A major police operation is currently underway following bomb threats at several schools in St. Pölten, Lower Austria. The wording of the threat is alarming. According to information from ‘heute.at’, the threat was sent to a total of 16 schools – primary and secondary schools, a special school and two grammar schools in St. Pölten, Lower Austria are affected. Furthermore, the wording in the email is said to have been identical for all those affected: ‘A bomb will go off in the morning. You infidels will die,’ it says, as reported by heute.at.
After bomb threats were received by email against several schools in St. Pölten on Tuesday night, the schools concerned remained closed on Tuesday. The St. Pölten Criminal Investigation Department, the Lower Austrian State Office of Criminal Investigation and the State Office for State Security and Counter Extremism (LSE) have already begun investigations.
In response to an enquiry from Austrian Press Agency APA, police spokesperson Raimund Schwaigerlehner announced that it had been decided in consultation with the education directorate and the police to hold the lessons via distance learning. According to Schwaigerlehner, the threatening emails had been sent directly to the schools. The properties were to be investigated during the course of the day. The neighbouring kindergartens of the affected schools will also remain closed on Tuesday and Wednesday as a precautionary measure.
Three schools in the Styrian capital of Graz also received bomb threats. The schools affected were the GIBS, the St. Andrä secondary school and the Jägergrund primary school (photo). According to the Styrian Provincial Police Directorate, some of the buildings were evacuated and searched.
Călin Georgescu, who was looking set to win the Romanian elections until the country’s top court annulled the result of the first round of November 24, said those judges deserved to be locked up in jail.
Speaking in a video to his followers on social media on December 16, the hard-right presidential candidate said they would not “find refuge in hell” if they did not fix what he called their “mistake”.
“Honourable judges of the Constitutional Court, have you broken your oath? With the decision you made on December 6th, have you not, in fact, sworn falsely?” Georgescu said.
“Do you want God to help you – as stated in the magistrates’ oath? Then correct your mistake so that people may regain trust in the fair judgment of institutions; otherwise, not even in hell will you find refuge!
“I warn you that you risk paying for the annulled votes with many years in prison – and do not forget that no one is above the law, not even you, especially you, who were supposed to protect the law, not condemn it unjustly!
“Reverse this erroneous decision and immediately correct the injustice done to this nation; this is my message to you! God is one, do not think yourselves His equals!”
His warning came after Romania’s High Court of Cassation and Justice declined his request for the annulment of the Central Electoral Bureau’s decision to resume the elections.
On December 10, Georgescu warned that if Romanian democracy were to fall, the entire world democratic system would be at risk.
He said Romania was part of the European Union, NATO and one of the most important allies of the US in Eastern Europe.
He also claimed that if the international community remained indifferent and merely watched the political spectacle unfolding in Romania, it would set a dangerous precedent: A constitutional court overriding the people’s vote in favour of politicians.
This, Georgescu warned, would mark the “end of democracy as we know it worldwide”.
The hard-right populist entered the elections as a little-known independent candidate but, surprisingly to many, came out on top after the first round of the presidential ballot.
Georgescu scored 23 per cent of the first round vote, beating his Liberal and Socialist opponents who each got 19 per cent. Only the first two candidates go on to the second round of voting in Romania.
His win caused consternation among the Romanian establishment who regarded him as him too right-wing.
On December 6, Romania’s top court annulled the result of the first round, adding that the entire election process would have to be rerun.
Despite there being no trace found of fraud or vote rigging, documents declassified by Romania’s top security council on December 4 claimed the country was a target of “aggressive hybrid Russian attacks” during the election period.
Georgescu’s campaign had been allegedly promoted by “Russian influence” and “bots” were reportedly extensively used to boost his popularity on social media platform TikTok.
On December 7, a day after the Constitutional Court’s move and before the planned final round on December 9, authorities searched several properties in an investigation into alleged illegal financing of his election campaign.
Documents released thus far have not revealed why the authorities did not alert the general public to what they viewed as a “Russian influence” campaign before the first round of voting or whether they took any measures to counter it.
