Month: February 2024

In an exclusive poll conducted by IFOP, the National Rally (RN) candidate Marine Le Pen is predicted to win the presidency in the second round of voting against Gabriel Attal in 2027. It is the first time any poll has shown her securing victory and becoming president of the nation.

In the same poll, if she were to face off against Édouard Philippe, she would tie him with 50 percent of the vote.

The groundbreaking poll, where she earned 51 percent of the vote against Attal, who serves as the current prime minister in the Macron government, has even garnered front-page coverage in France.

In July 2022, political scientist Jérôme Fourquet told Le JDD: “We can’t rule out a Marine Le Pen victory in 2027. Recent figures published by his institute, Ifop, seem to corroborate this prediction.”

According to the study, Marine Le Pen is predicted to beat Gabriel Attal in the second round of the presidential election in 2027 for the first time, with 51 percent versus 49 percent for Attal. The leader of the RN group in the French National Assembly is also neck and neck with Édouard Philippe, the current mayor of Le Havre and former prime minister, with 50 percent of voting intentions.

In addition, she is well ahead of the far-left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, with 64 percent of the expected vote.

The poll is, so far, the first time she has performed so well, and only time will tell if her popularity continues to grow, especially with three years before the next presidential election.

However, it is worth noting that Marine Le Pen achieved an unprecedented score, in both the second and first rounds of the last presidential election. She obtained 42 percent of the vote against Emmanuel Macron, a result that contrasts sharply with the 17.79 percent obtained by her father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in the second round in 2002.

https://rmx.news/france/for-the-first-time-ever-poll-shows-le-pen-winning-french-presidency-in-the-second-round/

Pope Francis has doubled down in his support of blessing gay couples, calling those who oppose the practice “hypocrites.”

“I don’t bless a ‘same-sex marriage’; I bless two people who love each other and I also ask them to pray for me,” the pontiff told the Italian weekly magazine Credere this week.

Just before Christmas, the Vatican’s doctrinal office, under the leadership of Argentinian Cardinal Víctor Manuel “Tucho” Fernández, reversed the Vatican’s position on blessing gay couples.

From a “strictly liturgical point of view,” a blessing requires that what is blessed be conformed to God’s will, affirmed the Vatican Declaration Fiducia Supplicans, whereas from a pastoral point of view this need not be so.

Under a broader, pastoral understanding of blessings, “one can understand the possibility of blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples without officially validating their status or changing in any way the Church’s perennial teaching on marriage,” Cardinal Fernández stated in his presentation of the Declaration.

In an earlier declaration of March 2021, the Vatican declared that the Church has no authority to bless homosexual unions, because God Himself “does not and cannot bless sin.”

Blessings require “the right intention of those who participate” as well as “that what is blessed be objectively and positively ordered to receive and express grace, according to the designs of God inscribed in creation,” stated the text, published with the express approval of Pope Francis.

“For this reason, it is not licit to impart a blessing on relationships, or partnerships, even stable, that involve sexual activity outside of marriage,” it read, “as is the case of the unions between persons of the same sex.”

While forbidding the blessing of gay couples, the 2021 text explicitly allowed for the blessing of individual persons, even those who commit grave sins, according to the Church’s long-standing practice.

The rejection of the possibility of blessing a homosexual couple “does not preclude the blessings given to individual persons with homosexual inclinations, who manifest the will to live in fidelity to the revealed plans of God as proposed by Church teaching,” the text declared.

In this week’s interview with Credere, the pope seemed to confuse these two issues, as if some people have a problem with blessing persons with homosexual inclinations.

“Nobody is scandalized if I bless a businessman who exploits people, but they are when I bless a homosexual,” he said, adding that this is “hypocrisy.”

There has been widespread resistance to the Vatican’s volte-face on the question of blessings for homosexual couples, notably from the Pan-African Bishops’ Conferences, who stated in a joint declaration: “In Africa there is no place to bless homosexual couples. Not at all.”

For his part, Francis asserted that he people who are “vehemently protesting” the decision to allow the blessings “belong to small ideological groups,” while adding that in the case of the African continent is “special,” because for them, “homosexuality is something ‘ugly’ from a cultural point of view; they do not tolerate it.”

