Spain is following trends seen across the Western world, which involve young rudderless people increasingly shunned from the job market, especially if they are natives, and jobs increasingly going to foreigners.
The data from Spain shows the extreme trend line, where of all the jobs created between 2019 to 2024, 71.4 percent of them went to foreigners, according to a study by the Foundation for Applied Economic Studies (Fedea).
“We are importing waiters and bricklayers while exporting doctors and engineers, which is a tragedy because we have spent a fortune training them, and they represent the great talent on which the country’s growth and the concentration of high-value-added companies depend,” said Jesús Vega, former Director of Human Resources at Inditex and Banco Santander, in an interview with El Debate.
He argued that Spain’s labor policies “are driving away those salaries that truly contribute to the country.”
Now, foreigners account for 20.7 percent of all workers in the country, with these workers flowing into the construction, hospitality, and elementary occupations, along with technical positions, although to a lesser extent. These are generally considered low-skill positions, which the experts behind the study said is tied to the fact that foreigners coming into Spain generally have lower education levels than Spanish natives.
During that time period, the study notes that there has been an increase of nearly 2 million workers and a decrease in unemployment of 438,000 people. However, nearly all of those jobs went to people over the age of 50, amounting to 74.7 percent. Meanwhile, 634,000 jobs were lost over five years for those in the 30 to 44 age group.
Within the age group of 45-49, there has been only a 70,000 increase in jobs.
Spain, which has already struggled for decades with youth unemployment, is only getting worse in this regard. Now, the number of workers over 50 rose by five points, to 35 percent in the last five years.
What the experts behind the study argue is that while foreigners are increasingly taking jobs, along with older workers, young workers are increasingly dropping out of the labor force. Some of these young workers may also simply be moving away from Spain entirely, which the data appears to support.
Migration outflow data from the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INE) shows that in the first half of 2022, 220,443 people left the country, the highest figure since 2013. That year was at a high point of the country’s financial crisis, which saw unemployment at 25 percent. The data also shows that the age group that left in 2022 at the highest rate was the 25 to 39 group.
These same trends are being seen across the West, with low-skilled migrants flooding countries and driving down wages. In many cases, this influx of foreigners also leads to soaring housing prices, which in turn leaves native-born young people unable to purchase a home. In countries like the U.S., and Canada, the trend has been especially extreme, with millions of jobs flowing to foreigners at the expense of native-born Americans. Corporations have also actively discriminated against White males through DEI programs, exacerbating the trend.
Big Business has traditionally seen mass immigration as a positive, as it drives down wages, creates competition for jobs, and also lowers the chances of labor unions forming due to differences between culture, religion and ethnicity amongst workers.
Hagen sinks the treasure of the Nibelungs in the Rhine. (Bronze sculpture by Johannes Hirt, 1905). Location: Worms, banks of the Rhine. Wikimedia Commons, EPei (Diskussion), CC-BY-SA-3.0-DE
In the opera Das Rheingold by Richard Wagner, the Rhine Gold is a magical treasure guarded by the Rhine Maidens (Rheinmädchen). This gold can be forged into a ring that gives its holder unlimited power. By arrogating to himself the power to put Germany into debt in a way that no chancellor has done since 1945, Friedrich Merz, the likely next chancellor, will be taking on an unrivalled power: that of dominating Europe.
Germany has just announced the creation of a special “infrastructure fund” (Sondervermögen) of €500 billion ($545 billion) to be spent over a maximum of 12 years, and €40 billion in additional military spending per year, bringing the annual German defense budget up to 3%. The infrastructure fund, which will not be subject to the strict constitutional rules limiting government budget deficits and debt, is intended to meet urgent needs, overriding the budgetary constraints imposed by the “debt brake” (Schuldenbremse) enshrined in 2009 by then Chancellor Angela Merkel in the constitution.
The main reason given is the need to rearm Germany in the face of Russia’s war economy and its 1.2 million mobilized soldiers. In concrete terms, German public debt will rise from 60% of GDP to at least 80%.
Military
Faced with a potential US disengagement from Europe — which remains to be seen — and growing geopolitical tensions (notably with Russia and the war in Ukraine), Merz is insisting on the need for Germany and Europe to strengthen their defense capabilities. He has declared that a “whatever it takes” approach must be applied to defense, and underlined the urgent need to act before the new Bundestag (lower house of parliament) is constituted on March 25, 2025.
