Soaring energy prices and rising unemployment is driving voters to the Right
“Bring an extra jumper, we can’t afford to heat the house properly this year,” was my aunt’s cheerful advice when I told her I’d drop by on my annual Christmas visit to Germany. She lives in Thuringia, in the former East of the country. Like her, many people there are deeply concerned about the coming winter — the mood has reached a tipping point, which is spilling into politics.
Rejecting legal challenge, ruling finds that anti-Islam, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany can be classified as a suspected threat to democracy
FRANKFURT, Germany — A German court ruled Tuesday that the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) can be classified as a suspected threat to democracy, paving the way for the domestic intelligence agency to spy on the opposition party.
The court said it had dismissed a legal challenge brought by the AfD last March that delayed plans by Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) to put the party under surveillance.
The AfD has taken its most Eurosceptic line yet. That’s good news for democracy.
Could the AfD (Alternative für Deutschland) be about to make history? Before the AfD’s party conference had even ended last Sunday, the term ‘Dexit’ – short for a German exit from the EU – was circulating in the press. The reason is the AfD’s programme for September’s elections: ‘We consider a withdrawal of Germany from the European Union and the establishment of a new European Economic and Interest Community necessary’, it says – a demand which has caused more than a little stir.
Members of Germany’s largest opposition party have voted on their new election manifesto. The far-right Alternativ für Deutschland (AfD) will run on an anti-lockdown, anti-immigration and anti-EU platform, under the slogan “Germany. But normal.”
The so-called “Dexit” policy emerged at a two-day conference to firm up its strategy ahead of Germany’s general election in September.
Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) have placed the Alternative for Germany (AfD) under surveillance, according to local media.
That designation gives state agents more powers for surveillance in certain circumstances, including potentially tapping the party’s communications.
The BfV refused to comment on media reports from Der Spiegel magazine, the DPA news agency and public broadcaster ARD. The Interior Ministry, which oversees the BfV, said it would neither confirm nor deny them.
A pattern emerges…
France bans far-right group Generation Identity
The French government on Wednesday agreed to ban the far-right group Generation Identity, saying the organization incited “discrimination, hatred and violence.”
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin posted the decree to ban GI on Twitter, saying it took into account the group’s “structure and military organization,” adding that GI can be regarded “as having the character of a private militia.”
Germany’s right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has filed two lawsuits against the nation’s domestic security service that is reportedly about to designate it a “suspected” extremist group ahead of national elections.
The party has filed two legal complaints and two emergency motions against the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution – a domestic security agency known as BfV – the German dpa news agency reported. The move followed a series of media reports suggesting that BfV could formally declare the whole party a suspected extremist organization.
