“Make Germany Great Again!” It was with this slogan that Friedrich Merz emerged as the main victor in last Sunday’s general election in Germany.
Sounds familiar?
To be exact, the man who is set to become Germany’s next chancellor borrowed the phrase made popular by President Donald Trump in the United States. The slogan Merz used was “Restore Germany’s greatness and respect!”, which expresses the same sentiment.
“Orwellian” is an overused adjective in our post-Covid, technologically advanced modern world. Yet it is the perfect description of Germany’s new advice centre for people who have friends or family prone to “conspiracy thinking”. The country’s Ministry of the Interior is offering help and material to combat the “wrongthink” of those affected, supposedly to stop the spread of fake news and misinformation.
The hard-right Alternative for Germany might not have done as well in Sunday’s election as its leaders had hoped, but its groundbreaking performance was enough for a congratulatory phone call from Elon Musk.
Alice Weidel, the chancellor candidate for the party, known by its German initials, AfD, told journalists on Monday morning that she had slept through a call from Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man and a top adviser to President Trump. When she looked at her phone on the morning after her party won 20.8 percent of the vote, she said, she had a missed call from the United States, which turned out to be from Mr. Musk, who, she said, “congratulated me personally.”
THE HORROR!
A downcast mood hung over Germany ahead of the snap elections. The week before 83 per cent of voters admitted in a survey to having a pessimistic outlook on the situation the country is in. But turnouts were remarkably high: 84 per cent of voters went out to cast their vote, up from 36.5 per cent in 2021. One thing all voters can agree on is the desperate need for change.
The CDU, the centre-Right party of Germany, has been given another chance at power. At 28.5 per cent, the party has won back some voters, compared to the 24.1 per cent they got in 2021 after 16 years under Chancellor Merkel. However, that is still underperforming when you consider how hated the prior left-wing coalition government was.
Related … Germany’s next chancellor warns Nato could soon be dead
Friedrich Merz, who is poised to become Germany’s next chancellor, has warned Nato could be finished and Europe must prepare to build an alliance “independent” from the US.
In stark comments, Mr Merz, 69, leader of the centre-Right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), suggested the continent may have to “quickly” establish an “independent European defence capability”.
After exit-polls predicted Mr Merz would win the election, Donald Trump hailed the result as a “great day for Germany and for the United States of America”.
The centre-Right Christian Democrat Union party has won the German election according to an exit poll released on Sunday evening.
Friedrich Merz, the CDU leader, is projected to win 29 per cent of the vote, after a campaign dominated by economic stagnation, migration pressures and growing uncertainty over how best to secure the future of Ukraine.
The far-Right Alternative for Germany party, which had high-profile backers including Elon Musk, has come second place with 19.5 per cent. It marks the strongest result for a far-Right party since the Second World War.
Germany is preparing for the general elections this Sunday, February 23, with the possible consolidation of Alternative for Germany (AfD) as the country’s second-largest force in a surge that challenges the traditional political balance. It deeply worries the socialist-conservative establishment within Germany—and at the European level.
As Germany’s federal elections approach this weekend, chancellor Olaf Scholz and his Social Democrats (SPD) are bracing for their worst results since 1887. The SPD is battling with its equally unpopular coalition partner, the Green Party, for a humiliating third place, behind the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and the right-populist Alternative for Germany (AfD).
In the run-up to Sunday’s crucial election, the Guardian took a long journey through Europe’s heartland to talk to voters
Creaking, overcrowded, neglected, Germany’s railways, once a source of national pride, have taken a battering to their image in recent years. Amid wider concerns about the health of Europe’s stagnating largest economy, the state of its trains has become something of a metaphor for a more general sense of malaise.
On Sunday Germans will go to the polls in one of the most important elections in recent times, with an emboldened far right hoping to more than double its share of votes. In the run-up, the Guardian travelled more than 850 miles on trains across Germany to hear what its citizens have to say about the state of their nation.
The Guardian is beside itself with anxiety over the Afd.
The Energiewende has led to sky-high energy costs and political instability – for no environmental benefit.
