Germany at the Crossroads

The recent elections in Germany did not resolve the question of who will succeed Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel’s 16-year stint in office. Having created a legacy as one of the longest-serving chancellors since World War II, Merkel’s “shoes” appear to be exceedingly large for the two contenders for the office of Chancellor. Social Democratic Party (SPD) candidate Olaf Scholz, 63, is currently serving as Finance Minister in Merkel’s government, as well as holding the title of Vice Chancellor. Merkel’s would be successor from her own Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, Armin Laschet, 60, is serving as Minister-President (Governor) of the state (land) of North Rhine –Westphalia, and leader of the CDU. Both candidates for the chancellorship have claimed that they will continue Merkel’s policies.

Known affectionately as “Mutti,” (mother in German), Merkel (67), was seen as a steady and reliable hand. She has generated a great deal of trust among the German people, both young and old. She was able to hold together the union between the CDU and its sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), in Bavaria. In the 2013 election, Merkel was credited with expanding the CDU’s voter base due, in large part, to her popularity.

Merkel’s CDU is described as a center-right party, though she was from the former more conservative Communist Eastern Germany, she has gradually moved the party to the liberal left, basically upstaging the leftist SPD and the Greens party on issues such as the environment (renewable energy), and immigration. This however, got many CDU officials and rank-and-file members to asking if the CDU was still “sufficiently conservative.” As a result, many CDU conservative voters abandoned the CDU, and voted for the newly-formed right-wing party, Alternative for Germany (AfD). The suspensions of military conscription in 2010, and the phasing out of nuclear energy, were confirmation that Merkel moved the party toward a liberal direction.   

Merkel explained where she stood ideologically. “Sometimes I am a liberal, sometimes I am a conservative, sometimes I am a Christian-social — and this is what defines the CDU.” At an October, 2010 speech in Potsdam, west of Berlin, Merkel admitted that, “German multiculturalism has ‘utterly failed’.” Still, in 2015, Merkel decided to admit over a million mostly Muslim migrants from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Her credibility was damaged but eventually restored anyway, despite Islamist terrorism and crime, as well as economic hardship resulting from her decision. Evidence of her popularity is the fact that immigration was not a contested issue in the September 26, 2021 election, despite her immigration debacle. The election also marked the end of the Merkel era for Germany and Europe. Merkel wasn’t only a popular chancellor; she was Europe’s leader as well.

The inconclusive results of the election left the secondary parties, the Greens and the Free Democratic Party (FDP), as kingmakers. The SPD, under the leadership of Olaf Scholz, won 25.7% of the vote and 206 seats in the Bundestag, the German parliament. His rival, Armin Laschet, had a disastrous campaign and lost over a million voters or 8% of its strength. He registered the lowest results for the CDU in recent history. Nevertheless, the party still got 24.1% of the total vote, and 196 seats in the Bundestag, with a shot at the chancellorship if he could persuade the Greens and the FDP to join him in a coalition government. In the meantime, Scholz, in what appeared as a victory speech pointed out that, “The mandate for us is to do what the people want, to lead a good government that will set the course for the decade ahead, to bring more respect into society, to modernize our industrial sector, and to halt man-made climate change.”

Annalena Baerbock (40), co-leader of the Green Party, and its candidate for the chancellorship, did rather well in this election, receiving 14.8% of the total votes and garnering 118 seats in the Bundestag. Baerbock and her party leaders are bound to receive major posts regardless of who will form the next coalition government, Scholz’s SPD or Laschet’s CDU. The other winner is Christian Lindner (42), the leader of the Free Democratic Party (FDP).  It received a respectable 11.5% of the vote, electing 92 representatives to the Bundestag. He too can be certain to partake in the next government.  The AfD party retained its strength at 10.3% of the vote with 83 seats in the Bundestag.  The Left party (former Communists) barely crossed the threshold with 4.9% of the vote, and 39 seats in the Bundestag. The last two parties, the AfD and the Left are unlikely to be invited to the government table, albeit, the SPD once toyed with the idea of inviting the Left party to join them. Scholz, however, being a moderate, has rejected the idea of cooperating with the Left party. To form a coalition government either Scholz or Laschet must master 368 parliamentary votes out of 735 seats in the Bundestag.