TikTok has denied giving Georgescu special treatment, saying his account was labelled as a political one and treated like any other such.
No date or timetable has been set for new elections.
Soaring knife crime in Germany, which many police officials openly say is directly tied to mass immigration, has now resulted in warrantless searches at German Christmas markets. In a news segment produced by state media broadcaster SWR, the clip reveals German police conducting controls on a German Christmas market in Ludwigshafen, where police were filmed confiscating a pocket knife from an elderly woman.
In the SWR video, the narrator states that the police had not discovered any pocket knives up until that point that day. However, once police stopped an elderly woman and searched her bag, she was found to have a Swiss Army knife in her bag’s side pocket. The police then told her it would need to be confiscated.
The leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Alice Weidel, has already commented on the video, writing on X: “Deliberate loss of state control at the borders leads to the illegal immigration of countless knife attackers – and the state harasses its own citizens in response. You can’t make this up!”
Vorsätzlicher staatlicher Kontrollverlust an den Grenzen führt zur illegalen Einwanderung zahlloser Messerstecher – und der Staat drangsaliert als Reaktion seine eigenen Bürger. Kannste dir nicht ausdenken! #DeshalbAfD#AfDpic.twitter.com/HQCPACGJGU
The video is the latest evidence that Christmas markets, once seen as a safe location to enjoy the holiday season with friends and family, have become a target where violence could flare or even a terrorist could strike.
As the original video states, this is the first year that knife checks can be conducted at German Christmas markets without reasonable suspicion, and police are taking advantage of the ban on knives in such markets to conduct warrantless checks.
Many Germans in the SWR video shrug at the checks or say they make them feel safer, but many also lament the security state that necessitates such checks. If voting intentions are scrutinized, immigration and security remain top issues as Germans head to the polls in February for snap elections.
Weidel herself is also growing in popularity and has just polled evenly with front-runner for Chancellor, Friedrich Merz (CDU), with 21 percent of Germans saying that they would like Weidel to be chancellor, while the same figure backed Merz. Merz’s CDU party is polling over 10 points ahead of the AfD in the run-up to February elections. The AfD, however, has risen to 20 percent in the latest Insa survey.
Notably, migrant crime and knife attacks have plagued Germany in the past few years. Foreigners now make up a record share of violent criminals despite accounting for only 15 percent of the population. On trains and buses, their proportion of reported crimes is even higher.
Some of the victims of knife attacks have spoken up about the violence, with one father even confronting Chancellor Olaf Scholz — who lost his no confidence vote just yesterday — on national television about the death of his child due to a violent illegal immigrant.
Meanwhile, confiscating the tiny pocket knives of elderly women in Germany is unlikely to be an effective tool to combat the violence many Germans increasingly have to fear. In fact, top police officials openly tie mass immigration to growing crime and insecurity.
At the end of last month, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser also stated that German security authorities said that while there were no indications of a “concrete” threat, Christmas markets could be targeted by groups with “Islamic motives.”
Germany’s domestic security agency, the BfV, said that Germany was a target for “various terrorist organizations,” which includes the Islamic State group, and that Christmas markets could be targeted due to “symbolism,” i.e., their expression of “Christian values” and the “embodiment of Western culture and way of life.”
In other countries, similar threats exist. A 26-year-old father was stabbed earlier this month while defending his young daughter at the Cannes Christmas market. French media reported how the victim’s 7-year-old daughter was hassled by a “group of young people” while ice skating.
High security levels are now featured at Christmas markets around the country, including police checks, bomb-sniffing dogs, and security barriers to prevent truck attacks.
NCF Senior Fellow Rafe Heydel-Mankoo joined Julia Hartley-Brewer on Talk TV to discuss the ludicrous case of a convicted Islamist extremist taking a pub to court for a pub sign he claims is offensive.
More and more cases are coming to light in Germany involving citizens being prosecuted for “insulting” politicians, and in one remarkable case, a civil engineer was imprisoned for 30 days after he failed to properly appeal a fine he received for insulting a prominent Social Democrat (SPD) politician.
The incident began when a civil engineer living in Lower Saxony sent an angry email to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig of the far-left Social Democrats (SPD).