Amending the constitution requires a two-thirds majority in the Bundestag. However, when the new Bundestag resulting from the February elections is convened, the CDU/SPD/Green coalition will no longer have a two-thirds majority. For this reason, a constitutional amendment was passed by the Bundestag on March 18 in a move that was legal but hardly democratic, by using a lame-duck parliamentary majority to rush the decision before the newly elected majority is assembled. The amendment now awaits passage by the Bundesrat (upper house of parliament)
Merz’s CDU/SPD/Green coalition agreement provides for defense spending in excess of 1% of GDP to be exempt from the debt brake, thereby freeing up around €40 billion a year. Germany could thus reach 3% of GDP in military spending every year, in line with NATO’s ambitions — and the (completely justified) reminders from the US President Donald Trump.
This spending will finance the modernization of the German military — and related areas such as civil protection, the intelligence services and aid to Ukraine. German’s Bundeswehr could once again become Europe’s leading army.
Infrastructure
The constitutional amendment passed on March 18 by the Bundestagincludes the following article:
“The Federal Government may establish a special fund with its own borrowing authority for additional investments in infrastructure and for additional investments to achieve climate neutrality by 2045, with a volume of up to €500 billion. Additionality is deemed to exist if an appropriate investment quota is achieved in the federal budget in the respective fiscal year. Article 109, paragraph 3, and Article 115, paragraph 2, do not apply to the borrowing authority. Investments from the special fund can be approved within a term of twelve years. Transfers from the special fund to the Climate and Transformation Fund will be made in the amount of €100 billion. Further details are regulated by federal law.”
The most important word in this amendment is the fourth, “may”: the government gives itself the option of spending €500 billion, but it is not an obligation. The scope of this amendment is therefore to derogate from the rule on indebtedness, not to oblige the government to make any expenditure (which is important for the “Climate and Transformation Fund” part of these expenditures, more on that below).
Germany has unfortunately been suffering from chronic under-investment in its infrastructure (roads, bridges, railways, schools, communications networks), exacerbated by years of other budgetary preferences under Angela Merkel and Olaf Scholz. Merz apparently sees these investments as a lever for reviving an economy that has been in recession for two years — and he is probably right.
The special fund for infrastructure is endowed with €500 billion over 12 years (initially planned for 10 years, extended to satisfy the Greens). These funds will finance specific projects such as the upgrading and modernization of rail networks, school buildings and communications networks.
This expenditure will be strictly “additional” and will not be able to finance current expenditures.
The Green Amendment
To obtain the support of the environmentalist Green Party — essential for a two-thirds majority in the Bundestag — Merz had to include an environmental dimension in the fund. €100 billion — 20% of the fund — is dedicated to climate measures: the “energy transition,” environmental protection and decarbonization projects. Initially set at €50 billion, this sum was doubled after negotiations with the Greens. That concession made it possible to win them over.
Voices were immediately raised denouncing the inclusion of climate change in the constitution. These are legitimate concerns.
Germans generally take the law seriously, and the amendment to the constitution states that €100 billion will be devoted to climate objectives. This is certainly not a state objective or obligation. In fact, the German constitution defines state objectives: human dignity, democracy, the welfare state (Sozialstaat), rule of law (Rechtsstaat), as well as environmental protection. From this point of view, the amendment changes nothing, and focuses exclusively on that €100 billion to be spent on “climate and transformation.”
What is certain, however, is that the Merz program in no way calls into question the environmentalist ideology that has dominated German politics for the past 15 years. Yet this transition is precisely what has led to the ongoing destruction of German industry, with no measurable effect on the climate. Despite the hundreds of billions already spent by Germany on its energy transition, Germany still emits ten times more CO2 per unit of energy produced than nuclear-powered France.
Above all, the imperatives of the arms industry — think of Rheinmetall, whose share price has risen by 180% in the last six months — are radically irreconcilable with going “carbon-neutral.” Germany cannot destroy its industry and rebuild it at the same time.
By giving himself the right to spend an extra €500 billion over 12 years on infrastructure and climate change, and additional to that, spend “whatever it takes” for the German military — €40 billion more per year being the best available estimate — Merz is assuming considerable power, the likes of which no German chancellor has had since 1945.