The bishops of Africa “are now being condescendingly portrayed as culturally conditioned,” responded Dr. Nina Heereman, professor of theology, “while we fail to ask ourselves to what extent we are the ones succumbing to the pressure of the culture around us.”

https://www.breitbart.com/faith/2024/02/08/pope-francis-blasts-those-who-oppose-blessing-gay-couples/

The Hersbruck district court has granted an owner of numerous child pornography files a penalty bonus because he identifies as a trans person. The judge believed the defendant’s statement that he had possessed the images for reasons of “finding his identity” and not because of his sexual desire.
The self-proclaimed “trans woman” got off with a suspended sentence of one year and two months for possessing more than 70 child pornography files. The public prosecutor’s office had demanded a suspended sentence of one year and six months. In the proceedings, it criticised in particular the large number of illegal files and the fact that these were stored on various devices. It concluded from this that the convicted man had a strong desire to be able to view the images at any time.
According to the testimony of a police officer, the confiscated images included “naked genitals and sexual acts”. These included images of an underage girl being forced to perform oral sex, as reported by newspaper Nürnberger Nachrichten.

The 52-year-old convict denied being sexually attracted to children and adolescents. The material found on him was part of his own “transsexual history”. He had already felt like a woman as a child, had grown up in a children’s home and had wanted to make up for it by using the pictures. He was “truly sorry”. The court also decided in favour of the lenient sentence because the “trans woman” confessed and showed remorse.
The penal code provides for prison sentences of between one and five years for the possession of child pornography. If an offender is sentenced to less than two years, the court can suspend the sentence on probation.

The police began investigating the convicted offender in 2021 after the Federal Criminal Police Office received a tip-off. The officers present during the house search called in the health authorities due to the 52-year-old’s precarious living situation. A police officer told the court that he had the impression that the resident had lost control of his life. It was only after the raid that the accused made his alleged transgender identity public.

Weil er „trans“ ist – mildes Urteil für Pädophilen (jungefreiheit.de)

Tom Van Grieken, President of the Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) party, has told Brussels Signal how he plans to split up Belgium. The separatist leader says he wants to see Belgium dissolved and a new Flemish state set up within five years of this year’s elections.

The “breaking up” of the country has been a recurring theme and the Flemish Interest party is leading the latest charge to try to make it a reality.

Van Grieken said the continuous devolution of the Belgian State, from unitary rule to federalism, shows that dissolution is inevitable.

He said he expected the national elections on June 9, 2024, could be a turning point, with traditional parties “shrinking”.

The two Flemish nationalist parties, Flemish Interest and the N-VA (New Flemish Alliance), could obtain a majority in the Flemish Parliament.

But according to Van Grieken, simply asserting independence would be the wrong way to achieve their goal.

Instead, he is proposing a declaration of Flemish “sovereignty”. That would mean the regional Flemish Parliament would become “Sovereign” in every decision it makes: above, therefore, Belgium’s Federal Parliament.

Flemings would after such a declaration start “negotiations” with Wallonia, the French-speaking Southern part of Belgium, he said.

“We would give them five years … on how to split up the country. That should end in a declaration of independence,” Van Grieken stated.

He assured there would be no “chaos”, that no “strange things” would happen and that “everything would take place within an international framework”.

He also spoke of “an orderly split up”, apparently referring to a book of the same name by Flemish Interest MEP Gerolf Annemans on the matter.

He said he felt it was better to have a “clean split” and to exist as “good neighbours”, rather than stay “a family who fights all the time”.

Under his scenario, the bilingual capital Brussels should “stay with Flanders”. That is despite the city having drifted away from the rest of Flanders, in particular regarding its inhabitants’ culture and identity. Technically, Brussels is both the capital of Belgium and the capital of Flanders.

The right-wing party leader noted that there are many capitals in Europe with a distinct identity, especially “regarding migration”.

“But no Frenchman would ever say, ‘We should leave Paris’,” he added.

To keep Brussels happy, Van Grieken said he was “willing” to give the city “special rights and protections”.

He said he felt this was the best scenario for the city, as only Flanders has the desire and capacity to finance its ambitions, unlike Wallonia, or even an “independent’ Brussels.

Flemish Interest will according to polls become the largest party in Belgium after the elections.

The full video interview can be seen here.

https://brusselssignal.eu/2024/02/belgium-should-be-split-up-heres-how-says-flemish-leader/

A wildlife charity has warned that the British countryside is a “racist colonial” white space.

Charity umbrella group Wildlife and Countryside Link made the claim in evidence provided to Parliament on racism and its influence on the natural world.

The group includes the RSPCA, WWF and National Trust.

A report by the group was sent to the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) for Race and Community, which had called for evidence on the links between “systemic racism” and climate change.

The Telegraph said the report claimed: “Cultural barriers reflect that in the UK, it is White British cultural values that have been embedded into the design and management of green spaces, and into society’s expectations of how people should be engaging with them.”

It adds that “racist colonial legacies continue to frame nature in the UK as a ‘white space’.”