In the email, which he sent to the state chancellery, he called her a “storyteller” and accused her of talking “stupid stuff.” He also told her she should start working in construction instead of politics and wrote: “You don’t need to sell people stupid things.” The letter was sent in May 2022 and criticized what he believed to be her pro-Russian stance towards the war in Ukraine that had just broken out.
The Osnabrück public prosecutor’s office pursued a case against the man because Schwesig felt insulted. She personally filed the criminal complaint, according to Apollo News. The criminal complaint states that the man “consciously and intentionally” degraded her honor and fined the man €3,000.
The man appealed, but apparently his written appeal did not reach the proper authorities, as the man allegedly submitted the appeal in the wrong form. He was then ordered to serve a prison sentence at the end of May 2023, but he ignored this request to begin the sentence.
Police then arrived at this workplace a few weeks later, arrested him, and brought him to prison for 30 days. He served his time in Dortmund prison, leaving many of his friends and family concerned about his disappearance. The man then lost his job upon his release.
The report comes after a wave of other cases involving police raiding and arresting German citizens who insult politicians and other officials, including a case in which a retired soldier had his house raided in Bavaria for calling Economic Minister Robert Habeck an “idiot.”
Santa’s Grottos up and down the country are swapping out Father Christmas for Mrs Claus, with critics slamming the switch as the “world going mad”.
At several National Trust properties, Mother Christmas will now be leading the festivities and taking the reins from her husband.
At East Riddlesden Hall in Keighley, West Yorkshire, families can take part in a festive story-telling session with Mother Christmas.
A similar Christmas read-along is taking place at Wallington, in Morpeth, Northumberland, with the National Trust hailing Mrs Christmas’s return ahead of “her wonderful storytelling in the House this festive season”.
Lacock Abbey, a country house in Wiltshire which is also a National Trust site, has had Mother Christmas at their festive events for several years now.
One worker told The Sun: “Mother Christmas isn’t confusing — the kids believe she is either Santa’s wife, or his mum.”
However, not all agree with the switch, instead insisting that the classic traditions should not be meddled with.
Donald Gomel, 42, from Glasgow, said: “From the Victorian age we’ve had Father Christmas and now we want to introduce Mother Christmas. It’s just mad.”
English teacher Sam Issa, 45, from Wigan, added: “For hundreds of years kids have got their presents from Santa. Why ruin a perfectly good tradition? The world’s gone mad.”
However, others were all for Mother Christmas taking the limelight, with Holly Dove, 34, from Bath, saying that Father Christmases could sometimes be “creepy”.
“There’s just something gentler about a woman. I’d prefer my girls to be sitting on a woman’s lap definitely.”
But it is not just the National Trust that is swapping out Santa for his wife, with different festive celebrations across the country making the swap.
At the Yorkshire Dales National Park, Santa’s female equivalent will step in for her husband.
And the busy schedule for Mother Christmas doesn’t seem to relent. In Chepstow Castle, Wales, she will read a festive tale to children whilst also finding time to be at Ascot’s Christmas Weekend on Saturday.
Thankfully, she’ll be well fed throughout, with British Garden centres, a chain with over 60 sites, hosting a festive breakfast event with Mrs Claus.
National Trust said that they have “just two Mother Christmas events and 58 Father Christmas events”.
The latest spate of festive fury comes just weeks after Boots caused a ruckus by showcasing Mrs Clause overseeing her elves in their latest Christmas advert.
People have expressed anger over the at the ‘woke’ marketing campaign of the advert Boots – YouTube
In the TV spot, Mrs Claus – who takes over Christmas gift production after Santa falls asleep – uses they/them pronouns “Oh that’s very them” when referring to an elf.
The advert polarised viewers, with some slamming it as “woke”, whilst others said it made them feel “represented”.
One unhappy viewer said: “We are not impressed with your DEI makeover. Expect to make huge losses this Christmas as many of us boycott you. Go woke, go broke.”