As the allocation of these resources is formulated in broad and vague terms, the chancellor will have immense power in the allocation of funds. In addition, the German military will be financed to the tune of €120 billion per year, giving it the potential to become the strongest force in Europe — France spends roughly €55 billion a year. Here again, the power of Germany and its chancellor is growing considerably.
It certainly seems as if Das Rheingold is emerging from the deep.
Hungary passed a law on Tuesday banning an annual LGBT “pride” march in Budapest, citing the protection of children.
“Today, we voted to ban gatherings that violate child protection laws,” wrote Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, on X Tuesday. “In Hungary, a child’s right to healthy physical, mental, intellectual, and moral development comes first. We won’t let woke ideology endanger our kids.”
The law, submitted and passed by Orbán’s Fidesz party, makes it illegal to put on or attend events that violate the country’s 2021 Child Protection Act, which banned the “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality to minors.
The main event now outlawed in Hungary by this legislation is the annual, weeklong Budapest “pride” festival, which has previously drawn public protests. Attending any LGBT event banned under the law can now be punished with fines of up to 200,000 Hungarian forints ($546). These fines would reportedly be used to fund child protection.
Hungary’s Child Protection law prohibits the display or promotion of homosexuality through any means, including television, film, advertisements, and literature.
Members of the opposition party Momentum protested the legislation during Tuesday’s vote in the National Assembly Hall by setting off colored smoke flares and scattering obscene, doctored photos depicting Orbán and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Reuters.
Budapest “pride” festival organizers have defiantly declared they will hold their LGBT celebrations this year, despite a legal ban.
As prime minister of Hungary, Orbán has been a firm, active supporter of traditional family values. He declared to Parliament after being re-elected in 2022, “We shall protect our families, we shall not let gender activists into our schools, and in Hungary a father shall be a man, a mother a woman, and our children shall be left alone.”
European universities have just invented a new cause: welcoming researchers in distress who believe they have to flee Donald Trump’s United States. The allegation is that he has declared war on academic freedom, but the reality is less flattering. Limitations on what research receives funding do indeed exist on both sides of the Atlantic, and it is not certain that research exiles will benefit from the change.
It is a well-established talking point touted by the mainstream press: with his energetic takeover of the country in January, Donald Trump would like to kill freedom of research in the United States. Science would be in danger, and researchers would be in dire straits, the media claims. Fortunately, European universities are there to heroically take up the torch and welcome the refugees of science—now raised by the virtues of journalism to the rank of heirs of Einstein and Freud fleeing Nazism.
In Belgium, the University of Brussels, which is alarmed to see millions in funding disappear for ideological reasons in America, intends to raise funds to welcome researchers now ‘censored’ by the Trump administration.
In France, the University of Aix-Marseille in Provence has also loudly positioned itself to be the asylum for these castaways of knowledge. Some have contacted French laboratories and are coming to settle down to continue their work with greater peace of mind.
France info gave the floor to Andrea, an American researcher specialising in infectious diseases and epidemics, working on mother and child health in Africa. We learn that Andrea is joining the University of Aix-Marseille to escape Trumpist persecution. Has Andrea been fired? Has her research funding been withdrawn? Not at all. But you never know, she says.
“The main impact of Donald Trump’s policies on my work is that they have created a climate of total uncertainty and fear. And even though I still have a job, even though we are still receiving funds, there is no information on whether or not the subsidies will continue in the United States,” she explains.
“A climate of uncertainty and fear” is what would justify exile. You should know that the fears raised by the progressive Left are always good fears, which must be taken seriously. The Right, on the other hand, “plays on fears” in a totally cynical way. It’s not the same thing, is it?
Emmanuelle Hénin emphasises this in an interview with L’Incorrect, following the refusal of the Presses Universitaires de France to publish her collective work on wokism. While there is obviously a risk of collateral damage with the cancellation of useful research programmes in the budget cuts made by Trump, his administration is above all putting an end to an insane waste of public funds for programmes whose exclusive ideological militancy is well-established. We are not talking about prohibition; we are talking about funding. The question of the granting of public funding raises that of a hierarchy of values, which is in itself simply unbearable in the eyes of the Left. Is it a priority to grant funding to a thesis on “Going Flat: Challenging Gender, Stigma, and Cure through Lesbian Breast Cancer Experience” (University of South Florida)?
