Germany megathread

[Estrella]

As my signature suggests, I admire the Social Democrats for taking a strong and clear position on Ukraine. Not just Scholz, but Giffey too:

https://mobile.twitter.com/olgatokariuk/status/1523655913936089089

Franziska then doubled down on this wonderful idea of hers, which at least gave us this hilarious title:



"Solidarity with Ukraine stands unrestricted"
Giffey defends the ban on Ukrainian flags at memorials in Berlin

[Estrella]

Mayors on Rügen [the terminus of Nord Stream] demand: open Nord Stream 2!

They consider the non-approved Nord Stream 2 pipeline to be necessary as an "additional gas supply". Both are important for "long-term" energy security. At the same time, the mayors speak out against the expansion of wind power closer to residential buildings as an alternative, calling it a health hazard. The Rügen local politicians want "a general rethinking of the solution to the current problems in relations with Russia". A diplomatic route must be taken.

I was about to say something about how reunification was a mistake, but I shudder to think what the Tal der Ahnungslosen would do without adult supervision.

[Estrella]

Schröder just emerged victorious before the arbitration committee.

(not that this particular Rettung is much better, but it beats the trashfire currently in power)

[Estrella]

Wolfgang Kubicki, what an enigma. Is he a master populist who will try to exploit any opportunity to cast himself as a fighter against the system, or does he just need to stop sniffing glue?

Activate Nord Stream 2 ASAP, says German parliament vice president

[Estrella]

German state leader 'not wanted' in Ukraine after war remarks

During the TV show [Premier of Saxony Michael] Kretschmer argued that the debate on the war in Ukraine had become too one-dimensional and that more European and global efforts should be made to set up peace talks, even if Russia currently claims not to be interested.

"I think a big problem in the current debate is that we have a narrowing of opinion to one point of view, with one line of argumentation, and I think we need much more of a broad debate, a mix of arguments, for and against. Particularly with such vast questions of war and peace, it's extremely important."

Followed by: Politicians support Kretschmer's position on war

This incident, as small as it is, made me think. At risk of sounding like a 19th century anthropologist, there is something fascinating and slightly terrifying about the German culture of obedience to totalitarian regimes and, despite the stereotypes about Vergangenheitsbewältigung, a refusal of the mainstream to deal with crimes of the past until the guilty generations have died off.

Denazification was a complete failure and the problem of ex-Nazi stranglehold on German economy, politics and culture was only solved by, well, mortality. As late as the 1980s, a widespread opinion among German historians was that the Holocaust was an understandable reaction to the threat posed by Jews. Today, the former GDR is a standout in Eastern Europe: the vast majority of governments clearly oppose Russian aggression. Those who don't are either led by anti-Western authoritarians, have some sort of historical/cultural connection to Russia, or a reason to side with them over unrelated issues. Those aren't justifications, but they are reasons. Pro-Russian sentiment in East Germany is something of a mystery - or it would be if it didn't look strikingly similar to the refusal to condemn Nazism in post-war West Germany.

There's a saying that "the Germans will never forgive the Jews for Auschwitz." I've heard it some time ago and didn't understand it at the time, but after seeing the reaction of the Ossi political class to the war, I do. I suppose today's East Germans will never forgive the Ukrainians for the Russian invasion. Being proud of - or at least not condeming - the old dictatorship has become much harder now that their crimes are out for everyone to see and it's the victims' fault.

[Estrella]

I wondered why Habeck decided to keep only two out of three remaining power plants in reserve, and it seems we have a possible answer.

Everything for a state election?

In an interview with Zeit, FDP General Secretary Djir-Sarai adds: "The impression that there could have been political influence here is problematic. That damages the reputation of the coalition as a whole." Konstantin Kuhle, FDP General Secretary in Lower Saxony, is similarly sharp: "The only reason why the nuclear power plant in Lingen in Emsland is not also going into reserve operation is the left-wing regional association of the Greens in Lower Saxony. Habeck has to assert himself against the ideologues in his party and continue to operate all three systems."

