.

Hungary’s Orban in sweeping victory, boosting EU populists

The victory will embolden Hungary’s Orban to continue cracking down on critics (Photo: Viktor Orban’s Facebook page)

 

Hungary’s nationalist prime minister Viktor Orban secured a third term with a sweeping majority in a boost to Europe’s populist forces.

Orban’s Fidesz has likely won a two-third majority in parliament in Sunday’s (8 April) general election, paving the way for amending the constitution, the electoral law, rules on local governments and the courts.

Hungarians voted in record numbers, but contrary to expectations, the large turnout favoured Orban’s Fidesz, not the opposition.

Germany: Meet Jens Spahn, Merkel’s Possible Successor

Pictured: German Chancellor Angela Merkel (right) and Jens Spahn (left), a top contender for succeeding Merkel as leader of the CDU party. (Photo by Volker Hartmann/Getty Images)

 

“I am a burkaphobe.”

• “What is clear at any rate: the financing [of imams] by foreign actors must stop.” — Jens Spahn, Deutsche Welle.
• “The message that ‘If you reach a Greek island, you will be in Germany in six days,’ not only encourages refugees from Syria, but also many people in Bangladesh and India. No country in the world, and no European Union, can withstand that if we give up control of our external borders.” — Jens Spahn, Die Zeit.
• “To anyone who makes their way to Germany, it must made be clear that their life here will be very different from that at home. They should think carefully about whether they really want to live in this western culture.” — Die Welt.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has sparked a mutiny from within her own party over a controversial coalition deal that allows her to remain in office for a fourth term. The deal, in which Merkel agreed to relinquish control over the most influential government ministries, has led a growing number of voices from within her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to say — publicly — that it is time to begin looking for her successor.

In Historic Speech, Macron Makes “Radical” Appeal For United Europe, Calls For “Military Intervention Force”

The construction of the United States of Europe and its European Army is still in full motion with Germany’s Fourth Reich at the helm and France toeing the line. This is barely beginning to be noticed by a few people but has been discussed and tracked on Global Geopolitics since 2011.

 

 

Just two days after the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won a larger-than-expected 13% of the vote in Germany’s federal elections over the weekend – dealing a staggering defeat to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat-led coalition which suffered its worst electoral showing since 1949 – French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a lesson in contrasts when he gave what the Financial Times described as “the most integrationist speech by a French leader since the creation of the euro.”

Speaking to students at the Sorbonne in Paris, Macron said that “the challenge is vital: the sea walls behind which Europe has thrived have gone,” adding that “we need to trace the only path ensuring our future; it is the refoundation of a sovereign, united and democratic Europe.”

In other words, a United States of Europe.

The Imperial Consensus

BERLIN (Own report) – With the Alternative for Germany (AfD), an extreme right wing party will enter the German Bundestag for the first time since the 1950s. With 13 percent of the vote, the AfD has successfully mobilized an extreme right-wing potential that, according to a sociological study, has always existed within the German population. All parties in the Bundestag openly repudiate the AfD. However, this only obscures the fact that the AfD’s program, particularly on the important issues of foreign and military policy, show remarkable parallels to the political objectives of almost all other parties in the Bundestag. Like the CDU/CSU, FDP, SPD and the Greens, the AfD sees Germany as a global “policy-making power,” whose armed forces should be massively upgraded and made more operational. Whereas, the mainstream parties in the Bundestag are relying on the EU as the instrument for German global policy, the AfD favors a national course for Germany exercising global power. This course would probably take effect should the EU disintegrate due to the growing internal dissentions or if more and more countries opt to exit.

Five more years of MERKEL: German Chancellor set to glide to victory ahead of Schulz

Angela Merkel is expect to win a fourth term as German Chancellor [Getty]

 

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to easily glide to victory for a fourth term in power at the general election to be held in September, according to two new polls.

In one conducted by polling institute infratest-dimap, in conjunction with German public broadcaster ARD, Mrs Merkel scored her highest approval rating since the beginning of the refugee crisis in 2015.

Europe’s Far-Right Anger Is Moving Mainstream

(Getty)

 

Anti-immigrant, anti-Europe, anti-Muslim sentiment is resonating with more and more voters in Europe.

In the wake of the Brexit vote in Britain and the recent Italian referendum, and with national elections looming in 2017 in the Netherlands, France, and Germany, there is concern that Europe may be inundated by a populist wave, driven in large part by right-wing parties exploiting anti-globalization, anti-immigrant, and anti-Muslim sentiments. Indeed, the strategy seems to be working: Polls show that people who have a favorable view of the National Front (FN) in France, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Germany, and the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands tend to be more negative about immigrants, refugees, and Muslims than their fellow countrymen. In addition, they are more euro-skeptic and more wary of globalization than their compatriots.