Meanwhile, another viewer expressed their appreciation, adding: “This is a fantastic advert, as a woman and a Mum who organises our family Christmas alone, I feel strongly represented. Thank you boots!”
Speaking about the advert, Pete Markey, Chief Marketing Officer at Boots, stated: “As the UK’s favourite beauty retailer, we are on a mission to spread magic and excitement to beauty enthusiasts this Christmas, whilst also recognising the unsung powerhouses who make Christmas so special.
“This advert is the perfect culmination of both, and I cannot wait to see the reaction and help gift-givers find the perfect gift this Christmas.”
The main square outside the Parliament building in Bratislava, Slovakia. Flags of Slovakia, the European Union and European countries. Shutterstock
A decade ago, on a tour through Europe, a local tour guide in Belgrade stopped to ask me a question. Why, he asked, was the European Union – “the West” – so bent on getting nations like his own to accept LGBT ideology? Why were promises of economic aid always tied to demands that recipients host “pride” parades or similar initiatives? “We do not want this,” he said with irritation, shaking his head.
He is not alone. Despite the fact that many aspects of the LGBT agenda – especially the transgender agenda – are scarcely a decade old, the progressive establishments of Europe, including the EU and much of the mainstream agenda, are relentless in their attempts to “enshrine” the LGBT agenda as central to the new European identity. Nations that attempt to blunt the cultural influence of this movement face the wrath of these elites, as Hungary has discovered over the past several years. Even seeking to shield children from these influences is fought with fanatic zeal.
A similar culture war has been brewing this year in Slovakia, and the mainstream press is out in full force to shape the public narrative. The focus of this battle is Culture Minister Martina Simkovicova, the 53-year-old TV anchor who took office in October 2024 and has proclaimed herself a “defender of Slovak culture and nothing else.” Stating that she opposes “LGBT ideology,” Le Monde recently reported, she has “dismissed several heads of public institutions” including “the director of the Slovak National Theatre, Matej Drlicka, and the director of the Slovak National Gallery, Alexandra Kusa, on the spot.”
Simkovicova stated that both were engaged in “progressive-liberal political activism” that was out of line with the government’s “cultural program” and promised that the Slovak government will not give “a cent” to LGBT groups. She subsequently removed a number of government subsidies that were flowing to LGBT organizations. It is important to note that the government is establishing that they do not see LGBT ideology as part of Slovak culture and that, as such, groups who push this ideology are not entitled to public – that is to say, taxpayer – dollars.
But according to the press, this amounts to something resembling a crackdown. According to the Citizen Tribune on December 12:
“I am frustrated and very angry about the way culture is being destroyed and organizations are falling apart,” Svetlana Fialova, a 39-year-old visual artist and lecturer, told AFP. “What is happening in Slovakia is … what is happening in Georgia, Hungary and other countries, where people who collaborate and play to Russian tunes are coming to power and trying to suppress democracy and culture.”
This entirely sidesteps the actual question at hand. The democratically-elected government has a mandate to set priorities, including where public funds are allocated and which employees should be on the public purse. The debate is not about those who are anti-culture versus those who are pro-culture but about what culture the government would like to promote and subsidize. For part, Simkovicova has attempted to make this clear. “The culture of the Slovaks should be Slovak – Slovak, and none else,” she said in one speech. What constitutes a national culture and identity is always up for debate, but to claim that one side of that debate is “anti-culture” is something else entirely.
But the press, of course, presents those who oppose LGBT ideology as enemies of democracy, while portraying those who support it as its defenders – regardless of whether their agenda has public support. In Poland, the coalition government of Donald Tusk has initiated a wide-scale, often brutal purge of public institutions, eliminating employees associated with the previous Law and Justice government. This was praised by the press as a bold step in favor of democracy. But when the Slovakian government seeks to appoint its own people to public institutions, this is an attack that cannot be borne. From the Citizen Tribune:
Simkovicova also targets public media. In June, she pushed through a law reforming the state-run RTVS broadcaster into a new company, STVR, which is under her control. Analyst Pavol Hardos told AFP that wielding political influence over cultural institutions had a precedent in Slovakia.
