February 18, 2026

Germany Election

Researchers: Extremism in Germany’s military remains threat– timesofindia.indiatimes.com

pgnewser May 22, 2025

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Fewer than 1 per cent German soldiers harbor “consistent right-wing-extremist attitudes,” according to a new study conducted by the military’s own Bundeswehr Center of Military History and Social Sciences (ZMSBw).The study found that only 0.4 per cent of soldiers show right-wing-extremist attitudes. Among the military’s civilian personnel, the proportion is 0.8 per cent, much less than the 5.4 per cent measured in the general German population, the authors said.The report did, however, find other problematic views among the soldiers: 6.4 per cent have “consistent chauvinist attitudes,” and 3.5 per cent have “consistent xenophobic attitudes.”In general, the study appears to be positive news, especially as the Bundeswehr has been dogged in recent years with well-documented stories of far-right networks and terrorist plots involving members of the military.In 2022, a Bundeswehr lieutenant named Franco A. was convicted of planning to carry out an act “threatening the security of the state” while posing as a Syrian refugee. In 2017, a nationwide network of armed preppers suspected of planning a military coup was found to include several current and former soldiers. Some German media outlets have even spoken of a “shadow army” within the Bundeswehr that has been ignored by the military’s intelligence service, the MAD.

German Chancellor Freidrich Merz Tells Trump to ‘Stay Out’ of His Country’s Politics — Before Germany Backtracks on Spying on AfD | The Gateway Pundit– www.thegatewaypundit.com

pgnewser May 9, 2025

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German Chancellor Freidrich Merz has told President Trump and the United States to “stay out” of his country’s politics.

The country’s intelligence agency confirmed last week that it had classified the conservative Alternative for Germany party as a “proven right-wing extremist organization” because of their opposition to mass immigration and progressive ideology.

In a post on the X platform, Secretary of State Marco Rubio slammed German authorities for their continued crackdown against their political opposition.

He wrote:

Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy—it’s tyranny in disguise.

What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD—which took second in the recent election—but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes.

Germany should reverse course.

Germany intensifies security-state crackdown on its second-largest political party – Standing for Freedom Center– www.standingforfreedom.com

pgnewser May 9, 2025

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Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) has declared Alternative for Germany (AfD) a “right-wing extremist group” and “opposed to the basic democratic order,” allowing the country’s intelligence apparatus to intensify surveillance efforts against the nation’s second-largest political party.

Late last week BfV delivered its 1,100-page report (which is not publicly available) to the Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser, who is leaving office after her party, the Social Democratic Party, finished third in Germany’s February elections.

Allegedly the report states, “Central to our assessment is the ethnically and ancestrally defined concept of the people that shapes the AfD, which devalues entire segments of the population in Germany and violates their human dignity.”

The report claims that AfD, which campaigned on immigration reform and the assimilation of Muslim migrants, seeks to exclude Muslims from society.

Germany’s Friedrich Merz falls short in 1st vote for chancellor bid – National– globalnews.ca

pgnewser May 6, 2025

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In a historic first, conservative leader Friedrich Merz ’s bid to become Germany’s 10th chancellor since World War II failed by six votes in parliament on Tuesday, a stunning defeat as he had been widely expected to win smoothly.

A candidate for chancellor has never failed to win on the first ballot since the end of the war. The loss triggered a stock market slide: the DAX, the index of major German companies, was down 1.8 per cent following the vote.

Merz needed a majority of 316 out of 630 votes. He only received 310 votes — well short of the 328 seats held by his coalition, which is also one of the slimmest postwar majorities. Because the vote was held by secret ballot, it was not immediately clear — and might never be known — who had defected from Merz’s camp.

Merz’s coalition is led by his center-right Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union. They are joined by the center-left Social Democrats, outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party. The parties were now to regroup to discuss the next step but it was also unclear how long the process could take.

‘Just being right-wing is not forbidden’ – Influential mayor of Tübingen and former Green Party member criticizes German government actions against AfD– rmx.news

pgnewser May 5, 2025

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The influential mayor of Tübingen, Boris Palmer, is harshly criticizing the Office of the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the powerful German domestic spy agency, after it labeled the Alternative for Germany (AfD) a confirmed “right-wing extremist” party. The former Green Party politician, who won Tübingen despite switching to run as an independent, said the secret, 1,000-page report used to justify the AfD’s designation basically just listed public incidents already known to the media.

“Unless Der Spiegel is simply poorly informed, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has compiled primarily what is publicly known,” wrote Palmer.

CBS Seems to Celebrate Germany’s Censorshipn Efforts in the Name of Protecting People from “Hate Speech”

pgnewser February 17, 2025

Germany is prosecuting online trolls. Here’s how the country is fighting hate speech on the internet. – CBS News
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Dozens of police teams across Germany raided homes before dawn in a coordinated crackdown on a recent Tuesday. The state police weren’t looking for drugs or guns, they were looking for people suspected of posting hate speech online.

As prosecutors explain it, the German constitution protects free speech, but not hate speech. And here’s where it gets tricky: German law prohibits speech that could incite hatred or is deemed insulting. Perpetrators are sometimes surprised to learn that what they post online is illegal, according to Dr. Matthäus Fink, one of the state prosecutors tasked with policing Germany’s robust hate speech laws.

“They don’t think it was illegal. And they say, ‘No, that’s my free speech,'” Fink said. “And we say, ‘No, you have free speech as well, but it is also has its limits.'”

Germany’s laws around speech

In the U.S., most of what gets posted online, even if it’s hate-filled, is protected by the First Amendment as free speech. But in Germany, authorities are prosecuting online trolls in an effort to protect discourse and democracy.

It can be a crime to publicly insult someone in Germany, and the punishment can be even worse if the insult is shared online because that content sticks around forever, Fink said.