If you'd told me this time last year that the FDP would become the voice of reason within Ampel, I'd have thought you'd gone mad.
Also, the 78-year old Oskar Lafontaine, SPD's candidate for Chancellor in 1990, founder of the left-wing splinter WASG and former co-chairman of Die Linke has regrettably decided to share his thoughts on the war. Just so you know, he opposed the reunification of Germany and quit Die Linke earlier this year due to them not being sufficiently anti-Ukrainian for his tastes.

Most recently, with the Maidan coup in 2014, the USA showed that they were not willing to take Russia's security interests into account. They installed a US puppet government and did all they could to integrate Ukraine's armed forces into NATO structures. Joint maneuvers were held and the Russian government's constant objections were ignored.

In this context, the mendacious argument is used that every state has the right to freely choose its alliance. But no state should set up rockets from a rival power on the border of a nuclear power without warning and justify this naively with the free choice of alliance.

There's a certain type of German politician that loves to wax poetic about the special relationship between Germany and Russia and acts as if the two were neighbours, but forgets there are about a dozen different independent countries between them.
And now, some news from Berlin

"Enough is enough": A divided left demonstrates in Berlin against the Greens.

Early Monday evening, various left-wing groups and party members of the Left came together in front of the federal headquarters of the Greens, right next to the Charité. They want to demonstrate against the Green party leadership. According to the police, 600 people gathered on the square in front of the New Gate in Berlin-Mitte under the slogan "Enough is enough - protest instead of freezing". Many of those involved shared an announcement on Twitter with an eye-catching design: Three fists can be seen on the flyer, in the colors of the Russian national flag - white, blue and red.

But still: The omission of the war is not really successful. Not when Harri Grünberg (Die Linke) calls for the immediate end of the sanctions, and not when the biggest applause can be heard when the speakers are talking about Ukraine. This is the main reason why 57-year-old Evelin Genzel from Schmargendorf is here. Ms. Baerbock, she says, has led this country to the abyss with her escalative policies and sanctions against Russia. "Right from the start, she just wanted to escalate." Many of the participants in the demo are of this opinion. Others, on the other hand, are vehemently opposed to mixing up the Ukraine issue with the gas surcharge and sharply condemn statements like Genzel's. One could say: the demo is deeply divided.

achberlin.txt

[Estrella]

Olaf Scholz Tanks His Credibility

A list of the world’s mysteries might include: what was Stonehenge’s purpose? What is the origin of dark matter in the universe? And why on earth is German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stalling tank deliveries to Ukraine?

Germany Has the Tanks Ukraine Needs. It Must Send Them ASAP

Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said it best in a tweet this week: “What is Berlin afraid of that Kyiv is not?”

Ukrainians have started taking back their own territories, turning what was a relatively static war of attrition into an explosively kinetic reconquest. To succeed in this new phase, they’ll require more than howitzers and HIMARs. They’ll need the newest, fastest and meanest battle tanks and armored vehicles on the market, to liberate Ukrainian cities and towns and deploy infantry faster than the Russians can react.

This is where Germany comes in. It has a line of first-class battle tanks called Leopards. First introduced in 1979 and improved ever since, about 2,000 of these agile and lethal predator cats are deployed in Germany’s army and those of 12 other countries in NATO and/or the European Union.

Kyiv has been asking for Leopards and Marders since March, and Kuleba renewed that plea in his tweet this week. But Berlin, ever diffident, has so far rebuffed these requests — even as it has supplied all sorts of other kit, including specialized anti-aircraft tanks called Gepards (cheetahs).

The official excuse given by Chancellor Olaf Scholz is that Germany can’t and won’t do anything that’s not coordinated with its allies in NATO and the EU. Another rationale for holding back is that Germany itself has limited tanks and parts in stock and can’t afford to compromise its own battle readiness. That’s another non sequitur, as the think tankers at the European Council on Foreign Relations point out. They’ve proposed an elegant “Leopard plan” — a consortium in which all European armies using Leopards jointly supply Ukraine and take care of training and maintenance. Besides easing the logistics, that approach would also send a powerful signal of Western unity.