The report also claims that: “The perception that green spaces are dominated by white people can prevent people from ethnic minority backgrounds from using green spaces.”

It also makes broader claims about Britain and climate change, stating: “The UK’s role in the European colonial project has also driven the current climate and nature crises.”

The charity group is led by Richard Benwell, the chief executive and a former Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate. Benwell worked as a policy adviser to the secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs in 2018.

He said: “Nature should be for everyone to enjoy and to benefit from. Sadly however, the evidence shows that people of colour in the UK are more likely to live in areas with less green space and that are more heavily polluted, and at the same time are significantly less likely to visit natural spaces.

“There are multiple complex reasons behind this, as well as contemporary well-documented experiences of racism that people are still encountering.

“Access for all and addressing the barriers people are facing should be one of the guiding lights for all nature sites.”

The announcement was met with backlash on social media.

Conservative councillor for Hempstead & Wigmore Andrew Lawrence said: “This would be laughable if it wasn’t for the fact that this umbrella group covers some of our leading charities who are clearly gripped in some delusional psychodrama.”

Commentator Sam Schulman said: “I regret every £ I have given to the National Trust at its glorious sites in UK. I don’t mean give to historical nitwits who hate me.”

Former aide to Margaret Thatcher Nile Gardiner said: “Some of the most stupid comments of the year.”

https://www.gbnews.com/news/countryside-national-trust-wwf-rspca-racist-white-space-ethnic-minorities

The youth wing of Germany’s populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has hit back after a court ruled that the country’s domestic intelligence service could spy on it as a “right-wing extremist” group.

The youth organisation, known as Junge Alternative (JA), said the “absurd” ruling was yet another undemocratic attempt by the country’s political elite to destroy the AfD, which is riding high in opinion polls.

The ruling by an administrative court in Cologne comes after the domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), last year classified the JA as a”gesichert rechtsextrem”—confirmed right-wing extremist—organisation. This allows for increased surveillance of the group and its members’ activities. The ruling was in effect a rejection of an injunction by the AfD and JA, which sought to remove the classification.

The court claimed JA propagates the exclusion of “ethnic foreigners” from society, “continues to engage in massive anti-foreigner, anti-Islam and anti-Muslim agitation,” and is acting against the “principles of democracy.” The court also accuses JA of equating modern Germany with dictatorial regimes, in particular the Nazi regime and the former Communist-ruled East Germany, something JA strongly denies.

Responding to the court’s verdict, Junge Alternative commented:

The political will to destroy the AfD and the associations and organisations close to it has long been obvious. The discussion of strategies to isolate and defame, and possibly launch a procedure to ban the largest opposition party in the country is now the main focus of the press, the pro-government activists, journalists, and political scientists.

📣 Die Entscheidung des Verwaltungsgerichts Köln kommt für uns nicht überraschend.

Der politische Zerstörungswille von ganz Oben gegen die AfD und die ihr nahestehenden Vereine und Organisationen ist längst offensichtlich. […] https://t.co/IisY2hIREi pic.twitter.com/9yhaFRpoyR

— ❌ Junge Alternative (@JA_Deutschland) February 6, 2024

Tomasz Froelich, Vice Chairman of the Junge Alternative clarified:

JA does not equate the Federal Republic with other dictatorships, but merely warns against totalitarian tendencies. It does not suspect migrants and asylum seekers across the board. And citizens with an immigrant background are not second-class citizens as far as JA is concerned.

Vorwürfe gg @JA_Deutschland absurd: JA setzt Bundesrepublik nicht mit anderen Diktaturen gleich, sondern warnt bloß vor totalitären Tendenzen. Sie verdächtigt Migranten & Asylbewerber nicht pauschal. Und 🇩🇪Staatsbürger mit Migrationshintergrund sind für JA keine Bürger 2. Klasse.

— Tomasz Froelich (@TomaszFroelich) February 6, 2024

The left-wing Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser, unsurprisingly, welcomed the ruling:

Today’s decision clearly states that we are dealing with massive contempt for humanity, racism, hatred against Muslims, and attacks on our democracy. We will continue to take action against this with the means of the rule of law.

However, critics say that the country’s institutions are being weaponised to persecute a political opponent supported by many millions of German voters who are disillusioned with the ruling elite. 

The AfD is currently the second most popular party in Germany with around 20% support. It will likely become the largest force in three Eastern states—Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia—which are holding state elections this autumn. The rise of the party has been attributed to a growing anger with the left-liberal government’s handling of the migration and cost-of-living crises.

The targeting of young party members comes as establishment parties do everything possible to stop the AfD, with many high-ranking politicians calling for an outright ban of the party. A recent left-wing report on the AfD turned out to be full of inconsistencies and false accusations.