Two significant developments occurred in this election; voters, especially younger, urban, and educated flocked to the FDP and the Greens, and away from the two big parties. The combined Greens and the FDP increased their votes by 6.7%, most of it lost by the CDU. The other interesting point is the almost total absence of foreign policy issues on the agenda of the main parties.

The CDU and FDP are the political parties most committed to NATO’s goal of 2% defense spending, and greater military responsibility in the Indo-China-Pacific region. The CDU/CSU is committed to the US nuclear weapons in Germany. Conversely, the SPD is more inclined to remove the nuclear weapons from Germany. The SPD, under the leadership of Scholz, has moved into a more left-leaning position on security and defense, including objection to the use of armed drones. Both the CDU/CSU and SPD support the Nord Stream project with Russia. Although China is a key foreign policy issue on the Transatlantic/US-German agenda, most Germans want Germany to be neutral in a China-US cold war.

The Green Party has moved to the center on security and defense issues under the leadership of Annalena Baerbock. The party has adopted a more moderate tone on the role of NATO. The left-wing of the party is however, still rooted in pacifist policies, criticizing NATO’s 2% goal, and US nuclear weapons in Europe. The Greens are critical of Russia’s human rights, and reject the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.  They support sanctions on Russia’s human rights violations. They are also critical of China’s repression in Hong Kong, and the treatment of the Uighurs.

Merkel has repeatedly underscored Germany’s unconditional support for Israel by declaring that Israel’s security is “Staatsraeson” or Germany’s raison d’état. Yet, her German government has been appeasing and aiding the Iranian regime which is seeking to “wipe Israel off the map.” According to Al-Jazeera quoting Christian Hacke, professor emeritus at the Institute for Political Science and Sociology at Bonn University, regarding Germany’s Israel policy in the post-Merkel government. Hacke stated that, “A solid and close relationship with Israel as a continuum will remain part of Germany’s Staatsraeson.”

Before we close the book on Angela Merkel, It is worth noting that coalition negotiations may take months. In 2017, it took almost six months to form a coalition government. In the meantime, Merkel would still be at the helm for better or for worse.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/10/germanys-election-story-and-merkels-legacy-joseph-puder/

Barking up the wrong tree: Gender for dogs

In general, the public service does not have a reputation for reacting particularly quickly. The image of the unyielding civil servant is one of the stereotypes in many European countries. The town of Neuenrade in Germany has now shown that there is another way.

The town made the headlines in the past few days because the online form for dog tax registration with the city showed another gender option for our four-legged friends next to “male” and “female” – that of  “diverse”. Screenshots of this spread across social networks and national media also jumped on the next big “gender” issue.

Last Monday, however, the said form was quickly changed. Instead of “diverse”, next to “male” and “female”, it stated only “no information”. Has the progressive move towards more “diversity” failed?

Not at all, a city employee explained when questioned by Berlin weekly Junge Freiheit. The crux of the matter was indeed the pervasive focus on gender. For example, a component of the program that is several years old, has been supplemented with the option “diverse” for all gender information and that has been adopted everywhere in the system – including when registering for dog tax.

Therefore, to offer dog owners another sex option for their pet, was not a direct political decision, but rather a systemic one. But that is exactly what everyone had assumed when opening the page for registration. Neuenrade mayor Antonius Wiesemann (CDU) complained about being inundated with complaints because of the “technical error on the homepage”.

After the error on the homepage was corrected, calm returned to the town hall in Neuenrade. With their quick response on Monday morning, those responsible have shown that votes could be imperilled when action is not taken right away.

https://freewestmedia.com/2021/10/06/barking-up-the-wrong-tree-gender-for-dogs/

Finland: Government study reveals migrants vastly overrepresented in sex crimes

A newly released government study in Finland has revealed that foreign-born individuals were exceedingly overrepresented in cases of rape and child sex crimes last year. The study’s alarming findings mirror data contained in a report, released just weeks ago by the Swedish government, which indicated that first-generation immigrants were nearly three times as likely to be rape suspects than native-born Swedes with Swedish parents.