So the Germans have, as Kuleba puts it, “not a single rational argument on why these weapons cannot be supplied, only abstract fears and excuses.” What might those be?

Scholz is in fact doing more than just stalling. Berlin Kremlinology is not my strong suit, but it seems that the Chancellor won whatever power struggle was going on behind the scenes of the coalition: Ukraine will not get any Leopards, period. This is despite the fact that there is a consenus among all relevant political actors that the deliveries should go ahead including, most importantly, Baerbock and the chair of defense committee Strack-Zimmerman. Even parts of SPD are coming round to support the idea. The manufacturers are ready, the Bundeswehr raised no objections and there's no excuse to hide behind NATO's skirt as Germany did early in the war - Stoltenberg clearly stated that the use of these stocks will not hurt European security.

It could well be that the only roadblock is Scholz and Scholz himself. As happens so often in politics, the personal obsessions and mental pathologies of one person can change the course of world events. Or perhaps there's a different cause: the word kompromat comes to mind.

[Estrella]

It could well be that the only roadblock is Scholz and Scholz himself. As happens so often in politics, the personal obsessions and mental pathologies of one person can change the course of world events.

Ah yes, visiting the SED Politburo to whine about evil warmongering Americans and pat each other on the back about how peaceful you are when you're meeting with the puppets of a foreign dictatorship that had hundreds of thousands of troops ready to invade your own country at the drop of a hat. So that's why Genosse Olaf is like that!

[Estrella]

Germany: Fire destroys Ukrainian refugee home, arson suspected

This follows on from...

Leipzig: Outrage over verbal attacks on Ukrainian refugees

German police investigate attempted arson at nursery hosting Ukrainian refugees

... and, of course, the countless attack on Ukrainian refugees by Germany's ethnic Russians.

East Germany is going full speed ahead towards another far-right terror attack like Lichtenhagen or Hoyerswerda. The Chancellor's response will likely be even more pathetic than Kohl's was – after all, you have to think of the feelings of those poor Russians.

[Estrella]

Germany: Fire destroys Ukrainian refugee home, arson suspected

This follows on from...

Leipzig: Outrage over verbal attacks on Ukrainian refugees

German police investigate attempted arson at nursery hosting Ukrainian refugees

... and, of course, the countless attack on Ukrainian refugees by Germany's ethnic Russians.

East Germany is going full speed ahead towards another far-right terror attack like Lichtenhagen or Hoyerswerda. The Chancellor's response will likely be even more pathetic than Kohl's was – after all, you have to think of the feelings of those poor Russians.

I have never heard of ethnic Russians in the US attacking Ukrainians. Indeed, I would think most of them have no use for Putin. But then East Germany has a different history, but one would think it no so different has to foster a more positive attitude to a Putinized Russia.

The perplexing (and violent) Russian nationalism so widespread in East Germany is a separate issue from the ticking time bomb of Spätaussiedler – Soviet/Russian citizens who are for all intents and purposes culturally indistinguishable from ethnic Russians but have enough Volga German ancestry to qualify for German citizenship. Helmut Kohl was a nationalist and an opponent of immigration, but in this case the former prevailed over the latter and some three million of them migrated to Germany in the late 80s and early 90s. Even thirty years later, some of them are very badly integrated. Combined with Russian propaganda from domestic and foreign sources that paints all Ukrainians as brainwashed American puppets, revanchists and fascists... well, you can see why a section of this demographic has become a problem. Russian immigrants in the US and most of Europe are usually educated middle-class types. A large proportion of Russian immigrants in Germany are, let's put it this way, the post-Soviet version of trailer trash. Or, to use a Russian word, vatniki.

[Estrella]

Maybe simping for every dictatorship under the sun as long as it's sufficiently anti-American is not just a Scholz problem or an SPD problem: it's a Germany problem.