“This is something we experienced in the 1990s during the illiberal regime of Vladimir Meciar, when there were ideological tests and tests … of who is a good nationalist, a good Slovak, and who isn’t,” he said.
What is new is the government’s “commitment to purge cultural institutions from anyone who is in any way perceived as potentially a political enemy”, Hardos said. Open-minded and liberal people are “being targeted as a potential troublemaker, and people who are often enough real experts in their areas are being sidelined or thrown out,” he added.
Hardos said that while it was premature to talk about “an illiberal regime”, Fico is walking in Orban’s footsteps. “This concerns any project with links to LGBT+,” said Martin Macko, head of the Iniciativa Inakost NGO.
Again, the default position of the press and the EU elites is that LGBT activists have a right to public positions and public money and that leftist governments have a right to appoint their ideological allies to positions of power. If democratically-elected opponents of LGBT ideology do the same, they immediately attempt to delegitimize those leaders and accuse them of launching a coup. LGBT activists and their progressive allies feel entitled to taxpayer money and tax-funded positions, and they are supported in this entitlement by most institutions.
Indeed, the opposition attempted to have the culture minister thrown out in a vote but failed. Simkovicova, for her part, accurately pointed out to the press that LGBT activists are free to produce whatever they like – they just aren’t entitled to public funding to do so. But for many LGBT activists, of course, this isn’t enough.
The outgoing US administration of President Joe Biden publicly expressed concern about the progress of the Romanian elections days before that country’s Constitutional Court’s annulled the ballot, stating that the matter could influence Romania’s position in the Western alliance and its foreign investment decisions.
Following the Romanian court decision, the US Government backed the decision to order a rerun.
The first round of the presidential election in Romania, which saw independent right-wing candidate Calin Georgescu victorious with 23 per cent of the vote, was held on November 24.
On 30 November, the US Ambassador to Romania Kathleen Kavalec issued a statement in which she called the results of the first round “surprising”, referring to “reports of campaign violations on use of social media and lack of transparency in financing, and the decision to conduct a recount of those results”.
Kavalec implied that the election process was causing concern to the Biden administration, saying she hoped whatever happened, “Romania’s strong track record as a reliable democratic partner in Europe and in the Euro-Atlantic community will not be tarnished”.
The US ambassador also stated that the fundamental purpose of a free and fair election was to ensure that those who governed had “a clear mandate from the people they represent”.
She added: “No decision made during this crucial period should limit the right of Romanians to vote freely nor further put at risk the credibility of the election process.”
The Constitutional Court on December 2 had certified the results of the first round as the search for evidence of electoral fraud proved unsuccessful. That meant the second round was to proceed as planned on December 8.
Opinion polls conducted at the time were showing Georgescu comfortably ahead of Elena Lasconi, his centre-right rival in the run-off.
The court’s decision did not satisfy the US State Department, whose spokesman Matthew Miller on December 4 issued a statement in which, while stating that: “it is the choice of the Romanian people whom they elect” and that “the United States does not interfere with that choice or process”, nevertheless raised the matter of a security services report that seemed to question the court’s initial decision.
“We are concerned by the Romanian Supreme Council for National Defence [CSAT]’s report of Russian involvement in malign cyber activity designed to influence the integrity of the Romanian electoral process,” he said.
“Data referenced in the report should be fully investigated to ensure the integrity of Romania’s electoral process”, Miller asserted.
He also then hinted that the US viewed the matter as a question of security that could affect future US-Romanian relations, including US foreign investment.
“The United States values Romania’s contributions as a strong NATO Ally and partner in the European Union. Romania’s hard-earned progress anchoring itself in the Transatlantic community cannot be turned back by foreign actors seeking to shift Romania’s foreign policy away from its Western alliances.”
He added: “Any such change would have serious negative impacts on US security co-operation with Romania, while a decision to restrict foreign investment would discourage US companies from continuing to invest in Romania”.
On December 5, Romania’s security council declassified intelligence regarding a Russia-backed online influence campaign that it said promoted the election of Georgescu. The information has been seen by the court but has not been made public. Georgescu had campaigned for Romania to cease military aid to Ukraine and to stop Ukrainian grain passing through his country’s territory.
