Musk congratulates German populist party for doubling vote share after de-banking, disarmament, surveillance by authorities



Germany's domestic intelligence agency has spent years surveilling members of the right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany — often abbreviated AFD for its German name, Alternative für Deutschland — over concerns about "extremism" — a politically charged initiative that regional courts repeatedly supported. An administrative court disarmed party members last year, barring them from owning firearms. Leftist activists succeeded in having the party de-banked in July. Hundreds of parliamentarians pushed a motion in January seeking to ban the party outright.

Despite these and other obstacles set before it by the powers that be, the AFD — a party founded in 2013 by free-market economists keen to strengthen German sovereignty — came in second place in the nation's elections Sunday, doubling the vote share it previously won in 2021.

The AFD secured 152 seats in the German parliament, which positions it to block constitutional changes in concert with the Left party as well as to potentially eclipse Friedrich Merz's nominally conservative Christian Democratic Union in the next election. Nevertheless, establishmentarians have tried downplaying the populist party's gains — especially because of Elon Musk's public support for the party.

'Traditional political parties in Germany have utterly failed the people.'

The anti-Trump group MeidasTouch tweeted, "MUSK LOSES BIG IN GERMANY," adding, "Germany's CDU/CSU wins big, while the far-right AfD underperforms in second — despite backing from Elon Musk and J.D. Vance."

The socialist magazine Mother Jones ran a piece titled "Elon Musk’s Bid to Propel Germany’s Far-Right Party to Victory Has Failed," which framed the result as a loss despite acknowledging toward the end that "the results are still an unprecedented success for AfD, whose popularity has grown over the years at the same time as they have succeeded in pushing other German politicians further right."

Musk emphasized ahead of the election that "only AfD can save Germany," stressing that the "traditional political parties in Germany have utterly failed the people." The tech magnate also hosted the party's leader, Alice Weidel, in a 75-minute conversation on X, giving her a boost in early January.

Notwithstanding the liberal spin in the wake of the election, AFD secured 20.8% of the vote, crushing outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz's liberal Social Democratic Party, which nabbed only 16.4% of the vote.

Merz's CDU and its sister party together received 28.6% of the vote — enough for first place but not enough to avoid exposure to tactical AFD challenges in the next national election. In the meantime, however, the establishment parties have agreed on a "firewall" to keep the AFD out of the ruling coalition that forms in the days and weeks to come.

Musk congratulated Weidel on her party's performance, noting that AFD "will be the majority party by the next election."

President Donald Trump congratulated the CDU, noting on Truth Social, "LOOKS LIKE THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY IN GERMANY HAS WON THE VERY BIG AND HIGHLY ANTICIPATED ELECTION. MUCH LIKE THE USA, THE PEOPLE OF GERMANY GOT TIRED OF THE NO COMMON SENSE AGENDA, ESPECIALLY ON ENERGY AND IMMIGRATION, THAT HAS PREVAILED FOR SO MANY YEARS."

While not as aggressive as the AFD, Merz's CDU has indicated that it will crack down on unchecked migration, curb regulations, and seek changes to spur economic growth, reported the New York Times.

However, whereas AFD has advocated for a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine and criticized continued aid to the embattled nation, Merz has staked out a hawkish position, reportedly stating that he would not accept a deal struck between the U.S. and Russia "over the heads of the Europeans, over the heads of Ukraine," and promising to provide long-range Taurus missiles to Kyiv.

"My top priority, for me, will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that we can gradually achieve real independence from the U.S.A.," Merz said ahead of the election. "I would never have thought I'd be saying something like this on TV, but after last week's comments from Donald Trump, its clear that this administration is largely indifferent to Europe's fate, or at least to this part of it."

This so-called "independence" will likely cost Germany a pretty penny, at least if it expects to fill America's shoes in the way of financer. Extra to approving hundreds of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine along with over $65 billion in military assistance, the U.S. has paid the most for defense in NATO.

Merz has also characterized Trump as an "admirer of autocratic systems," suggesting that his recent criticism of Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy amounted to the adoption of Kremlin rhetoric.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Thin-skinned German minister melts down over Vance's speech: 'Not acceptable'



Vice President JD Vance minced no words in his Friday address at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, putting various European nations on blast for their heavy-handed suppression of political movements and ideas unfavorable to their respective ruling classes; for their dismissal of citizens' concerns and common sense; for their routine attacks on religious liberties; and for their ruinous mass migration policies.