The China trap: survey shows surprising assessment of German company bosses

39% consider China's economic policies to be good or very good, another 37% consider them satisfactory – numbers much higher than for the US. You know, the one-party dictatorship with a heavily state-directed economy where businessmen who fall foul of the government regurarly get disappeared.

[Estrella]

I realize I might come off as a bit of a monomaniac with all these posts, but I will never stop being fascinated by how weird German left is.

It's not surprising to see certain types of leftists all over the world take Russia's side in the war, motivated by the delusion they're still living in the Cold War. It also isn't strange to see the far-right take Russia's side: why shouldn't authoritarian nationalists support authoritarian nationalists? But there is a rare combination of the two: the way the foreign policy of parts of German left is in effect just mid-20th century German nationalism packaged in pseudo-respectable Lumpenpazifismus. It's even more interesting when they don't bother with that cover and come up with articles like this:

The 78-year old Oskar Lafontaine, SPD's candidate for Chancellor in 1990, founder of the left-wing splinter WASG and former co-chairman of Die Linke has regrettably decided to share his thoughts on the war. Just so you know, he opposed the reunification of Germany and quit Die Linke earlier this year due to them not being sufficiently anti-Ukrainian for his tastes.

Most recently, with the Maidan coup in 2014, the USA showed that they were not willing to take Russia's security interests into account. They installed a US puppet government and did all they could to integrate Ukraine's armed forces into NATO structures. Joint maneuvers were held and the Russian government's constant objections were ignored.

In this context, the mendacious argument is used that every state has the right to freely choose its alliance. But no state should set up rockets from a rival power on the border of a nuclear power without warning and justify this naively with the free choice of alliance.

... or like this: a rant against unpatriotic, backstabbing Ukrainian puppets, published in the left-wing weekly der Freitag. It's an ostensibly moderate and respectable newspaper rather than some obscure tankie rag (they literally publish translated articles from The Guardian).

Terrorist list of Ukraine: You leave [SPD caucus chairman] Rolf Mützenich out in the cold

At the end of July, the list, which was published on a Ukrainian official website on July 14, was also making waves in the German media, but hardly any journalists are upset that a prominent German social democrat has appeared on a state blacklist and is being publicly denounced and pilloried. This is scandal number one. In other words, the faction leader of Germany's largest governing party is being flagged as an enemy by a state agency in Ukraine, while his government is delivering equipment, money and weapons to Ukraine and caring for a million Ukrainian refugees in Germany.

Scandal number two: nobody in political Berlin is protesting against this monstrosity either. Instead, awkward silence. Only the former president of the Berlin Academy of Arts, Klaus Staeck, who has a keen sense of the intimidating nature of such methods, is outraged in the Frankfurter Rundschau. No federal chancellor, no federal president, no party grandee stands behind Mützenich, even his own party leadership leaves him out in the cold.

Rolf Mützenich, one of the politicians with the highest integrity in the Federal Republic, is once again left out in the rain. Not a well-known social democrat anywhere to protect him and talk straight, no public protest note, no solidarity from the democrats. It's also difficult, since it is now known that the US ally, of all people, is co-financing the Ukrainian authority that Rolf Mützenich is openly slandering.

It's perfect. The only thing missing is some kind of antisemitic caricature... oh wait.

You know, maybe Anti-Germans, the other side of German lefty weirdness, have a point.

[Estrella]

Number of people killed by nuclear accidents in Germany: 0
Number of people killed by pollution in Germany: 29,000 every year
The Greens: Nuclear energy kills (an actual slogan), let's mine more coal instead!

Lützerath: How Germany's energy crisis reignited coal

Lützerath has been occupied by protesters since 2020, when plans emerged to demolish the village and dig up the brown coal — or lignite — beneath it. Since the end of World War II, around 300 towns in Germany have been demolished for lignite mining, causing more than 120,000 people to be resettled.

But attempts to save Lützerath got more complicated after Russia's invasion of Ukraine triggered an energy crisis in Europe. Cut off from Russian natural gas, Germany has scrambled to secure an alternative energy supply. That included crawling back to its homegrown coal industry. This year, the government has moved to bring around a dozen plants back on the grid, and extended the lifespan of several that were meant to be shuttered.

