Author: fredalanmedforth

‘We must not hesitate’ – German justice minister open to AfD ban

Wikimedia Commons, Alternative for Germany, PD textlogo

Federal Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig, of the left-wing Social Democrats (SPD), is keeping the hope for a ban on the Alternative for Germany (AfD) alive, saying a ban should still be on the table.

She told German newspaper Rheinische Post a ban should not be “dismissed for political reasons alone.” She also brushed away concerns that the AfD could “once again portray itself as a victim” if ban proceedings are initiated.

Most of the main German parties have advocated for an AfD ban, including many top politicians from the SPD. However, a vote must first pass in the German parliament, the Bundestag, and then be approved by the Bundesrat, which is represented by the 16 German states. From there, it would need to go to the top German court, the Constitutional Court, which could still reject such a ban as unconstitutional — a risk many opposed to a ban have cited for not moving forward with such a proposal.

Hubig acknowledges that the legal hurdles remain high. A ban of the largest opposition party in the country, and one that has reached first place in some polls, would potentially end German democracy, but this is not deterring many from the German political establishment.

Hubig said that it must be examined whether the AfD “is systematically and actively opposing the free democratic order, and whether this can be proven.” She said that if such a finding is determined, the government is obligated to take action.

“Then we must not hesitate,” she said, saying that the Basic Law, the German constitution, is her “compass.”

She also claimed in the same interview that legal action against the AfD should not replace political debate.

“Because many people who vote for this party are not right-wing extremists. As democratic parties, we want to regain their trust,” she claimed, although, her openness to a ban appears to contradict this view.

Even if a ban is voted on, it would likely still take years for the case to be decided by the Constitutional Court. Perhaps even more important is that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has rejected such a ban, and without his Christian Democrats (CDU), there is no chance for such a ban at the moment.

Merz not only ruled out a ban, but he used extraordinarily harsh language against the measure despite earlier rumors that he was receptive to such a ban.

“Working ‘aggressively and militantly’ against the free democratic basic order must be proven. And the burden of proof lies solely with the state. That is a classic task of the executive branch. And I have always internally resisted initiating ban proceedings from within the Bundestag. That smacks too much of political competition elimination to me,” he warned.

For now, Merz holds most of the power in regard to an AfD ban, although his new coalition partners, the SPD, have hinted they would not accept a coalition agreement if a move towards a ban is not initiated. It remains unclear how far the SPD will go to get what they want regarding the AfD.

rmx.news/

Retired UK Constable Detained for Social Media Post Receives Financial Compensation for Wrongful Imprisonment

Julian Foulkes: ‘This was never about money’.

Under leftist Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the United Kingdom is sinking ever deeper in the censorship quagmire, signaling an authoritarian future where free-speech will be completely criminalized.

But that is not to say there has been no pushback from the British society.

Now, a retired police constable has been awarded some measure of justice in the form of compensation of £20,000 [US$ 27,000] after a wrongful arrest over one social media post in which he warned about rising anti-Semitism.

The Telegraph reported:

“Julian Foulkes, from Gillingham, Kent, was handcuffed at his home by six officers after replying to a pro-Palestinian activist on X. Kent Police officers searched his home and commented on his ‘very Brexity’ book collection. The force detained the 71-year-old for eight hours, interrogated and issued him with a caution after officers visited his home on Nov 2 2023.”

Back in May, Kent Police admitted that the caution was a mistake and deleted it from Foulkes’s record.

Kent’s chief constable Tim Smith phoned Foulkes personally and offered an apology for the ‘ordeal’.

A letter sent to Foulkes’ lawyers confirmed the Police force agrees to a settlement, after Foulkes launched a legal challenge supported by the Free Speech Union (FSU) for wrongful arrest and detention.

“The letter, sent by a lawyer for the force, read: ‘I am instructed to accept the offer of early resolution without recourse to litigation by payment of compensation in the sum of £20,000 plus your client’s reasonable legal fees in full and final settlement of all prospective claims arising from his arrest on Nov 2 2023’.”