As Joachim Kuhs, Member of the European Parliament for the AfD, told The European Conservative in a recent interview:

The [establishment] parties are in a kind of panic mode, and they just can’t cope with the success we currently have as the AfD, and they’re lashing out wildly.

This panic mode is reflected in the fact that the aforementioned Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) recently placed its former chief, Hans-Georg Maaßen, under observation over, among other things, his alleged proximity to individuals in the ‘right-wing extremist’ scene. Maaßen, who recently announced his intention to break away from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to establish a new political party, accused Interior Minister Nancy Faeser of misusing the BfV to combat political opponents.

https://europeanconservative.com/articles/news/german-court-brands-afd-youth-wing-certified-right-wing-extremist/

London has turned into a playground for thieves and it’s making Delhi look like paradise. Indian businessmen in the UK capital have claimed that it is safer for them to walk around in the Indian national capital than in London amid growing cases of theft of luxury watches in posh parts of the city.

They said “you are likely to be mugged” in London more than in the UK thereby discouraging them from visiting the city.

A renewable energy entrepreneur and member of FICCI executive committee, Devin Narang reportedly said the rising theft of Rolex watches on the streets of London was one of the biggest concerns of India’s business elite.

The issue was reportedly raised during UK’s Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy’s visit to New Delhi on 5th February to discuss post-Brexit trade deal talks.

Lammy said the issue had been raised several times during his short stay in India. He reportedly said that “security and fighting crime” would be key priorities for his Labour party.

“People are being mugged in the heart of London – in Mayfair,” Narang said adding that all CEOs in India have had an experience of physical mugging and the police not responding.

He further said, “Indians do carry expensive things, but the police not responding is a matter of concern. London is a walking city. You don’t want to look over your shoulder all the time. You don’t want to go to a city where you’re likely to be mugged in the streets. It doesn’t make you feel comfortable. You can walk anywhere in Delhi and you won’t be mugged.”

He said that he understood that attacks often took place in Mayfair, citing cases of people having expensive bags stolen or watches being cut off wrists in the streets.

As per reports, the Met police last month revealed that it had deployed officers undercover posing as victims to catch robbers attempting to steal Rolex and Patek Philippe watches in central London.

Two operations were conducted in late 2022 and 2023 across South Kensington, Chelsea, Soho and Mayfair deploying potential targets wearing expensive brands.

A video reportedly showed opportunistic criminals trying to mug them being apprehended by other covert officers nearby. Both operations led to more than 20 convictions.

As per data, 29,000 watches have been reported stolen in the past five years. One in five of the thefts involved violence.

Between April and September 2022, around 300 luxury watch robberies were reported stolen across Westminster, Kensington, Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham with a total value of abour 4 million pounds.

Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights between 11 pm and 4 am were identified as the most frequent times of theft.

https://www.opindia.com/2024/02/rise-in-theft-cases-on-london-streets-makes-delhi-feel-safer-for-indian-businessmen/

An Egyptian imam in Vienna uses horrific words to incite hatred against Jews on Facebook. “Murder flows in their veins, they are the Jews!”, he writes, earning approval. “A despicable people, criminals, bloodthirsty people”. He is very clear: “Oh Allah, kill them and don’t let any of them live”.
The mosque at the Schöpfwerk has always been a meeting place for the Egyptian community. Hundreds of families from Egypt live in the housing estate. The imam of the local mosque has now caused an outrageous scandal. On Facebook, he rails against Jews and “their allies” in Arabic – and promptly earns approval.

Insiders have not ruled out links to the radical Islamic Muslim Brotherhood. The terrorist organisation Hamas is the Palestinian branch of the internationally active group.

The hate preacher in question is Mohamed El S. What this mosque chairman “says on Facebook clearly is hate preaching and suspected incitement to hatred”, writes oe24, which uncovered the scandal. The imam is the chairman of the mosque association, which was founded in 2002 and is supposed to promote integration. Its name is “Assalam Mosque Association for Integration (!)”.

Mohamed El S. wrote on the 17th of January 2024: “Oh Allah, defeat the Jews and support the mujahideen who are fighting for Allah in Palestine”. Earlier, on the 5th of January, he had already railed against Jews in a vile manner: “Murder flows in their veins, they are the Jews! A despicable people, criminals, bloodthirsty people … They only understand the language of blood and murder”. On the 9th of January he added: “Oh Allah, please punish the criminal Zionists and those who support them, tear them apart, oh Allah, please count them and kill them and leave none of them alive”.