The rhetoric of the progressive Left is well-known. Fed by state money, the Left believes that any removal of public funding is tantamount to a ban on its subsidised activities. It is the same kind of discourse that we hear ad nauseam in cultural matters in France. When a region, such as the Pays-de-la Loire region, announced a few weeks ago that it wanted to reduce public spending on cultural and community programmes, the Left cried that culture was being murdered, that artists were being censored—when it is just a matter of pointing out that the public administration does not have to take charge of the entire field of human activity, and that it is up to the creators to work to convince private investors of the relevance of their approach.
For the moment, the University of Aix-Marseille claims to have received around thirty applications and says it can release €10–15 million to host around 15 American researchers with a budget of €600–800,000 per researcher over three years. But once the initial enthusiasm and the euphoria generated by the staging of the resistance have worn off, these American researchers will soon have to face the facts: the French university has no money to give them, and the salary scales of French researchers are a reflection of the rest of the country—derisory. It is not for nothing that, for decades, the elite of French research has been fleeing the country to find funds elsewhere, precisely on the other side of the Atlantic, to carry out their work. And if American researchers manage—as has been seen in the past—to negotiate some financial arrangements, we can be sure that in the medium term, the good old French Marxist-inspired unions will come to remind them of reality and ask them to show solidarity with their Gallic comrades—all while generating the necessary tensions within the teams. Anti-Trumpist benevolence certainly has its limits.
For the European reader who might be taken in by the journalistic rhetoric describing Trump’s United States in 2025 as an avatar of Germany under Goebbels’ Reichskulturkammer, we would like to remind you that academic freedom and freedom of research on this side of the Atlantic is, in many respects, a vast myth. If in the United States today, using ‘LGBTQI+’ in your research programme can result in your exclusion from a funding programme, in France today, conversely, it is in your best interest to choose the right words to present your research project and hope to be accepted in a laboratory—especially in the humanities. The author of these lines has personally paid the price. You will be advised to change your name to avoid coming across as too ‘vieille France.’ You will be suggested to link your project in one way or another to a ‘gender issue’, even if it has absolutely nothing to do with your core business. If, on the other hand, like Rachele Borghi, you define yourself as an “academic pornactivist” specialising in the links between space, gender, and sexuality, you can hope to obtain a position at the Sorbonne. These methods are not respectable, and do not demonstrate a greater degree of freedom than would exist in the United States.
Hamburg’s Theodor-Haubach-Schule in the Altona-Nord district publishes a school calendar on its website that only lists Islamic holidays in addition to school events. The school, which is committed to ‘diversity’, caused a stir back in 2022 because the school management advised parents to avoid discriminatory and gender-specific fancy dress costumes.
The Hamburg primary school links to an online school calendar on its website entitled ‘THS events’, in which all school events are listed. The calendar also lists all Islamic holidays, such as the end of Ramadan on 30 March and the breaking of the fast on 31 March. The Islamic festival of sacrifice from 4 June to 9 June, which includes a ritual slaughter, is also listed in the calendar.
While the primary school attaches particular importance to recording the main Islamic holidays in the school calendar, there is no mention of Christian holidays in the calendar. The main holidays of Christmas and Easter are not included in the calendar. The dates of Ascension Day in May and Whitsun at the beginning of June are also completely missing from the calendar.
The Theodor-Haubach-Schule caused a stir in the media back in 2022. At the time, the primary school had sent a letter to parents during carnival demanding that the children should not wear discriminatory costumes. Bild reported on this. In 2021, parents are said to have suggested dealing with carnival costumes.
The school also wrote such a letter this year, in which the school asked parents to make sure that the costumes avoid ‘exaggeration of numerous ethnicities’ and ‘gender-specific role attributions’. Instead, the children could ‘creatively’ dress up as a profession or a plant.
A former queer activist from Norway sentenced to life in prison for launching an extreme body modification website dedicated to streaming “grisly and gruesome” footage of castrations and limb amputations has appealed the length of his sentence. Marius Gustavson, known as the ‘Eunuch Maker’ of London, along with five of his main accomplices, told the Old Bailey that their sentences should be reduced on the basis that their victims had consented to undergo grievous bodily harm.