Almost every country on Earth today has pledged to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions. The vast majority of them have also set spurious target dates for doing so – usually by 2050. So far, only a handful of industrialised countries have succeeded in almost fully decarbonising their electricity grids. They have only achieved this with a heavy baseload of either nuclear power and / or hydropower.
In the Thuringian city of Weimar, opposite the theatre where the National Assembly hashed out Germany’s constitution in 1918, stands the museum of the history of the Weimar Republic. ‘A spectre is rising in Europe – the spectre of populism,’ a plaque reads. ‘Forces long thought overcome seem to be returning to threaten the basis of democracy. The Weimar Republic and its neighbours knew the phenomenon only too well.’
JD Vance has met Alice Weidel, the co-leader of Alternative for Germany (AfD), outside the Munich Security Conference (MSC) after criticising the organisers for excluding the party.
In a landmark address to the conference, the US vice president denounced the pariah status placed upon the AfD.
“Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters. There’s no room for firewalls,” he said, referencing a pledge by mainstream German parties not to work with or form governments with the party.
First Mannheim, then Solingen, then Magdeburg, and Aschaffenburg and now Munich.
Germany has seen so many terror attacks committed by foreign citizens over the past 10 months that it is difficult to keep track of them.
And inevitably, this latest attack will ensure that mass migration and border security remains at the very top of the campaign agenda, ahead of elections on Feb 23.
‘There are many neighbourhoods we can no longer go to because we are in danger of being injured, attacked or murdered,’ Ali Utlu tells me. As a gay German man of Turkish extraction and an ex-Muslim, he’ll be voting for the hard-right Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party in the German elections later this month. And he’s not alone.
A survey of more than 60,000 gay German men by Europe’s largest gay dating platform Romeo found that almost 28 per cent of its users intend to vote for the AfD, making it the most popular party in Germany for gay men. The poll showed that the AfD did best among 18 to 24-year-olds: 34.7 per cent said they’d vote for the party. Among those aged 25 to 39, it was 32.3 per cent.
Alice Weidel the AfD leader is gay. This must scare the left to death.
BERLIN (AP) — Alternative for Germany appears to be heading for its strongest national election result yet this month and is fielding its first candidate to lead the country. Even though it’s highly unlikely to take a share of power soon, it has become a factor that other politicians can’t ignore and helped shape Germany’s debate on migration.
The far-right party first entered Germany’s national parliament eight years ago on the back of discontent with the arrival of large numbers of migrants in the mid-2010s, and curbing migration remains its signature theme. But the party has proven adept at harnessing discontent with other issues: Germany’s move away from fossil fuels, restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic and support for Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion nearly three years ago.
The latest Muslim terror attack will certainly win new followers.
Tweet translation
“He was greeted with teddy bears 9 years of Hartz/Citizen’s Allowance 9 years of free housing 9 years of flattery by social workers, police officers and authorities. 9 YEARS! And then he goes off to kill children”
Er wurde mit Teddys begrüßt
9 Jahre Hartz/Bürgergeld
9 Jahre Wohnung für lau
9 Jahre Bauchpinselei durch Sozialarbeiter, Polizisten und Behörden.
9 JAHRE!
Und dann fährt er los, um Kinder zu töten„la ilaha illallah muhammadur rasulullah”#München pic.twitter.com/WiuWp2cA7C
— Julian Adrat (@JulianAdrat) February 13, 2025
Munich – Suspected attack at a Verdi demonstration in Munich!
A Mini Cooper drove into a group of people in the Bavarian capital. At least 27 people were injured. At least two people are said to be “very seriously injured”. A child’s life is in danger.
The driver involved in the accident was arrested by the police . He is a 24-year-old Afghan.
BBC live feed Munich car ramming a suspected attack, say officials, and driver was Afghan asylum seeker
Afghan asylum seeker barreled into a crowd in Munich, tragically taking the life of a woman and injuring around 28 others‼️
The child is in critical condition.
How can Germany hold a High-level global security conference if it can’t secure its own people ⁉️#Munich pic.twitter.com/H3f9QjSbnN
— Lenka Houskova White (@white_lenka) February 13, 2025
German Police examine the Mini Cooper vehicle that was used by a 24 year old Afghan asylum seeker to ram into a crowd this morning.
28 people have been injured including children.
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) February 13, 2025