The study, commissioned by Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s administration and carried out by the Finnish Youth Research Network and the University of Helsinki’s Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy, found that foreign-born individuals — despite making up less than seven percent of Finland’s population — accounted for nearly 38 percent of the country’s rape suspects in 2020, daily newspaper Yle reports.

The study does not include the percentage of second- or -third-generation individuals with a migrant background, as those people are simply listed as “Finnish” if they were born in the country.

Although immigrants have been overrepresented in crime statistics across many countries for many years now, this latest government study shows that the share of foreign-born people in sexual offense figures has further increased across Finland.

Perhaps even more disturbing, the proportion of foreign-born individuals who were among those suspected of sexual abuse against children has risen even more dramatically than migrant adult-on-adult rape cases have in recent years, reaching 24 percent in 2019.

Overall, throughout the study period — which took place between 2011 and 2020 — 27 percent of all rape suspects were foreign-born, while 15 percent of those suspected of child sexual abuse were foreign-born. The authors of the study also noted that those most likely to sexually exploit children were young immigrant males, with those under the age of 18 representing a significant percentage of perpetrators.

In 2020, among those who were suspected of rape, 20.3 percent were from countries in the Middle East, 1.4 percent were from North Africa, while the country of origin was unknown in 6.4 percent of the cases, Yle reported.

Finland is no outlier, and similar results have been found in Germany, France, Denmark, Austria, and Italy

In an attempt to minimize the significance of the nationalities, regions of origin, and cultures of the foreign-born sex offenders, researchers submitted that no single factor could account for the prevalence of sex crimes in the cohort since issues like poor problem-solving skills, impulsivity, problems with regulating emotions, and poor self-esteem were found to be quite common in suspected perpetrators 

Researchers also highlighted that migrants’ overrepresentation in sex crime could not be explained alone by social disadvantage, citing mental illness, antisocial behavior, the use of intoxicants, and a criminal past as other contributing risk factors. 

“To be able to prevent sexual crimes effectively, we need to understand the risk factors and behavioral patterns associated with those who commit the crimes,” Teemu Vauhkonen, a researcher of the Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy, concluded in a statement.

In light of the alarming figures, Finland’s Interior Minister Maria Ohisalo has admitted that problems with integration policy are clearly present and must be addressed, adding that the newly released statistics are “very worrying”.

“These are very worrying figures,” she said. “It is certainly the case that people have failed to understand how human rights and people’s integrity are respected in this society. Yes, there is something to do on the side of the government.”

Among Finland’s population of 5.5 million people, there were just over 367,000 first-generation immigrants in 2020.

https://rmx.news/egyeb/finland-government-study-reveals-migrants-vastly-overrepresented-in-sex-crimes/

Germany: Singer Gil Ofarim denied entry to Leipzig hotel because of his Star of David

Recidivist Sofiane Rasmouk: He quoted the Qur’ an while raping his victim, today he took two French prison guards hostage

Alençon prosecutor François Coudert gave more details to BFMTV about the end of the hostage-taking at Condé-sur-Sarthe prison.

“This hostage-taking involved two guards who were released voluntarily, the first around lunchtime and the second after the raid intervened as part of a handover protocol. He voluntarily agreed to surrender,” he said.

In addition, the lawyer said that ” this person was sentenced to life imprisonment for attempted murder and rape” and that he “had already been convicted of violence against persons in the past”.BFMTV

Sofiane Rasmouk, 33 years old, is alleged to have been holding two guards of the Alençon-Condé (Orne) prison hostage since 10am on Tuesday October 5, 2021. He is described as impulsive and violent. The man is in prison after being sentenced to life imprisonment with a term of 22 years for rape and attempted murder.

At his appeal trial at the Yvelines Regional Court in September 2017, he was given the maximum sentence for the 2013 rape of two young women in Colombes and La Garenne-Colombes, near Paris. According to an article in Le Parisien, he was described by experts as a “psychopath”. His nickname: “the monster of Colombes”.