Skandal in Wiener Moschee am Schöpfwerk: Prediger hetzt wüst gegen Juden | Exxpress

By Olivia Murray

In its prime, Western civilization was (arguably) the peak of human existence, so watching as it succumbs to the regressive ideologies of leftism and the culture of 7th century barbarism is a gut-punch, but there is a silver lining: ridiculing the leftists, who each have the intellectual capability of an amoeba, has never been so funny, and I love to laugh.

London-based journalist David Atheron shared this video—language warning—and it’s rather hilarious:

A man is wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh & flag tells @PhilipDwyer_MOI that he's worried about gay men being bombed in Gaza.

Phil points out gay men are thrown off buildings. pic.twitter.com/4B1W8vryEp

— David Atherton (@DaveAtherton20) February 5, 2024

Perhaps it’s because as a very non-artistic person I give tremendous kudos to people who have the creative intelligence to edit videos like this… but the slowed frame rate to reflect the gumming up of the brain cogs, mixed with the sound of chirping crickets, only for it to immediately happen… again, had me hollering.

Now, while this young man was getting his clock cleaned by the Socratic method (I remain convinced that this is one of the best strategies when trying to undermine the ignorance held by the average leftist), a gay lawmaker, from another part of the United Kingdom, was announcing that he would be leaving elected office with the expiration of his current term. From an article out at The Free Press on Monday:

Two and a half years ago, a member of Britain’s parliament was murdered in a church in southeast England where he was meeting his constituents. Ali Harbi Ali, a 25-year-old who called himself a soldier of the Islamic State, said ‘Sorry’ to David Amess before pulling a knife from his pocket and stabbing the Conservative lawmaker repeatedly in the stomach.

…

In an interview with police after his arrest, Ali said that a month before the attack, he had visited the constituency of Mike Freer, another Conservative MP, armed with the intent to harm.

…

Last week, Freer … announced that he will be stepping down at the next election because of the ‘intolerable stress’ on his husband and extended family from the ‘several serious threats to my personal safety.’

…

Freer’s decision to prioritize his family’s well-being is a depressing sign of the times: a gay conservative justice minister hounded out of office by threats of violence, including from Islamist extremists.

But this incident didn’t happen in a vacuum; while meeting with constituents in 2011, an organized group of Muslims disrupted the meeting, calling Freer a “Jewish homosexual pig,” despite Freer not even being Jewish. Aside from the murder of Amess, the article also cites a number of other instances in which “Islamist intimidation and violence” played a central role in political attacks against British officials. The “religion of peace” isn’t so peaceful now is it?

One need only scroll through the timeline of @RadioGenoa on any given day to see that England has fallen; from just a few minutes ago:

London has lost its European identity. pic.twitter.com/4B91LYJXu1

— RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) February 7, 2024

People stuck in a centuries-old Mohammedan mindset killed Amess; violently intimated Freer from office; groomed and abused the school girls of Rochdale; bombed Manchester; mowed down pedestrians on the London Bridge before stabbing others; hacked off-duty soldier Lee Rigby to death with a meat cleaver in the street; and routinely carry out acid and knife attacks. The politicians and authorities promoting the leftist government, and the “conservatives” too cowardly to stand up, did not intervene; heaven forfend they’d be labeled a racist, bigot, or white supremacists. And, in a dystopian twist, the greatest concern of these same politicians and authorities is… Islamophobia.

Hamas sympathizer gets his clock cleaned with the Socratic method while Islamist newcomers chase off gay MPs – American Thinker

A map recently published by German poll aggregator Wahlkreisprognose shows that in the former East Germany Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has a clear lead in almost the entire former German Democratic Republic while the western part is overwhelmingly dominated by the conservative CDU and its Bavarian sister party CSU.

In other words, the country is sharply divided along what was once formerly West Germany and East Germany (GDR).

In the map, the Institute has colored Germany’s Bundestag constituencies according to party preference. The black color represents the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the blue color the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the red color the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), and the green color the Greens. The fainter the color, the smaller the lead of the party in the constituency, and the darker the color, the more dominant the party is.

The CDU dominates in western Germany outside the big cities, and the AfD in eastern Germany outside Berlin.

The CDU and AfD are perfectly aligned with the former border between the former German Democratic Republic and the former West Germany.

The exceptions are minimal: In the north of Leipzig, the CDU has a narrow lead, while in the south the new party of Sahra Wagenknecht leads, the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), which has split from the Left Party. The BSW also holds a nose-to-nose lead in the former Karl-Marx-Stadt, now known as Chemnitz.

Overall, the CDU scores 27 percent nationwide in the new poll, while the AfD has 19 percent.

https://rmx.news/germany/new-map-shows-germanys-political-divide-follows-former-iron-curtain/