Gustavson was the ringleader of a “grisly and gruesome” criminal enterprise that sold footage of men being castrated and mutilated as pornographic content. The Eunuch Maker site, which operated on a pay-per-view subscription basis, had amassed over 22,000 registered users and brought in nearly £300,000 before it was shut down by authorities.
Police officers who arrested Gustavson in 2022 discovered the man’s own severed penis kept in a drawer at his home in Haringey, north London, a full four years after he’d had his appendage amputated. During court proceedings, it was further revealed that Gustavson had cooked the testicles of one of his victims, which he ate in a salad.
Marius Gustavson, leader of an international castration pornography ring. Photo: Met Police
On February 27, Gustavson and four of his accomplices appealed their sentences. The verdict is expected next month.
Apart from Gustavson, the four other men involved had received jail terms ranging from 3 years to 12 years for their role in the plot, and have similarly filed an appeal for a reduction in their sentences. The men are named as Jacob Crimi-Appleby, David Carruthers, Ashley Williams, and Damien Brynes.
Byrnes, 37, from north London, was handed a five-year sentence for removing Gustavson’s penis with a kitchen knife on video at his home in February 2017. Crimi-Appleby, 24, a former nurse from Epsom in Surrey, was jailed for three years and eight months for using his access to medical supplies in order to freeze Gustavson’s leg, leading to the need for it to be amputated in February 2019. Carruthers, 62, and Williams, 33, of Newport, Gwent, were jailed for 11 years and four years, six months respectively.
Of the six other men who have previously appeared in court and admitted their roles in the body modification fetish group, the majority were involved in the medical profession. Among them were Peter Wates, a retired former member of the Royal Society of Chemists, and Janus Atkin, who was training to become a veterinarian.
In addition to Crimi-Appleby and Brynes, Nathaniel Arnold, 47, was also a former nurse and had assisted Gustavson with removing some of his own body parts. Arnold, who has not joined the appeal, facilitated the partial removal of one of Gustavson’s nipples. Arnold also admitted stealing lidocaine while working as nurse at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital between January 2016 and January 2022, and possession of extreme pornographic images.
Brynes, Arnold, and Crimi-Appleby have all admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent. Shockingly, a video presented in court showed Byrnes cutting off Gustavson’s penis with a kitchen knife, while joking, “Well, that’s one off the bucket list.”
Barristers for the men argue that the sentencing guidelines used to determine how long they should be jailed for did not adequately account for the fact that the men they butchered had consented to the illicit medical procedures.
UK: A "gender diversity" activist has been sentenced to life in prison for performing castration surgeries in his home and streaming the footage as pornography.
Marius Gustavson, the "Eunuch Maker," was also convicted of creating child abuse material.https://t.co/C7i8BhbjR8
Representing Gustavson, Julia Smart KC told the Old Bailey court in London: “That is our primary submission, that the sentencing guidelines are not designed to deal with this situation.”
Yet prosecutor Caroline Carberry KC argued, “We really can’t lose sight of what is part of this unprecedented offending. It is a business described by one of the victims as a ‘cult’, or something that became a cult… It was busy and profitable in the niche and wholly unlawful process of extreme body modifications by way of unsafe backstreet surgeries performed by unqualified individuals.”
Reduxx has spoken with one of Gustavson’s victims, who has chosen to remain anonymous. He explained that Gustavson had employed methods of psychological manipulation, including a hierarchical rewards system that “made it feel like a game.”
Men who had undergone a verified genital mutilation – whether removal of testicles, penis, or both – or limb amputation were awarded a profile badge that increased their status, and thus their respect, within the online community.
Separately, Gustavson also pleaded guilty to making and distributing two indecent videos of a child between January 2017 and January 2020. The anonymous source involved in the court case recalled the “wave of revulsion” he felt after an officer told him that among the sadomasochistic pornography found on Gustavson’s devices, there were also depictions of child sexual abuse.
Still from a surgical pornography video created by Gustavson and his team which depicts graphic genital mutilation.
As previously reported by Reduxx, the anonymous man who came forward presented a horrifying victim impact statement to the Old Bailey, wherein he described being strapped down and administered testosterone blockers by Gustavson. The hormone inhibitors, he said, had the effect of altering his brain chemistry in a manner which made him “more pliable to manipulation” in the period leading up to the surgical sexual abuse.