This is not the first time that the man, described by local sources as “impulsive” and “violent”, has attacked prison guards. In April 2018, he was sentenced to six months in prison by the Versailles Criminal Court for attacking two guards in Bois-d’Arcy prison.

According to our information, Sofiane Rasmouk is one of the specially monitored prisoners (DPS) in Alençon-Condé prison. Ouest-France

An inmate at Alençon-Condé prison (Orne) has been holding a guard and a staff member hostage since 9.30am on Tuesday October 5, 2021. The man, who is serving a life sentence and has been in Orne prison for less than a month, is said to be holding the two officers captive in his cell. He allegedly stole their keys and walkie-talkies.

The Eris, regional intervention and security teams, are on their way to intervene. A crisis unit has also been set up at the Interregional Directorate of Prison Management in Rennes.  Ouest-France

https://www.fdesouche.com/2021/10/05/prise-dotages-en-cours-a-la-prison-dalencon-conde-deux-surveillants-retenus-par-un-detenu/

” Savage, wild, he grabs her by the hair, whispers in her ear that she should be quiet, that she should not look at him. And he throws her to the ground, between two vehicles, on the rough and cold concrete. He rips off her trousers and rapes her. He rapes her twice. To humiliate her again, he insults her, threatens her with his knife and quotes the Qur’ an. Words and gestures that cannot be explained. In a new fit of rage, he hits her in the face with his fists and knees. The blood that flows does not make him refrain. (…) She struggles not to faint, choking. Her heart is pounding in her small chest. Her body aches, an unbearable pain. She begs the man to be left alone (…)”

This is what fate suffered 19-year-old Sandra Grolez, the victim of Sofiane Razmouk in August 2013. Sofiane Razmouk, who has been convicted 24 times since 2002, in particular for sexual assault, benefited from a programme of temporary release “under the pretext of training” since May 2013. Free and working during the day, locked up and arrested at night”: He took advantage of this to rape Sandra Grolez and Priscillia Atzori in Colombes and beat them in the face with his fists and knees.

The other victim narrowly escaped death: “On arrival at the hospital, Priscillia underwent four hours of surgery: The neurosurgeons removed half of her skull because the condition of her impacted brain had deteriorated. She also suffered several fractures to her nose, jaw and right temporal lobe. She is in a coma and is in a very serious condition (…)”.  Paris Match

https://www.fdesouche.com/2017/10/01/colombes-92-le-terrifiant-profil-de-sofiane-rasmouk-lagresseur-de-2-jeunes-femmes/

Germany registers more than 500 Islamist terror threats

Islamists continue to constitute by far the biggest group of people threatening security in Germany despite people who practice Islam being a small minority in the country. In August, the Federal Criminal Police Office registered 554 people in connection with “Politically motivated crime – religious ideology” (PMK category), according to a response from the federal government to a request from the Free Democratic Party (FDP). 

In addition, there were also 527 so-called people of concern. While the number of people at risk decreased compared to a year ago, the number of “relevant people” increased slightly.

People who are at risk are expected to carry out a serious or state-endangering crime at any time. Security authorities refer to people who have a leadership role or the function of a supporter or actor within a terrorist or extremist group as relevant.

The number of left-wing extremists is increasing

At the same time, the security services had 72 people in their sights as threats in the PMK right category. 181 right-wing extremists were classified as relevant persons. Their number remained almost constant. 

However, the number of left-wing extremists has increased significantly, from five to nine. The number of relevant people remained constant at 77.

The federal government continues to rate the threat posed by an Islamist terrorist attack as high. 

“Germany continues to be in the immediate target spectrum of international terrorist organizations. A persistently high risk of jihadist-motivated acts of violence is still to be expected,“ said a response from the Federal Ministry of the Interior to an AfD inquiry in June. At the same time, the letter revealed that around a quarter of the Islamist threats and relevant persons had applied for asylum.

https://rmx.news/germany/germany-registers-more-than-500-islamist-terror-threats/

Multicultural barbarians are emptying France of its Jews

by Giulio Meotti

“Intellectual life is undermined by the alliance of two messianisms, Islamism and a left whose main activity is to track down ill-thinkers. An intellectual life where it is no longer a question of deciding between error and truth, but between good and evil ”.