Foulkes is pleased that Kent Police followed their apology with compensation.

“’However, this was never about money’, he said. ‘For me, it was a simple matter of right and wrong and I now need to see that the full investigation I have been promised takes place and necessary actions are taken to prevent any recurrence’.”

On Friday (May 30), Kent Police took the unusual step of referring itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

“Mr. Foulkes’s X post replied to an activist threatening to sue Suella Braverman, the home secretary at the time, for calling pro-Palestinian demonstrations in London ‘hate marches’. In the post, sent two days before police visited his home, Mr Foulkes wrote: ‘One step away from storming Heathrow looking for Jewish arrivals…’”

What Foulkes’s was referring to were the news reports of ‘an anti-Semitic mob’ storming an airport in Dagestan, Russia, ‘looking for Jewish passengers’.

Bryn Harris, chief legal counsel for the FSU:

“’The [FSU] is pleased to see that Kent Police has done the right thing and apologized to Julian, with due compensation. This is, however, merely the end of the beginning – we now need to see a full and credible investigation into the outrageous violations of Julian’s basic freedoms’.”

thegatewaypundit

Champions League: PSG Wins, France Loses

Screengrab youtube Tousi TV

Paris Saint-Germain’s victory over Inter Milan in the Champions League final on the night of Saturday, May 31st, led to scenes of unprecedented violence in the French capital—a far cry from the festive atmosphere promised by a few blissful souls who still believe that football brings people together and unites them. 

The atmosphere was like a dress rehearsal for a civil war. The authorities’ impotence and blindness can only be cause for concern in the face of the chaos that is coming, patiently organised over the last 50 years through mass immigration and a lenient justice system.

In Paris, tensions rose gradually as PSG’s score against Inter Milan climbed. 5-0: a resounding victory, but for whom?

In a matter of moments, the streets of Paris were engulfed in violence.

This came as no surprise. Several hours earlier, shopkeepers in the city centre and at several locations in the capital—primarily the Champs-Élysées—had barricaded themselves in. In the afternoon, the metro was shut and transport was not guaranteed ‘for security reasons.’ A strange and disturbing atmosphere reigned in the city. It was a new kind of Battle of Britain, since, jokes aside, if we are to believe the analysis of former interior minister Gérald Darmanin during the previous Champions League final, the troublemakers may have been “English supporters.”

Is it normal to draw the curtains, to set up roadblocks, fences, and security perimeters for a football match? No, of course not. But the French seem to have become accustomed to another form of normality. 

In fact, as during the Liverpool-Madrid match of grim memory, hordes of ‘barbarians,’ in the words of interior minister Bruno Retailleau, descended on the city. These ‘barbarians’ were of North African and African origin, as was clearly shown in the videos that flooded social media. But these barbarians were almost all French nationals.

Replacement is not a myth. The massive settlement of these populations on French soil is a reality that clashes head-on with the authorities’ irenic discourse on ‘living together’. On Saturday evening, Paris was the scene of raids by individuals who have only a very distant connection with the city of Robert Doisneau and Edith Piaf. Victory for Paris, but which Paris are we talking about? On Saturday evening, the Champs-Élysées smelled like hell, and the new Children of Paradise, to paraphrase Marcel Carné’s masterpiece of Parisian cinema (Les Enfants du Paradis), had faces full of hatred and destruction. We saw thousands of gangs who were there to destroy and loot, and who did so with complete impunity because they knew they risked absolutely nothing. 

The mainstream press coverage of the events bears no resemblance to what actually happened on the ground. Fortunately, social media, and first and foremost the X platform, are playing their role in providing real information during such events: mortar fire; roofs on fire; the ring road blocked by wild, hairy people shouting and harassing cars; shops destroyed and looted; cars burned—this is what Parisians saw and heard on Saturday evening. In my own apartment, you could even smell the gunpowder as smoke came through the closed windows. 