“When I hear that people consented to these procedures I wonder what definition of consent they are going with, because I sure as hell did not consent to what happened to me that drug-fueled night,” the victim said. “I would never have volunteered for castration by burdizzo.”
The victim added that he felt the sentences had been fair, and has voiced his opposition to any reductions.
“I think the original judge was very fair in his sentencing of the offenders and has already given them ample discount for the consent aspect of their crimes, an aspect I still question and doubt as I certainly did not consent to what transpired on that grisly day,” he said.
Reduxx has located various social media accounts belonging to Gustavson. He has used the handles @nullotheo, @ampunullotheo, @chubtheo, and @theo-eunuchmaker. His accounts on X were followed by men who identified as transgender, as well as those involved in chastity fetishism, eunuchdom, and nullification. On one account, he displayed a stylized “non-binary” pride flag in his header.
Reduxx also independently located a blog belonging to one of his victims. The young man appeared to be proud that he had undergone the procedure and posed with a jar containing his severed testicles, while advertising videos of the surgery for a mere $20.
Last May, Gustavon and six other men involved in the network were convicted on multiple charges relating to grievous bodily harm (GBH), which in criminal law refers to the most serious form of assault, involving the intentional or reckless infliction of serious bodily harm, potentially leading to permanent disfigurement, long-term disability, or even death.
Gustavson, who was personally involved in at least 30 procedures between 2017 and 2021 before he was arrested, received a life sentence with a minimum term of 22 years. When handing down the sentence, Judge Mark Lucraft said Gustavson had been the mastermind of a “large-scale,” “gruesome and grisly,” and “extremely dangerous” enterprise, which the judge described as “human butchery.”
Judge Lucraft said he was “entirely satisfied” that the motivation “was a mix of sexual gratification as well as financial reward.”
The men involved in the scheme used a variety of tools, including clamps used for animal castration. Gustavson auctioned off body parts online through his website, eunuchmaker.co.uk, where he also sold graphic videos of castrations and amputations. Registered in 2016, it offered the option of paid monthly memberships for streaming videos of penectomies. Premium subscriptions included the option of a “free castration performed by the EunuchMaker.”
A registration form on the site listed possible “gender identities” based on sadomasochistic criteria. Among them were eunuch, nullo (nullification), and cutter, a euphemism for a person who performs male genital modification surgeries.
Gustavson also offered to sell the severed penis of one of his victims for hundreds of pounds, with approimately 22,000 subscribers paying to access videos on the Eunuch Maker website. A VIP, full-access membership cost £100.
The Eunuch Maker site drew international participation. In Berlin, a ring of amateur surgeons who castrate men for sexual gratification were involved with the enterprise. One German man associated with Gustavson claimed that he castrated, or partially amputated the genitals of, eight men between July 2018 and March 2020, while on trial in 2021 for murder after one of his victims died.
One of several sites owned by Gustavson is cited in criminal charges filed October 21, 2020, in the U.S. state of Oklahoma against two men who participated in fetishistic genital surgeries. After leaving a man “open” to die after an operation, Bobby Lee Allen and his partner Thomas Evan Gates were charged with conspiracy to commit an unlicensed surgery, maiming, and failure to bury a dead human member, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
In another grisly case involving Gustavson’s forum, an elderly Florida man was sentenced to three years in prison following a bloody botched home castration he performed and recorded on camera, apparently intending to broadcast the footage through the Eunuch Maker site. Gary Van Ryswyk, 76, performed the genital surgery in August 2019 on a male victim, then aged 53.
A man arrested in February for performing castration surgeries out of his North London home can be revealed as having been a noted 'Queer' activist.
Marius Gustavson once worked with a leading LGBT group that lobbied the World Health Organization.https://t.co/Xk27YduOxd
In 2018, The Norwegian Organization for Sexual and Gender Diversity (FRI) successfully lobbied the World Health Organization to officially depathologize fetishism, sadomasochism, and fetishistic transvestitism by removing them from the 11th revision of the International Classifications of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11).
According to Gustavon’s LinkedIn profile, he was a volunteer and Senior Steward for London’s Pride organization between 2016 to 2019.
Many of the African athletes who participated in the Paris Olympics and Paralympic Games last summer did not bother to return home, instead disappearing into France and Belgium.