Thus, in Le Figaro, the great French historian Georges Bensoussan defines the “hold” of Islamism on public opinion. His “fault” four years ago was declaring on the radio that Muslim immigrants absorb anti-Semitism from an early age like mother’s milk. Since then, for the editorial director of the Memorial of the Shoah in Paris the caudine gallows of trials and ad personam attacks have opened.

Bensoussan tells Le Figaro what is happening to the Jews of France: “For safety reasons, Jewish children have massively abandoned public education. In the neighborhoods there is a climate that recalls the worst memories of the Jewish Maghreb. It is a French defeat and not a Jewish defeat, because the whole of French society is threatened by what threatens Jews today. For the descendants of Jews who have left the Arab world, the anti-Semitism of the ‘neighborhoods’ is once again a nightmare. It is a trauma to be overwhelmed by a climate of persecution that was thought behind and that condemns them to undergo a new exodus, abroad or in France itself: thus, the Seine-Saint-Denis has lost 80% of its Jewish population in twenty years “.

Bensoussan provides other impressive numbers: “More than 500 districts in France are declared ‘sensitive’. To put it bluntly, we are talking about several million people who are subject to Islamist law. And the impossibility of expressing this social and migratory disaster in words, if not running the risk of being dragged to court, worsens the situation and feeds collective depression”.

In twenty years, more than 20 percent of French Jews have left France. The Jewish community of Toulouse numbered 20,000 people. Today there are 10,000 left and the deputy mayor of Toulouse, Aviv Zonabend, said that “the future of the Jewish people in Europe is hopeless”.

In 1977 there were 700,000 Jews in France. They have halved since then. Over the past decade, “60,000 of the 350,000 Jews have left Ile-de-France,” denounced Sammy Ghozlan, president of the Bureau national de vigilance contre l’antisémitisme, who moved to Netanya.

In Seine-Saint-Denis, 40 percent of the inhabitants are of the Islamic faith. Result? Historic Jewish communities such as La Courneuve, Aubervilliers, Stains, Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, Trappes, Aulnay-sous-Bois, Le Blanc-Mesnil and Saint Denis are over. In Pierrefitte there has been a 50 percent decline in just a few years.

Due to the lack of security, in places like Courneuve where there were 600 to 700 Jewish families, there are now less than 100. In a suburb south of Paris, Kremlin-Bicêtre, with a population of 25,000. 25 percent today are Muslims. Until 1990, 10 percent of the population was Jewish, today just 5 percent.

In the last twenty years in France there has been a genuine voluntary ethnic cleansing. This is the list of the decline in Jewish families in many districts:

  • Stains from 250 to 50
  • Saint-Denis from 350 to 100
  • La Courneuve from 300 to 80
  • Le Blanc-Mesnil from 300 to 100
  • Pantin from 1200 to 700
  • Rosny-sous-Bois from 300 to 200
  • Bondy from 300 to 100
  • Livry-Gargan from 200 to 130
  • Aulnay sous-Bois from 600 to 100
  • Clichy 400 to 80
  • Neuilly-sur-Marne from 275 to 100

An unprecedented exodus. Muslims enter, Jews flee and they call it “multiculturalism”.

The French coined an expression of grotesque cynicism: “living together”. If mass Islamic immigration continues, it will be over for European Jews. And history has shown that Jews are like the canary in a coal mine, falling to the ground before others feel the methane and carbon monoxide. These numbers should worry everyone, even if the rise in French immigration to Israel is good for the Jewish State.

Because in the same years the churches of France were also burned, its priests (Jacques Hamel) were killed as its faithful (Basilica of Nice) and six great cathedrals were burned for “unknown” causes (Notre Dame, Nantes, Rennes, Saint-Sulpice, Lavaur and Pontoise). An average of two French churches are desecrated every day.

