Free Republic

Six people were wounded in a knife attack at a far-right rally in Germany on Friday, including a prominent critic of Islam, drawing immediate condemnation from the nation's leaders. The attack, just days before EU-wide elections, comes amid a spike of politically motivated violence in Germany. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser raised the possibility that the assault could have been Islamist motivated. A man with a knife attacked and wounded several people on the market square in the city of Mannheim in southwest Germany at around 11:35 am (0935 GMT), police said in a statement. Five of those wounded were taking...

A man has attacked a number of people with a knife at a market square in the south-west German city of Mannheim, police say. One of the people injured was anti-Islam activist, Michael Stürzenberger, who had been preparing to hold a rally in the square, according to his group. The incident was caught on a YouTube livestream and showed the attacker stabbing a man, and then a police officer who went to help. The officer is in a critical condition. The attacker was shot and injured by another police officer. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz described the incident as “terrible”, and...

Russia has accused Nato and the US of "provoking a new level of tension" after the US and Germany became the latest allies to let Ukraine's military to use Western-supplied weapons to strike targets inside Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Nato countries, especially the US and several European countries, had "entered a new round of escalating tension and they are doing this deliberately", in remarks quoted by the Tass news agency. The UK and France had already signalled they were open to easing restrictions on Ukraine striking military sites on Russian territory, before US President Joe Biden said on...

The German government said Friday that Ukraine can use German-supplied weapons against Russian attacks from positions just over their joint border, in a significant policy change that came a day after U.S. President Joe Biden gave Kyiv a green light to strike back with American weapons at Russian military assets targeting the country’s second-largest city. A German government statement noted that, in recent weeks, Russia has prepared, coordinated and carried out attacks on Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, in particular from areas just over the border in Russia. "Together we are convinced that Ukraine has the right under international law to...

Reacting to events, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party's Deputy Leader, Beatrix von Storch, shared some of the footage on social media, adding: "On this day more than ever: Stop Islamism!"

France’s globalist President Emmanuel Macron is making a state visit to Germany, the first such for 24 years, and kicked off his visit by warning against nations acting in their own interest. France and Germany, both led by globalist-left governments and both facing a damaging vote in less than two weeks as the European Parliament is re-elected continent-wide, put on a united front as Macron arrived in Berlin for the first state visit in a near-quarter century. The last French leader to make a full state visit to Germany was Jacques Chirac in 2000. The Franco-German relationship — keeping the...

Five members of Letzte Generation, Germany’s equivalent to Just Stop Oil, have been charged with “forming a criminal organisation”, a move civil rights campaigners say could in effect criminalise future support for the climate campaign. Mirjam Herrmann, 27, Henning Jeschke, 22, Edmund Schulz, 60, Lukas Popp, 25, and Jakob Beyer, 30, were charged under section 129 of the German criminal code. It is believed to be the first time the law has been applied to a non-violent protest group. According to prosecutors in the state of Brandenburg, the charges relate to more than a dozen “attacks” against oil refineries, the...

Israel’s Ambassador to Berlin, Ron Prosor, was rebuffed by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government on Wednesday after the envoy made a dramatic appeal on X, formerly Twitter, to the Federal government to reject the ICC’s legitimacy fully.Scholz’s spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, was asked on Wednesday if the German government would execute an ICC arrest order against Prime Minister Netanyahu for alleged war crimes during Swords of Iron.Hebestreit said, "Of course. Yes, we abide by the law." German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit was just asked in Berlin whether ICC arrest warrants would be implemented. His answer: "Of course. Yes, we abide by...

Germany will arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he enters the country amid allegations of war crimes by the International Criminal Court, a spokesperson has confirmed. Steffen Hebestreit, a spokesperson for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, confirmed on Wednesday the country would 'abide by the law' and arrest the under-fire Israeli leader should he visit the EU nation. This comes after British prosecutor Karim Khan announced on Monday that he is seeking warrants for Netanyahu, Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three Hamas terror chiefs including Yahya Sinwar, the ruler in Gaza who masterminded October 7.

Germany said Wednesday it will abide by an International Criminal Court arrest warrant and detain Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should he step foot on German soil. The ICC on Monday issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes in its military response to Iranian-backed Hamas' Oct. 7 terrorist attack. The ICC also issued arrest warrants Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, its military leader Muhammad Deif, and its Qatar-based political leader Ismail Haniyeh on charges of war crimes. A dramatic appeal written in German and English and posted Tuesday on X by Ron...