In such a chaotic environment, the fact that there was a so-called right-wing interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, who has been trying hard for several months to make his mark with pseudo-tough talk, did absolutely nothing to change the situation. The police and judicial system are rotten to the core. Numerous law enforcement officers took to social media to point out how nothing was done to anticipate such an outbreak of violence. The Macronist authorities were much more zealous when it came to controlling the yellow vest protests. Above all, the police are paralysed in their actions by instructions from above that kill any possibility of real law enforcement: no deaths, no injuries, avoid blunders at all costs—and leave the field to the rioters. The police were therefore completely overwhelmed. As Baudoin Wisselman, from our colleagues at Frontières magazine, sums it up, “What is happening is no longer law enforcement, it is urban counter-guerrilla warfare.”

The result: two deaths and nearly 700 fires. Yet Emmanuel Macron chose this moment to express his “pride” with street slang—“champion, brother!” One wonders what exactly he is proud of.

This ‘Saturday night fever’ will be remembered for a few terribly symbolic images.

The statue of Joan of Arc, swarmed by half-naked men who climbed and bellowed atop her—oblivious not only to who she was, but to the very meaning of the word respect.

At the end of the match, a scandalous moment, when MMA star Khabib Nurmagomedov, who had rejoiced at the beheading of Samuel Paty, refused to shake hands with the CBS Sports presenter—a woman, of course—forcing her to apologise.

Finally, a photo of Dembelé, one of the PSG players, standing in front of the cup with his veiled wife.

Paris Saint-Germain has long since ceased to have any connection with Paris or Saint-Germain. It is a club owned by Qatar, which is there to defend its own interests. The football ‘celebration’ was an opportunity for all the Hamas supporters who were there to cheer on the players from the Maghreb and Africa to promote militant Islam. “Fuck Israel” could be heard chanted by supporters around the Parc des Princes, while in the evening, Palestinian flags flew alongside Algerian colours. Congolese player Désiré Doué may have thanked Christ for his victory, but he was very much alone.

As the left-wing newspaper Libération headlined the day after the club’s victory, Qatar is “getting closer to its goal.” Paris and France, on the other hand, continue to lose.

europeanconservative

Girl athletes praised after refusing to take podium next to transgender opponent

Two high school track and field athletes in Oregon refused to stand on the medal podium alongside a transgender athlete X

Two high school track and field athletes in Oregon have refused to stand on the medal podium alongside a transgender competitor at the state championship on Saturday night.

Reese Eckard of Sherwood High School and Alexa Anderson of Tigard High School stepped down from their respective positions during the high jump medal ceremony.

The incident has sparked considerable praise on social media, with the pair being lauded by prominent conservative activist Riley Gaines amongst others.

Both athletes finished ahead of the transgender competitor from Ida B. Wells High School, with Anderson placing third and Eckard fourth, whilst the transgender athlete tied for fifth place.

There have been several protests from girl athletes against transgenders in recent times X

The symbolic protest represents part of a growing trend of female athletes making similar gestures against transgender inclusion in women’s sports.

Footage obtained by Fox News Digital captured the two high school seniors stepping down from the podium next to the transgender athlete who represented Ida B. Wells High School.

The two females faced the opposite direction as other competitors received their medals from officials.

An official was then seen confronting the young women and gesturing for them to move away.

Eckard and Anderson subsequently walked away from the podium and stood off to the side.

The transgender athlete had previously competed in the boys’ category in 2023 and 2024, according to Fox News Digital’s earlier reporting.

Anderson later provided a statement explaining their actions: “We didn’t refuse to stand on the podium out of hate. We did it because someone has to say this isn’t right. In order to protect the integrity and fairness of girls sports we must stand up for what is right.”

On social media site X, the response was largely one of praise from people commenting as one person responded: “Not all heroes wear capes. Good for them! Shame on the adult who pushed them off to the sidelines.”

Another wrote: “Absolute nonsense! Good for you girls!”

And a third said: “Great job Ladies way to make the brave choice!”