Berlin’s New Secretary of State is Pro-Sharia Law Conservative Muslim

Sawsan Chebli (Getty)

 

The daughter of Palestinian immigrants is to be the Berlin senate’s secretary of state for coordinating federal and state affairs, but attention has focused on her recent remarks in support of Sharia law.

Berlin state senate member, former deputy speaker for foreign affairs and Muslim rising star of German politics Sawsan Chebli is to get a new cabinet post. The appointment by the Red-Red-Green coalition government has caused concern after a recent interview in which she expressed her view that Sharia law was perfectly compatable with secular German society.

Angela Merkel allies warn: A Donald Trump could happen in Germany too

Head of the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, Frauke Petry. Photo: AP

 

Berlin: Leading allies of German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned on Thursday that populists would pose a problem for Europe unless mainstream politicians came up with answers after Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election.

Trump’s win has encouraged right-wing parties in Austria, France and the Netherlands, among others. A Politbarometer poll for broadcaster ZDF showed 82 per cent of Germans viewed it as bad or very bad, and 65 per cent expected relations with the United States to deteriorate under Trump’s presidency.

‘I wish I could turn back time’ Merkel finally admits she REGRETS open-door migrant policy

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel has admitted she regrets opening Germany’s doors to more than a million refugees last year.

Following a devastating defeat in Berlin state elections today, Mrs Merkel said she accepted her share of responsibility for voters punishing her ruling Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) party for her refugee-friendly migrant policy.

Speaking at a news conference in Berlin, she said: “If I could, I would turn back the time by many, many years.”

Germany: Beginning of the End of the Merkel Era?

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (left) suffered a major blow on September 4 when the anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany, led by Frauke Petry (right), surged ahead of her Christian Democratic Union in elections in her home state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania.

 

• The anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged ahead of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in elections in her home state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania.
• The election was widely seen as a referendum on Merkel’s open-door migration policy and her decision to allow more than one million migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East to enter Germany in 2015.
• Merkel rejected any course correction on migration policy: “I am very unsatisfied with the outcome of the election. Obviously it has something to do with the refugee question. I think the decisions that were made were correct.” She went on to blame German voters for failing to appreciate her government’s “problem-solving abilities”
• Many of the AfD’s positions were once held, but later abandoned, by the Merkel’s CDU.
• A September 1 poll showed Merkel’s popularity rating has plunged to 45%, a five-year low. More than half (51%) of those surveyed said it would “not be good” if Merkel ran for another term in 2017.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a major blow on September 4 when the anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged ahead of her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in elections in her home state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania.

‘EU is a DICTATORSHIP’ Furious campaigners want to move German state to PUTIN’S RUSSIA

ANGRY residents of a region in Germany have lashed out at the European Union ‘dictatorship’ and launched a petition to move the state to Russian rule.

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The petition calls for fellow Saxons to join the campaign to exit Angela Merkel’s nation.

In a statement, the group, known as the Pro-Putin Party, said: “As we have repeatedly and constantly experienced, there is nothing the EU dictatorship committee would recoil from!

Europe’s Rising Far Right: A Guide to the Most Prominent Parties

Amid a migrant crisis, sluggish economic growth and growing disillusionment with the European Union, far-right parties — some longstanding, others newly formed — have been achieving electoral success in a number of European nations. Here is a quick guide to eight prominent far-right parties that have been making news; it is not a comprehensive list of all the Continent’s active far-right groups. The parties are listed by order of the populations of the countries where they are based.

Germany

Alternative for Germany

The Alternative for Germany party, started three years ago as a protest movement against the euro currency, won up to 25 percent of the vote in German state elections in March, challenging Germany’s consensus-driven politics. Last fall, support for the party was reportedly in the 5 percent range, but shot up after the New Year’s Eve sexual assaults in Cologne. The party “attracted voters who were anti-establishment, anti-liberalization, anti-European, anti-everything that has come to be regarded as the norm,” said Sylke Tempel of the German Council on Foreign Relations. Frauke Petry, 40, the party’s leader, has said border guards might need to turn guns on anyone crossing a frontier illegally. The party’s recently adopted policy platform says “Islam does not belong in Germany” and calls for a ban on the construction of mosques.

Right-wing German party says ban the burka claiming Islam isn’t part of their constitution

As predicted years ago, Europe’s swing to the right intensifies:

 

Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has gained a surge in support since the arrival of more than one million migrants last year, launched its election manifesto calling for measures against “Islamic symbols of power” at its party conference.

Delegates also backed a ban on minarets on mosques and the call to prayer, saying Islam isn’t part of the constitution.