Liberals don’t like it, but the multicultural barbarians take the expression “Judeo-Christianity” very seriously.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/314463

Accident or assassination? Swedish cartoonist dies in car crash

Swedish Mohammad Cartoonist Lars Vilks Killed in Fiery Car Crash

Lars Vilks The Swedish artist who sparked a worldwide controversy for drawing the Muslim ‘Prophet’ Mohammed with a dog body was killed in a fiery car crash in Markaryd, Sweden on Sunday. Two police protection officers were also killed. La

Lars Vilks, famous Swedish cartoonist has died mysteriously in a car accident. In 2010, American Colleen LaRose, also known as Jihad Jane, was charged with attempting to recruit Islamic terrorists to assassinate Vilks.

There are circumstances that may lead to a reassessment of the fatal accident.

A week before the fateful day when Lars Vilks died in what appears to be a tragic traffic accident, journalists from the Swedish weekly Nya Tider wanted to visit him.

Nya Tider first met Vilks when Jan Sjunnesson introduced him in connection with the free book fair the newspaper had tried to arrange in Gothenburg after Nya Tider was excluded from the regular book fair. After foul play from the Gothenburg police and the municipality, only a small event for a number of selected guests could be held.

In a suite at Park Aveny Hotel, artists and journalists met: Dan Park, Jan Sjunneson, Katerina Janouch, Rasmus Dahlstedt, Sverigebilden and Nya Tidereditors Vavra Suk and Sanna Hill participated. Lars Vilks arrived wearing a large cap as a disguise. However, a trained eye could detect that the foyer was full of plainclothes police officers.

A few weeks before Lars died, he was interviewed for an article about the art exhibition he and Dan Park participated in at Poland’s Museum of Modern Art.

He was very happy about it, since it would have been the first major international show he would participate in since 2007. After drawing the Prophet Mohammed with a dog’s body in 2007, Vilks had received death threats and was placed under police protection. His home was firebombed and he was attacked in 2010.

Lars said that he had not been able to imagine the reactions that followed the publication of his drawings in 2007. Since then, he had lived under constant death threats, but not until 2010 did he receive constant bodyguard protection.

In 2010, American Colleen LaRose, also known as Jihad Jane, was charged with attempting to recruit Islamic terrorists to assassinate Vilks. At the same time, seven people were arrested in Ireland for a conspiracy to murder him. Taimour Abdulwahab cited Lars Vilks as one of the motives for his failed bombings on Drottninggatan. Two Muslim brothers were also arrested for trying to set fire to his house.

The same year, Lars was attacked during a lecture at Uppsala University by Muslim thugs, and it was repeated at Karlstad University in 2013.

When Lars visited an art exhibition in Gothenburg in 2011, three Muslims criminals were arrested outside, armed with knives. However, they were acquitted in both the district court and the court of appeal and received damages totaling SEK 395 000.

An attack took place in 2015 against the Krudttönnen culture house in Copenhagen, where Lars participated in an event. Filmmaker Finn Nørgaard was killed and three policemen were injured, but Lars escaped unharmed after about thirty shots were fired.

In addition to being a self-taught artist, Lars took a doctorate in art theory and had been a professor in both Stockholm and Bergen. Despite the death threats and insults, Lars always remained positive even when he had to live without his companion of 35 years.

His vehicle is said to have veered into the wrong lane at high speed for reasons that have not yet been clarified, and as a result it collided with a truck. Both vehicles caught fire. At first it was said that two police officers and a guard had died. Then it became public that the third victim was Vilks himself.

The truck driver, a 45-year-old man, survived the accident. He was already questioned by the police at the hospital.

At a press conference on Monday, the Swedish police announced that a tire explosion could have been the cause of the accident. There were no indications of an attack, according to the head of the regional investigative body, Stefan Sintéus. However, it could not be ruled out either.

https://freewestmedia.com/2021/10/05/accident-or-assassination-swedish-cartoonist-dies-in-accident/