To compensate for the unexpected increase in coal production, the government cut a deal with energy company RWE to move the coal phaseout deadline in NRW, a major coal-producing region, to 2030. Their arguments and protests have not convinced the courts or politicians. In December, it was announced that the activists will be cleared from Lützerath in January and that the demolition of the village will begin.

Lignite village of Lützerath: Waiting for "Day X"

Four years ago, the Greens fought side by side with the climate activists against the clearing of the Hambach Forest. The North Rhine-Westphalian state association organized a party conference at the demolition edge. Now the Düsseldorf climate minister Mona Neubaur (Greens) says: "The eviction is a painful, but unfortunately necessary step." She wishes that "everyone involved can do it as non-violently as possible".

For reference, the same Mona Neubaur:
Keeping nuclear power permanently is not a solution
Green Minister Neubaur insists on nuclear phase-out in April

[Estrella]

Berliner Zeitung | Seymour Hersh: Joe Biden blew up Nord Stream because he didn't trust Germany

He probably did not do it – but if he did and this was the reason, he was right. Nord Stream 1 was a demonstration of Germany's self-centered and domineering approach towards its European allies. After the first invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea they haven't learned anything: not only did they build Nord Stream 2 and deride any opponents as American puppets, they presented increasing German dependency on Russia as a moral imperative. What was there to stop a future German government – motivated by economic nationalism, ideological deference to Russia or both – from selling out its allies again?

As long as Nord Stream was in working order, it was a clear and present danger to security of all of Europe.

[Estrella]

More generally, I really don't think that "confrontations" of this sort are helpful in any sense. One can find Russia's war crimes abhorrent and at the same time think that an unjust peace is better than a just war, let alone a nuclear escalation.

Thank you for unintentionally summing up the root of the problem.

The central point of Germany's post-1945 coming to terms with history was 'never again fascism'. But that was politically inconvenient – after all, much of the population were close to the NSDAP, even if not true believers – and so it became 'never again war'. The guilty generation is long dead, but the mentality is still here: a post-heroic society that got so used to always being able to pay or negotiate its way out of any dispute that it views the use of force as unacceptable, even in self-defense. Whether it's Eastern Europe joining NATO at the first opportunity or Ukrainians taking up arms to save their country from being wiped out, a certain kind of German intellectual views it as little more than atavistic savagery. It doesn't matter what the alternative is: if you fight, you're in the wrong. Better go like sheep to the slaughter.

An unjust Russian occupation is better than just liberation. Never again war; only totalitarianism, indoctrination, ethnic cleansing, summary executions, concentration camps and genocide.

[Estrella]

https://twitter.com/TheresaAFallon/status/1630129964388343808?s=20

That can be mostly blamed on the Bush and Trump administrations that have eroded much trust into the concept that was held dear at least in the center-right and center in West Germany, that the goals of US and German foreign policy mostly align.

I mean, the Bush/Trump foreign policy was very self-defeating, but if the main reason for the German anti-Americanism was the behaviour of the US, Germany wouldn't be such an outlier:

Spoiler alert! Click Show to show the content.

Show

[Estrella]

Easter is here, and so are the traditional Ostermarsche – Easter marches of the peace movement. Traditionally they were important political events, enjoying wide support among left-wing parties and the churches. Strangely enough, it's the churches who provide the most extreme anti-Western voices: people like Margot Käßmann and Eugen Drewermann, whose writings come off as a disturbingly accurate imitation of an Iranian mullah calling for death to America. Rather unsurprisingly, when Germany sided with the Evil Bad Americans it broke these people's brains.

TAZ: No peace in the movement

Political scientist Thorsten Gromes from the Hessian Foundation for Peace and Conflict Research evaluated the calls for Easter marches that the Peace Cooperative Network listed on its website at the beginning of April. Out of 48 calls, only eight called for Russia to withdraw from Ukraine. On the other hand, many put the Russian responsibility for the bloodshed into perspective.