In several German states including Hesse, Baden-Württemberg, and Hamburg, around three-quarters of benefit claimants are either first- or second-generation migrants, suggesting that mass immigration of low-skilled workers is not a net benefit to Europe's largest economy.. Nearly two-thirds of German residents receiving unemployment benefits have a migration background, new figures from the Federal Employment Agency have revealed. The statistics published by the federal agency and cited by the Die Welt broadsheet showed that 63.1 percent of those in receipt of the so-called citizen’s income, or “Bürgergeld,” are of migrant origin, and “most do not have a German passport.” The German...

Germany’s Parliament, known as the Bundestag, received enough votes last week to remove a section of the country’s Criminal Code to reduce the minimum penalties for “dissemination, acquisition and possession of child pornographic content.”According to the Bundestag, the bill specifies that “possession and acquisition should be punishable with a minimum penalty of three months’ imprisonment, and distribution with a minimum penalty of six months’ imprisonment, and distribution with a minimum penalty of six months’ imprisonment. The offenses regulated in Section 184b of the Criminal Code are therefore classified as misdemeanors and not as crimes.”In 2021, the possession of child sexual...

One of the suspects from the March 22 Brussels bombings was the subject of a 2005 documentary on successful integration in Sweden. Osama Krayem, a 23-year-old Swedish citizen, is awaiting trial in Belgium for his part in the Brussels bombings which killed 32 civilians. Krayem was supposed to be the second suicide bomber at the Maalbeek subway station, but got cold feet. Along with his brother and father, 11-year-old Osama Krayem were featured in the documentary “Without borders – a movie about sports and integration.” The documentary focused on how Krayem and his brother found their place as immigrants in...

The German liberal press had waxed lyrical over Moise Lohombo and how he had turned his life around after a life of crime. He's just been sentenced to nine years for beating and raping his own mother ... A Congolese refugee, previously described by the German press as a success story for integration, has been jailed for nine years after being convicted of beating and raping his own mother. Moise Lohombo, 30, was sentenced by the Wiesbaden District Court for an offense the judge claimed was so cruel he told the court he thought he had misread the case file....

Germany's self-inflicted economic problems have been much in the news in the last couple of years. Having eschewed cheap fossil fuels for 'green' energy sources, the manufacturing powerhouse of Europe has fallen into recession, seen a slowdown in growth, a decline in exports, and a widening trade deficit. Of course, the country's move away from fossil fuels is not the only reason for its economic problems. Other factors include a global economic slowdown affecting its exports, the Ukraine war cutting off supplies of cheap gas, trade tensions, and domestic challenges such as a decline in investment and a shortage of...

The Mayor of Wildwood, New Jersey, Ernie Troiano, Jr., told Newsmax on Tuesday that former President Donald Trump's Saturday rally was well received by the oceanfront community and Wildwood would "love to have him come back." On Saturday, Trump spoke before an enthusiastic crowd in the deep blue state of New Jersey. While estimates vary on the official numbers, Troiano said it was easily larger than the 40,000 they get at many music festivals. Trump made sure to praise his hosts on Saturday telling the crowd, "Millions of people in so-called blue states are joining our movement based on love,...

Is it just me, or do “Germany” and “socialism” not belong in the same sentence? Frankly, socialism doesn’t belong anywhere except an encyclopedia, to serve as an example of an “idiot plot” (along with communism). Useful terminology for your every day life: pic.twitter.com/aPUnXgyJTI — Moose (@LitMoose) April 27, 2024 Yet, it seems like if history were any consideration, Germany would make a concerted effort to distance itself from the political ideology—but alas, too many in this “information age” don’t really know much about anything. (In George Santayana’s purported words, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”)...

The economy is experiencing a golden moment thanks to exports and tourism after cleaning up its accounts. But the country has paid a price in migration of qualified workers and reduction of public services. Ten years after the departure of the “men in black” — the international managers of the European Commission, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank who cleaned up Portugal’s accounts with a machete, the country has emerged as the most diligent student in southern Europe. In 2023, for the first time, public debt fell below 100% of GDP (it stood at 98.7%) and there was a...

If Donald Trump wins a second term in the White House in November, NATO may fall apart, a recent wargame found. As a presidential candidate, Trump has threatened to quit NATO unless European allies contribute more, and should he carry it out Europe may decide to go it alone on defense, the game suggests. "A US policy of frustrating NATO has the potential to cause the alliance to collapse, with the EU as a candidate for eventually replacing NATO's ultimate function — defending Europe from Russia," wrote Finley Grimble, the British defense expert who designed and ran the game. The...

Germany is considering introducing conscription for all 18-year-olds, as it looks to boost its troop numbers in the face of Russian military aggression. Military planners in Berlin are in the final stages of discussing three options, two of which involve a form of conscription, according to leaked plans reported in the German media. Boris Pistorius, the defence minister, is set to go public with the official plans by June. In one of the options being discussed, Germany would bring back a compulsory military year for young men once they turn 18, which was suspended in 2011, and apply it to...