On 17th May at a California track and field sectional final, Reese Hogan of Crean Lutheran High School stepped from the second-place spot onto the first-place medal podium after her transgender opponent, AB Hernandez, stepped down from it.

Hogan’s action was similarly praised on social media by Gaines and others.

Earlier, on 2nd April, footage of women’s fencer Stephanie Turner kneeling to protest a transgender opponent at a competition in Maryland went viral after she was subsequently punished for her actions.

The Maryland incident ignited global awareness and scrutiny against USA Fencing.

Oregon joined several other Democratic-controlled states that saw transgender athletes compete in girls’ track and field championships over the weekend, with highly-publicised incidents also occurring in California, Washington, Maine and Minnesota.

Federal authorities have launched multiple investigations targeting states that permit transgender participation in women’s sports.

The America First Policy Institute filed a Title IX discrimination complaint against Oregon on 27th May, alleging violations of federal law for allowing biological males to compete in girls’ sports.

The complaint was submitted to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, which has already initiated Title IX investigations against high school sports leagues in California, Minnesota, Maine and Massachusetts.

Jessica Hart Steinmann, AFPI’s executive general counsel, stated: “Every girl deserves a fair shot – on the field, on the podium, and in life.”

President Trump signed the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order on 5th February, making opposition to transgender athletes in girls’ sports an administration priority. The Department of Justice has launched a lawsuit against Maine for defying Trump’s executive order, whilst the president suggested federal funding pauses could target California.

gbnews

The fight is on: former boxer Nawrocki wins Polish presidential election

Photo: Silar / wikimedia commons (CC BY SA 4.0)

Opposition Conservative candidate Karol Nawrocki has won the Polish presidential election, beating Rafał Trzaskowski, the candidate of the ruling centre-left coalition led by Polish prime minister Donald Tusk.

Polling station results state Nawrocki won 50.9  percent of the vote against 49.1 percent for Trzaskowski.  

Earlier exit polls had given Trzaskowski a wafer thin lead of 50.2 to 50.3 percent, but  pollsters warned that the margin of error was one percent: an estimate which turned out to be prophetic. 

Karol Nawrocki is a 42 year old historian who currently serves as head of Poland’s National Institute of Remembrance, the state body investigating and documenting German Nazi and communist era crimes.

A relative political novice, he was a former amateur heavyweight boxing regional champion. Hailing from, Gdańsk, Nawrocki comes from a working class background and has admitted to having been involved in skirmishes between football supporters in his youth. 

Throughout the election campaign he was dogged by attempted smears. It was claimed he had acquired a municipal apartment from a senior citizen offering care but had allegedly failed to fully honour his side of the bargain. There were separate claims, which he denied, that he had connections to the underworld. Prime minister Donald Tusk in a televised interview on May 26 accused Nawrocki of pimping in a Gdansk hotel for which the PiS president-elect was a security guard. Nawrocki has denied the allegation and is in the process of suing liberal leaning German-Swiss owned portal Onet for publishing the claim. 

Having fought such a bitter campaign to stop Nawrocki, cohabitation between PM Tusk and the new president will be challenging. 

The Polish PM will now find it hard to force through his legislative agenda on judicial reform, the liberalisation of abortion legislation and the introduction of civil partnerships for same sex couples. 

Tusk’s immediate challenge will be to hold his governing coalition together as it is likely to come under pressure from both PiS and the right-wing Confederation party, who are likely to argue that they rather than Tusk have a mandate to lead the country. 

During the campaign, Nawrocki promised he would oppose Ukrainian membership of NATO and any presence of Polish troops in Ukraine. He is also an opponent of any further  EU integration as well as the EU’s Green Deal and Migration Pact. 

Nawrocki in early May met US president Donald Trump and received the backing of the US administration for his pro-US stance. 

The PiS’s president elect, after taking his oath of office in the Polish parliament, will in early August replace the current PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda, who is finishing his second and final five-year term. 

As president, Nawrocki will head the armed forces, and will enjoy the right to veto legislation and appoint judges.  