Some long-standing Easter march demonstrators are therefore bothered by a "creeping perpetrator-victim reversal". Parts of the peace movement increasingly see Ukraine as a real threat to peace because they don't want to make any concessions to Russia. In order to prevent a nuclear war, the attacked country should cede territory to Russia.

[...] They are not impressed by Sahra Wagenknecht's and Alice Schwarzer's "Manifesto for Peace". The sentence contained therein: “The Ukrainian population brutally attacked by Russia needs our solidarity” is NATO propaganda. Large parts of the peace movement would repeatedly condemn Russia's actions without taking into account the "right to collective self-defence, which Russia and the Donbas republics claim for themselves," enshrined in the UN charter. There is a tendency to start the conflict on February 24, 2022, the two write. In fact, the conflict began “with the US-launched coup in Ukraine in 2014”, the “war that resulted from it in eastern Ukraine” is being ignored, as is “NATO’s advance to Russia’s borders”. In short: the West is to blame for the war.

I'm wondering how long before these peace lovers start ending their tweets with Mit Russischem Gruß.

[Estrella]

Strangely enough, it's the churches who provide the most extreme anti-Western voices: people like Margot Käßmann and Eugen Drewermann, whose writings come off as a disturbingly accurate imitation of an Iranian mullah calling for death to America.

Related: one of these people died a few weeks ago, on March 15. I'm talking about Antje Vollmer, a Protestant theologian, an important figure in 80s/90s Greens and Vice-President of the Bundestag for over a decade. Before joining the Greens, she worked with the Maoist KPD(AO) alongiside such luminaries as terrorist bomber Dieter Kunzelmann and RAF-turned-Nazi Horst Mahler. She was also notable for her rigid social conservatism, opposing stepchild adoption for gay couples in her last term in Bundestag. After supporting Sahra Wagenknecht for some time, her last political act was signing the Wagenknecht-Schwarzer manifesto.

You know, I've always liked Joschka Fischer, but only now I understand the God's work he did in stopping headcases like her from coming to power.

[Estrella]

I guess Linke saw AfD's successes and decided to drop the "we don't support Russia, but..." theatre and just go full Z.

https://twitter.com/Linksfraktion/status/1677002723114221579

NATO is a warmongering, expansionist alliance that tramples on international law and human rights. High time to dissolve this military pact. After 78 years, it is time for the US to withdraw its troops and nuclear weapons from Germany.

Bucha, Mariupol, Kakhovka, apartment bombings or kidnapped children? Not a word about it.

As an aside, it's fascinating how German far-right and far-left are indistinguishable in their borderline imperialist attitude towards the countries between Germany and Russia. In 1959, philosopher and Wehrmacht soldier Johannes Barnick wrote a book called German-Russian Neighbourhood. It was republished last year after the invasion. Fittingly so, as it perfectly describes not just AfD and Die Linke, but also many important figures in "mainstream" parties.

Between Germany and Russia there is the well-known "buffer zone" from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea as the "most serious world political trouble spot". More than sixty years ago, Barnick warned that "an alliance of liberal West and East European nationalism" would mean a new encirclement for Germany - and, moreover, the danger of a Third World War. Germany is the tipping point when it comes to the balance between East and West. For Barnick, the order of the day in German-Russian relations would not be self-indulgent warmongering, but neutrality in the sense of backing. In a favorable case, the contested "buffer zone" is the mutual shield that belongs to no third party. The thesis of this brilliant stylist and prudent statistician of international power relations is: Europe is always doing well when German-Russian relations are doing well.

[Estrella]

Joke country
https://twitter.com/unitas_spiritus/status/1712903895612014595?t=0307NhrrgOkQ1eO...

I wonder why.



