Free Republic

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...

In an illuminating piece by Tilak Doshi on Forbes, the economic trajectory of Europe under the weight of its environmental policies is critically analyzed. Doshi paints a stark picture of what he describes as a self-inflicted wound to Europe’s industrial base, driven by stringent regulations and a shift away from reliable energy sources. “Voltaire famously said that ‘common sense is not so common.’ Nowhere is this adage more relevant than in the field of energy policies in the European Union. These policies are most vigorously pursued in Germany—Europe’s industrial powerhouse—since it adopted the Energiewende legislation in 2010. The ‘green’ regulations...

On May 1, Christopher Scalia tweeted side-by-side photos of a masked protester standing over a banner reading Hind’s Hall and a masked terrorist striking the same pose on a balcony. Scalia captioned the photos “Manhattan 2024 meets Munich 1972,” a perfectly legitimate parallel that could stand an update.On September 5, 1972, at the Olympic Games in Munich, Palestinian terrorists of the Black September faction, disguised as athletes, forced their way into the quarters of the Israeli Olympic team. Weightlifter Yossef Romano, on crutches due to an injury, attempted to disarm a terrorist but was shot dead and castrated, a mutilation...

Big fire in a factory in Berlin-Lichterfelde! The fire department warns of poison smoke! Adrian Wentzel, spokesman for the Berlin Fire Department and on site at the scene of the fire: "The building is now burning completely on four floors. Part of the building has already collapsed. We are only extinguishing the fire from the outside. The fire can no longer be brought under control from the inside." Diehl Metall is part of the German Diehl group of companies, and its subsidiary Diehl Defense (a partner of the German Armed Forces) also has a branch in the street. The company...

“Mostly peaceful” has been eclipsed as the most ludicrous euphemism for violence and anarchy by a newly-coined German invention: “mostly trouble-free.” Yes seriously—that’s how German police and media described the chaos of April 30th, or the night before May Day, where “protesters” hurled eggs and rocks at law enforcement and masked agitators “torched” a fleet of Amazon delivery trucks. Here’s the story, from a report out at Breitbart News yesterday:Berlin Police deployed 3,100 officers overnight in Berlin and despite some clashes and incidents of thrown eggs and stones, Die Welt notes the force said the five protests city-wide were ‘mostly...

More than 1,000 people participated in the demonstration in Hamburg on Saturday, with some calling for the establishment of a caliphate. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said that there will be “consequences” after a large Islamist rally in Hamburg raised alarm over the weekend. More than 1,000 people demonstrated in the northern German city, with some holding posters calling for the imposition of Sharia law and the establishment of a caliphate. The demonstration was linked to the "Muslim Interactive" group, which Germany's domestic intelligence services classify as an extremist organisation. At a press conference alongside the prime minister of Montenegro,...