Alleged Russian interference in Romania’s elections followed similar claims of Russian interference in Moldova’s presidential elections earlier this year. In that case the Kremlin was accused of supporting vote-buying efforts and a propaganda campaign to defeat a referendum on accession to the European Union and the re-election of President Maia Sandu.
On December 6, Romania’s Constitutional Court assessed the material provided by CSAT and decided to cancel the original ballot on security grounds.
It ordered a rerun of the entire election process, which is now unlikely to take place before March as Romania must first form a new government in the wake of its parliamentary elections that took place on December 1.
On the day of the court’s ruling to annul the presidential election, Miller issued a statement supporting the decision.
“The United States reaffirms our confidence in Romania’s democratic institutions and processes, including investigations into foreign malign influence.”
He wrote: “We call on all parties to uphold Romania’s Constitutional [Court] order and engage in a peaceful democratic process free from threats of violence and intimidation and which reflects the Romanian people’s democratic will.”
President Biden’s term of office ends on January 20 when he will be replaced by President-elect Donald Trump, who has signalled that he will change US policy regarding the conflict in Ukraine.
In Romania, a government made up of the present coalition parties, the Socialists and Liberals, together with the centre-right is set to be formed by the end of 2024.
That administration will have to administer the re-run of the presidential election process, including the registration of candidates.
Integration and respect for the host country providing protection looks different: In Upper Austria, a refugee refused to attend the compulsory German language course at the Wifi education centre in Steyr because the course was taught by a female teacher. This unbelievable incident was reported by the Upper Austrian ÖVP integration councillor Christian Dörfel to the ‘Kronen Zeitung’ newspaper. ‘Anyone who rejects our way of life, questions our social achievements such as equal rights for men and women or wants to place religion above state law has no place here,’ Dörfel angrily told the newspaper “Krone”. But it gets worse: the politician also reported that in some organisations, female German teachers have been replaced by male trainers in order to comply with the not-so-rare refusal of refugees to be taught by a woman. Dörfel would now like to put a stop to this. German courses are also about establishing respect for female authority. German courses should not only teach High German, but also dialect. The state councillor plans to bring people who are willing to integrate and migrants who have integrated well in front of the public and use their success stories to motivate other immigrants.
State Criminal Police Office in the Tempelhof district of Berlin.Wikimedia Commons, A.Savin, Wikipedia,CC-BY-SA-3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0
A group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators broke into the State Criminal Police Office in the Tempelhof district of Berlin on Saturday. They shouted slogans glorifying terrorism, some of which are forbidden. Symbols of the Islamist organisation Hamas were also painted or sprayed on the front door of the building, as reported by the authorities.
Around 50 people are said to have been outside the building at around 9 pm. According to the police, the plan was to pick up a woman who had been released from preventive custody. During the release, the group then entered the anteroom of the building and shouted a banned slogan – the same slogan for which the woman had previously been arrested.
Police officers forced the group out of the vestibule again. At the entrance to the building, they discovered ‘smearings of colour’ – the troublemakers had painted the so-called red Hamas triangle on the entrance door. In the Islamist group’s propaganda videos, targets are marked with this symbol.
A task force was alerted and was able to detain a total of 19 people from the group and record their personal details. State security is now investigating them for using unconstitutional and terrorist organisations. The police, on the other hand, are investigating trespassing.
This is not the first incident in which pro-Palestinian or Islamist actors have attacked representatives of the state. Since the renewed outbreak of the Israel-Palestine conflict following the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, there have been several attacks on police officers, state buildings and universities in Germany. In September, a supporter of the Islamist terrorist group ‘Islamic State’ attacked a police station in Koblenz with a machete. He then shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’. Police officers have also been repeatedly attacked at pro-Palestine demonstrations. Most recently, on the first anniversary of October 7,stones were thrown and officers were physically attacked. Pyrotechnics were also thrown at police officers.
During the summer, several universities were occupied and smeared. Both the Free University of Berlin and Humboldt University were the target of several attacks.