There is speculation that dozens of such cases occurred after the games, with many of them refusing to join their delegations back home.
Among the athletes who remained in Europe is 24-year-old Aristote Ndombe Impelenga, the Congolese swimmer, who specializes in the 50m crawl. He is living in western France and reportedly wants to compete in the Los Angeles Olympic Games as a part of the Olympic refugee team.
The athlete, who is the former DRC champion in the 50m crawl and 100m crawl, is openly staying in Rennes, where he is currently training Monday through Friday.
“I met a Congolese man at the Gare du Nord (in Paris). He told me about the city of Rennes, and said, ‘There, you’ll find enough modernized facilities to continue your sporting career.’”
The athlete said that he refused asylum seeker benefits and that resulted in him being forced onto the streets.
“At first,” he said “I found myself on the streets like a homeless person. I even ended up in tents.”
Some citizens living in Rennes “came to his aid,” according to French media outlet RFI. In addition, a French lawyer Félix Jeanmougin, who also works in the sports industry, got him on social welfare for asylum seekers. The paper described it as a “sign of hope.”
The swimmer is now at the Paul-Bert swimming club in Rennes. The facility is known for its “modern” design and is substantially better than anything in the Congo, which apparently does not have a single Olympic-sized pool in the entire country.
“Swimming in the Congo wasn’t modernized enough because there wasn’t an Olympic-sized pool,” Aristote Ndombe said. We trained in a private 33-meter pool; it was really complicated.”
Apparently, he also abandoned his son to train for the Olympics in France.
“The only person I miss is my son,” he said. Otherwise, he said he is not homesick at all. He refused to elaborate further on his past life to RFI.
He now wants to obtain refugee status in France; however, there is no indication that he was fleeing war.
It is unclear whether his claim will go through; the process will take at least six months to a year.
It may also set a precedent. if approved, other athletes from Africa and the Middle East may simply decide to stay in European countries with the expectation that their asylum application will be approved.
We reveal the shocking stats showing that the explosion of rape in Britain and Europe is fuelled by mass immigration from certain countries and regions. This is a clip from our #NCFHeresies documentary “Immigration and the Rise in Rape: Britain’s Silent Rape Explosion”. Watch the full documentary here: • EXPOSED: How Immigration Has Caused a…
The German parliament has passed a landmark bill allowing the country to take on a massive €1 trillion debt to boost defence and infrastructure.
The bill was passed with the required two-thirds majority of the Bundestag—with the support of the centre-right CDU/CSU, the Social Democrats, and the Greens.
A total of 513 MPs voted for the draft law, and 207 voted against it. No one abstained.
However, critics say the move is undemocratic as it was pushed through in the outgoing parliament. In the new parliament, which was elected in February but will not sit until next week, the three aforementioned parties no longer have a two-thirds majority.
The constitutional court did not side with the voters, either, and rejected legal challenges by the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), the far-left Die Linke, the left-wing nationalist Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht, as well as the liberal FDP to block the vote.
The legislation now goes to the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, where a vote is scheduled for Friday.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz, Germany’s likely next chancellor, wants to invest up to €1 trillion in the country’s defence capabilities over the next decade—half of it directly in the armed forces and the other half in wider defence infrastructure development.
With this move, he has broken his promise not to reform the so-called debt brake that puts limits on borrowing. He has also given in to left-wing demands by his likely future coalition partner, the SPD, as well as the Greens, who have successfully forced Merz to channel €100 billion to the government’s existing climate fund in exchange for their votes.
In the debate preceding the vote on Tuesday, Merz said he had a “clear conscience.” As in previous debates, he once again pointed at the precarious nature of European security, adding that Germany must act now to strengthen its defence, which has been neglected in recent decades.
„Selbstverständlich ringen wir mit einem solchen weitreichenden Schritt. Aber angesichts der großen Herausforderungen, die durch die Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik hinzugekommen sind, können wir die Grundgesetzänderungen am heutigen Tag mit gutem Gewissen beschließen. Sie sind in… pic.twitter.com/lgwE6rolAY
Social Democrat co-leader Lars Klingbeil also stressed that the financial package is necessary because peace on the continent is in danger, with “an aggressive Russia” and “an unpredictable United States” on either side of Europe.