The election result can still be challenged in the Supervisory Chamber of Poland’s Supreme Court, a body Tusk’s government claims is illegitimate as a result of European Court of Justice rulings against the last PiS government’s judicial reforms.  

brusselssignal

BREAKING: A third exit poll from Ipsos covering 90 per cent of voting areas has projected conservative PiS candidate Karol Nawrocki to secure 51 per cent

Screengrab youtube

A third exit poll from Ipsos covering 90 per cent of voting areas has projected conservative PiS candidate Karol Nawrocki to secure 51 per cent, topping liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski at 49 per cent, with a margin of error of 0.5 per cent for both candidates.

breitbart

BREAKING: Conservative Nawrocki Takes Slight Lead in ‘Late’ Polish Presidential Elections Exit Poll

Screengrab youtube

A “late” exit poll has seen the projected results flip, although the race is still too close to call. The Ipsos exit poll conducted for broadcaster TVN projected that PiS conservative candidate Karol Nawrocki won 50.7 per cent of the vote, compared to 49.3 per cent for his liberal Civic Platform rival Rafał Trzaskowski. This reversed the initial exit poll, which gave Trzaskowski a 0.6 per cent lead.

breitbart

Polish presidential election cliffhanger: exit polls within margin of error

Screengrab youtube

Rafał Trzaskowski, from prime minister Donald Tusk’s centre-left coalition, has a wafer-thin lead over Karol Nawrocki from the opposition Conservatives (PiS), according to exit polls at the close of polling on June 1.

One exit poll gave Trzaskowski 50.3 per cent of the vote, against 49.7 percent for Nawrocki. The other indicated an even closer race, with Trzaskowski on 50.2 percent and Nawrocki on 49.8.

The result could change by the morning of June 2, when the votes are officially counted.

Both exit polls showing a narrow lead for Trzaskowski fell comfortably within the polls’ 1 per cent margin of error.

There was a record turnout for a presidential election in Poland: estimated at over 70 percent.

“We have won, but boy was it close”, Trzaskowski told his supporters, speaking after the exit polls were announced.

Far from conceding, however, Nawrocki told his own PiS supporters “as the night wore on it will become clear that we have won”.

It was important “Donald Tusk is not given total power and that the muckraking campaign launched by the government proves unsuccessful,” he added.

In the first round of the election on May 18, Trzaskowski received 31.4 per cent, narrowly ahead of Nawrocki with 29.5 per cent. 

It marked a bad night for the ruling Tusk coalition, with candidates from parties supporting the government altogether polling just 41 per cent.  Opposition candidates on the Right of the political spectrum received a much higher total, with 53 per cent of votes. 

During a hectic fortnight between the election’s two rounds, both candidates worked to attract supporters of the candidates who were eliminated after the first round.

A prime target were the 15 percent of voters who backed third-place Sławomir Mentzen, from the right-wing Confederation party. 

If the final result the morning of June 2 is quite as close as exit polls predict, the election’s ultimate outcome is likely to move on to the judiciary.

The loser in the count is likely to argue foreign interference affected the election result.

Closer to home, there have also been allegations of Polish security services involvement in the election.

A final controversy is the Tusk government’s refusal of public funding to the PiS, despite a court order to release the state funding.

Any petition to declare the election null and void will need to be considered by the Supreme Court’s Supervisory Chamber.

Muddling the waters still further, the Tusk government has challenged that chamber’s legitimacy.

According to Tusk’s coalition, the Supervisory Chamber is composed of judges who were either appointed or promoted between 2015 and 2023–during the last PiS government.

brusselssignal

Christian churches under siege, from outside and within

Screengrab youtube

By Eric Utter

Christian churches have been under attack in recent years.

Many have burned or been vandalized. Many more, particularly in Europe, have closed due to lack of attendance, which is itself due to secularization on the one hand and demographic change on the other. Some have been converted into mosques.

And some Christian churches appear to have been taken over by those who disdain Christianity.