Germany, like any other country, has plenty of people genuinely worried about the Palestinian people and plenty of Zyklon B enthusiasts who think they've now been proven right. It's probably justified to ban these protests because of frequent, er, incidents at similar protests elsewhere, at least right now. A second Charlottesville rally shouldn't be allowed either. As for the quoted tweet, people waving the Hakenkreuz at a supposedly anti-genocide protest, or doing Hitler salutes in Jewish museums, or tearing down pictures of missing Israeli children should (and hopefully will) have the book thrown at them without mercy. Have the police pay them a door-breaching visit at five in the morning, put the domestic ones on a watchlist and in jail and yes, put the foreign ones on a plane.

[Estrella]

Blanket banning of protests rather than dealing with the individuals who commit actual hate crimes is not what a free country does, sorry.

I wish I could agree with this, but I just don’t trust the police to actually deal with those individuals. Have there been any prosecutions for things like this? That situation is a pogrom waiting to happen. And if threats of violence lead to a Jewish community being hounded out of somewhere… well, there’s a term for it: ethnic cleansing.

Also, have you wondered why the AfD is the most unambiguously pro-Israel party in Germany?

Of course — AfD is as motivated by hatred towards a people as their predecessors were a century ago. It’s more interesting how things changed on the other side of politics. 101 years ago, Jewish millionaire financier Walther Rathenau was murdered by a far-right militia. The left, including KPD, responded by going to the streets in the hundreds of thousands and calling a general strike. It’s hard to imagine something like that happening now, and not just because general strikes (sadly) aren’t a thing anymore.

This is one random kid who quickly pulled up 'Nazi Flag' on his phone through google search. I fail to see why this same image is being used over and over? To be clear, one of the many anti-fascists he's likely protesting with should've slugged the phone out of his hand and worse if those were actually his beliefs but I still fail to see why this pic is gathering so much traction.

(For comparison, here are the Nazis our church faced last Sunday. All I'm saying is that these people are actual Nazis with 'intent to intimidate' whereas whoever that guy is, is clearly just trying to be 'edgy' off the group-mentality of protesters facing off /w each other. It's pathetic and sad, but not really evidence of 'Nazism' among muslims.)

This is just one incident out of many, many others. It doesn’t say anything about protesters who weren’t involved (except that, like you said, they’re cowards). It does say everything we need to know about the people who did those things. When someone goes to a demonstration and displays a symbol, they usually do it because they believe in what it represents. One swastika isn’t somehow less hateful than the other.

[Estrella]

The recent debate on Ukraine feels like a return to February 2022.

In the Bundestag, the CDU/CSU has renewed its call for the delivery of German Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. "Ukraine will only achieve the necessary goal of restoring its territorial integrity if it can break up the trench warfare with a wide variety of weapons systems and force the Russian troops to retreat," said Florian Hahn (CSU), the defense policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, which submitted a motion to this effect.

Hahn criticized the fact that the German government - in particular the Chancellery - has nevertheless refused to supply Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles for more than six months, while partner nations such as France, the UK and the USA have already supplied similar systems. He said: "And the Federal Chancellor is dithering and hesitating, as he has done so often in the past."

Meanwhile, the comments made by SPD politician Jörg Nürnberger caused irritation. "Please imagine we are in a children's playground," Nürnberger began his speech. "As is so often the case, there is this one child who is never really satisfied. No matter how many toys it has, it always strives for more and is jealous if it can't get its way and doesn't get what it would like to have extra," explained the SPD politician.

In the same parliamentary debate Gregor Gysi apparently decided to stick a fork in any hopes that a post-Wagenknecht Linke will be any less Putinist than the current version. He came up with a bathsxt conspiracy theory about how mediation led by Gerhard Schröder (?!) almost managed to stop the fighting, but the agreement was sabotaged by Washington that wanted the war to continue — and then he got torn a new one:

Dear Gregor Gysi, it is interesting that you are now referring to Gerhard Schröder of all people. But I must strongly disagree with you on one point. The peace talks that took place at the beginning of this war did not end in Washington. They ended in Bucha.

To be fair, we are talking about the man who said that the Skripal assassination attempt was a US false flag to sabotage Nord Stream, but this is jumping the shark even for him. I can't wait for his comrades to end up with 4.9% and 2 direct seats in 2025.