Bernd Baumann, parliamentary group leader of the second largest party, the AfD, criticised Merz for wanting to buy power with new debts, “like in a banana republic.” The CDU/CSU has broken all its election promises, and voters have been deceived, he said. Although the AfD agrees on increased defence spending, it believes the huge debt will undermine Germany’s financial stability.
Es ist empörend, wie Friedrich Merz unser Grundgesetz für seine Schuldenpläne missbrauchen will! Mit Unterstützung von SPD und Grünen plant er, die Schuldenbremse zu lockern und ein 500-Milliarden-Euro-Infrastrukturpaket zu schnüren. Doch damit nicht genug: Durch diese… pic.twitter.com/cAM3YoI4u4
But it is not only opposition parties that are angry: according to daily Die Welt, CDU party members are raging at the fact that Friedrich Merz deceived his own voters by promising not to reform the debt brake, and then doing so even before becoming chancellor.
“How am I supposed to explain the change of course to our members?” Matthias Grahl, a district councillor in Saxony asked, adding that the worst of the anger within the CDU “is yet to come.”
“Our members are wondering where our credibility is in view of the easing of the debt brake and billions in special funds. After all, we had promised something else,” said Bettina Dickes, a local politician in Rhineland-Palatinate.
According to Die Welt, the discontent is also reflected in the fact that there has been a higher number of defections from the party than usual.
The leftist Irish government condemned anti-mass migration comments made by Conor McGregor at the White House, claiming that the mixed martial arts champion’s sentiments did not represent the views of the Irish people, despite the overwhelming majority agreeing that migration into Ireland has been too high.
To mark St Patrick’s Day on Monday, the Trump administration invited former UFC champion Conor McGregor to meet with the president and to share his thoughts on the state of his home country of Ireland.
In a message delivered to drive awareness among the Irish diaspora in America, McGregor said: “The illegal immigration racket is running ravage on the country. There are rural towns in Ireland that have been overrun in one swoop, that have become a minority in one swoop. So issues needing [to be] addressed, and the 40 million Irish Americans, as I said, need to hear this. Because if not, there will be no place to come home and visit.”
While his comments were lauded by many in the United States, members of the leftist government in Dublin were quick to denounce McGregor’s message.
Neo-liberal Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin wrote on X that “Conor McGregor’s remarks are wrong and do not reflect the spirit of St Patrick’s Day, or the views of the people of Ireland.”
Speaking from New York, left-wing Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris said per state broadcaster RTE: “Conor McGregor is not here in the United States representing Ireland or the people of Ireland.”
“He doesn’t speak for Ireland. He doesn’t speak for the people of Ireland. He has no mandate to do such,” Harris added.
"Our government has long since abandoned the voices of the people of Ireland, and it's high time that America is made aware of what's going on." pic.twitter.com/OO6Evtbplr
However, despite the claims that McGregor’s comments did not represent the people of Ireland, they are undermined by consistent polling, finding that the overwhelming majority of the Irish public believe that mass migration policies imposed on the country by Dublin have let too many foreigners into the country.
A 2024 survey from Amárach Research found that 79 per cent of Irish voters believe that the number of immigrants let into the country every year has been “too high” compared to just 2 per cent who backed more migration. A majority, 61 per cent, also said that they felt the government in Dublin did not care what the people thought about immigration.
The open borders agenda in Ireland has seen the country radically transformed. According to the latest census in 2022, one in five people living in the country was born abroad, or over a million people. This was more than double the number recorded in 2006 when around 420,000 foreigners were living in the country.
With the exception of micro-nations such as Cyprus, Malta, and Luxembourg, Ireland now leads all European Union states in terms of migrants per capita.
The artificial increase in the country’s population through mass migration has been cited as exacerbating issues facing the average Irish citizen, such as the soaring cost of housing and flatlining wages. There have also been widespread protests in response to migrant camps and other accommodations for supposed asylum seekers throughout the country. Riots have frequently broken out over violent crimes committed by migrants, including after a reportedly homeless migrant in Dublin stabbed three young children.
McGregor’s comments did garner some praise from his fellow countrymen, with Irish Freedom Party Freedom Party leader Hermann Kelly saying: “Conor McGregor just told the whole world what’s going on here… The Irish government has destroyed Ireland through immigration and state compliant media coverage has enabled it.”