Germany’s Paderborn Cathedral of Westphalia may be one of those, if a recent ‘performance’ it hosted is any guide.

Paderborner Dom. Arne Hückelheim, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The cathedral, long one of Germany’s most prominent and sacred, hosted a show during which three shirtless male dancers swung, threw, and ‘walked’ raw, headless chicken carcasses stuffed into diapers around the chancel as if they were little children.

That is bizarre and disturbing enough in and of itself, but they did this while singing “Meat is Meat” (a play on the Austrian pop song “Live is Life”).

The ’show’ was part of a commemoration of the 1,250th anniversary of the Westphalia region, and was attended by Germany’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, other German officials, and Archbishop Udo Markus Bentz.

Many folks consider the ‘performance’ to be a mockery of the Eucharist, the Body of Christ — and a “desecration” of the sacred cathedral.

One such person is Maria Wirth, a Hindu herself, who subsequently stated that Christianity is “under attack, and maybe undermined from the top.”

Wirth took to ‘X’ to write, “It was not a ‘misjudgment’ as claimed. It was in all likelihood deliberate desecration. The debasement of humanity is in full swing. Who is behind it? What is the purpose? Can it be stopped and turned around?”

The jury is out on that question, Maria.

What is not in doubt is that this ‘performance’ was an attempt at utterly desecrating the sanctity of life, of Christianity, and of God Himself.

“Live is life” morphed to “meat is meat?” I can’t imagine anything more disgusting. Dead, decapitated chickens, bloody steaks, newborn infants in diapers or swaddling clothes … they’re all the same, right? Just meat?

The only further comment necessary is this one: God help us. Please.

americanthinker

UK: NHS hospital trust suggests trans staff should receive extra breaks to deal with chest binders and ‘tucking’

leicspart.nhs.ukl

An NHS hospital trust drafted guidance proposing extra breaks for transgender staff who wear chest binders or tuck their genitals, but has since dropped the proposals following criticism and the Supreme Court ruling on biological sex.

University Hospitals Sussex NHS Trust (UH Sussex) had drawn up draft guidance that said trans colleagues “may require extra scheduled breaks in their shift in order to have breaks from binding and tucking”.

The 15-page document, written by employees in the trust’s LGBTQ+ staff network last year, was sent to other groups for consultation.

However, the trust confirmed the proposals were put on hold in February and would not be pursued following the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Equality Act referred to biological women and biological sex.

Chest binding involves women wearing clothing to compress their breasts to appear more masculine, whilst tucking requires pushing male genitalia between the legs to create a more feminine appearance.

The proposed policy also included provisions for women-only spaces to accommodate trans women.

It advised staff to understand the impact of cross-sex hormones on transgender colleagues and their mood fluctuations.

The document suggested that testosterone could cause lower energy levels and mood changes towards the end of medication cycles, while feminising hormones might similarly affect mood and energy levels during dosage adjustments.

Dr Alice Hodkinson, a co-founder of Biology in Medicine, said people binding or tucking were “risking medical and psychological harm”.

She explained that tucking male genitals “between the buttocks can cause pain, inflammation, fertility problems and testicular torsion”, while “binding can cause chest and spine deformities, cysts, infections and difficulties breathing”.

Dr Hodkinson warned that testicular torsion “is a surgical emergency requiring an immediate operation to preserve fertility and sexual function”.

One former employee at the trust said: “If we’re going to make allowances for people who have to use the toilets to change and do this, that and the other, should we not be making allowances for women with heavy periods, or people who have to pray three times a day?

“Why are we making allowances for one group of staff over everyone else?”

Helen Joyce, director of advocacy at Sex Matters, described the proposals as “disgraceful coming from a healthcare body”.

She said the guidance for “employees who are self-harming in pursuit of the impossible goal of sex change should never have made it onto paper, even as a draft”.

A spokesman for UH Sussex said: “This draft paper is not trust policy or guidance, it never has been, and never will be.

“A colleague submitted it to a manager in February for consideration, but it was not accepted.”

gbnews