[Estrella]

Out of Germany, always something new.

Russia allegedly intercepted NATO data during Nord Stream planning

The Russian state-owned company Gazprom has apparently attempted to obtain secret NATO data as part of the approval process for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. This was the unanimous opinion of members of the state parliament from various parliamentary groups following questioning of witnesses in the committee of inquiry into the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Climate Foundation. The climate foundation was largely financed by Nord Stream 2 AG.

CDU MP Sebastian Ehlers reported that the Stralsund Mining Authority, as the licensing authority, had asked the German Armed Forces for the coordinates of the NATO submarine diving areas in the region on behalf of Nord Stream 2. René Domke, who attended the committee meeting on behalf of the FDP, confirmed this and expressed his surprise that such information should be passed on - "mind you, to a project developer based in Switzerland and owned by the Russian state-owned company Gazprom".

According to the Green parliamentary group in the state parliament of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, confidential military data on NATO ammunition was even temporarily published in the planning approval decision.The Green chairman of the committee of inquiry, Hannes Damm, expressed his shock at this. The actions of the mining authority towards Gazprom had "endangered the security of Germany and NATO".The testimony of the witness, a former head of division at the Federal Office of Infrastructure, Environmental Protection and Armed Forces Services, showed that "the construction of Nord Stream 2 was pushed through even in the face of serious concerns from the security authorities", said Damm.He accused the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania of accepting high security risks "just to enable Nord Stream 2 AG to obtain approval quickly".

The Climate Foundation was established at the beginning of 2021 by resolution of the state parliament in order to enable the completion of Nord Stream 2 while circumventing the threat of US sanctions, which was successful.The special committee initiated by the opposition is to clarify, among other things, the extent of the influence of the Russian donors on the then SPD/CDU state government when the foundation was established. Nord Stream 2, a subsidiary of the Russian state-owned company Gazprom, was the largest donor to the Climate Protection Foundation MV with 20 million euros.

About a decade ago there was much outrage in Germany about NSA allegedly spying on the MP representing the constituency where the Nord Stream terminal was built, a certain Dr. Angela Merkel (CDU). Hm.

[Estrella]

A video from December has Björn Höcke (AfD) saying that he wants to deport 20%-30% of the German population, arguing the country could easily handle it provided that ethnic German women would increase their birthrates in the aftermath.

20%-30% is more or less the share of all residents with some sort of migrant background (30% would actually exceed the total number of people falling in that category a bit - the Federal Statistical Office defines "migrant background" as someone with at least one parent who at one point in their lives was not a German citizen).

Technically, that would include the incumbent Minister of Agriculture, the co-chairman of the Green Party, the general secretary of the FDP, the president of the German Trade Union Confederation, and, well, Sahra Wagenknecht.

https://www.derwesten.de/politik/afd-hoecke-remigration-deportation-id300814756.html

Also presumably including however many million Russlanddeutsche and the few people still alive who grew up in the Sudetenland and east of the Oder–Neisse.

[Estrella]

A video from December has Björn Höcke (AfD) saying that he wants to deport 20%-30% of the German population, arguing the country could easily handle it provided that ethnic German women would increase their birthrates in the aftermath.

20%-30% is more or less the share of all residents with some sort of migrant background (30% would actually exceed the total number of people falling in that category a bit - the Federal Statistical Office defines "migrant background" as someone with at least one parent who at one point in their lives was not a German citizen).

Technically, that would include the incumbent Minister of Agriculture, the co-chairman of the Green Party, the general secretary of the FDP, the president of the German Trade Union Confederation, and, well, Sahra Wagenknecht.

https://www.derwesten.de/politik/afd-hoecke-remigration-deportation-id300814756.html

Also presumably including however many million Russlanddeutsche and the few people still alive who grew up in the Sudetenland and east of the Oder–Neisse.

the ones growing up east of the Oder-Neisse were born as German citizens

this is what happens when you post at four in the morning