"The threat that I worry the most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia. It's not China. It's not any other external actor," said Vance. "What I worry about is the threat from within."

Vance's speech clearly struck a chord, prompting German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, a member of the Social Democratic Party, to spend some of his time onstage refuting the suggestion that democracy and free speech are on the decline in his and other European nations.

"I had a speech I prepared today," said the German socialist. "It was supposed to be about security in Europe. But I cannot start in the way I originally intended."

"This democracy was called into question by the U.S. vice president," continued Pistorius. "He speaks of the annulment of democracy, and, if I understood him correctly, he compares the condition of Europe with the condition that prevails in some authoritarian regimes. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not acceptable."

Pistorius staked his claim on shaky ground.

Alternative for Germany is a right-leaning populist party founded in 2013 by free-market economists keen to strengthen German sovereignty and enraged by the European Union's bailout of Greece and other debtor nations. It has since also taken aim at mass migration, open borders, climate alarmism, Islamization, and gender ideology.

The AFD has enjoyed considerable success in recent elections, placing second in the European Parliament election in June and enjoying representation in 14 of the country's 16 state legislatures. Recent polls indicate that where the upcoming German election is concerned, AFD has a lock on second place.

'In our democracy, every opinion has a voice.'

While Pistorius suggested that democracy is strong in Germany and the country's political establishment protects the rights of those who disagree with it, German authorities have worked feverishly to ban, vilify, disarm, de-bank, and criminalize the party. In certain German states, such as Saxony and Thuringia, the AFD has been classified as a "right-wing extremist" group.

Not only has the German establishment taken aim at the AFD, it has also clamped down on members' factual assertions deemed hateful by the powers that be.

Blaze News previously reported that Marie-Thérèse Kaiser, a member of the popular Alternative for Germany party, was convicted of a "hate crime" in May for sharing statistics about the disproportionate number of gang rapes committed by immigrants.

Pistorius suggested that the Europe described by Vance — where establishmentarians dismiss citizens, shut down elections, and run in fear of their own voters — "is not the Europe, not the democracy where I live and where I conduct my election campaign right now, and this is not the democracy that I witness every day in our parliament. In our democracy, every opinion has a voice."

Germany's Bundestag was just weeks ago debating banning the AFD. Evidently panicked over the alliance of the AFD and the Christian Democratic Union party on immigration, 124 parliamentarians introduced a motion urging an investigation into whether the platforming of certain voices in the German democracy is unconstitutional.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Jews and gays must once again beware in German capital city, police chief says



Berlin is once again a dangerous place for Jews and homosexuals, according to the city's chief of police.

The German newspaper Berliner Zeitung recently asked chief Barbara Slowik whether Berlin was safe. Slowik initially tried to avoid characterizing her city as a haven for imported extremism, suggesting, "Berlin is as safe as many other cities in Germany and safer than many other European capitals."

When pressed on whether there were "no-go areas," Slowik, who was instrumental in setting up the Joint Extremism and Counter-Terrorism Center, admitted that "there are areas — and we have to be honest here — where I would advise people who wear a kippah or are openly gay or lesbian to be more alert."

Slowik said she wouldn't "defame any groups of people here" but acknowledged that "there are certain neighborhoods where the majority of people liv[ing there] are of Arab descent, who also have sympathies for terrorist groups."

The German ministry of the interior and community acknowledged in September that the country's worsening crime problem was the result, in part, of "more foreigner crime." Many of the non-Germans hail from Middle Eastern hotbeds for Islamic radicalism.

'It is not the job of Jews and homosexuals to be "more attentive" in certain areas of Berlin.'

According to the publication Junge Freiheit, the number of all registered crimes — not including violations of immigration law — skyrocketed by 4.4% last year to 5.6 million incidents. Rainer Wendt, the head of the German Police Union, highlighted police statistics in April indicating that foreigners now account for at least 41% of all suspects in Germany and are massively over-represented among violent and sexual offenders.

The problem of imported crime bled into 2024 with some high-profile examples, starting right away in the early hours of New Year's Day, when scores of Syrians and Afghan males rioted in several German cities, attacking first responders with incendiary devices and robbing others. Months later, an Afghan immigrant went on a stabbing spree and butchered a police officer at an anti-jihad rally in the southwestern German town of Mannheim.

Anti-Semitic attacks have apparently skyrocketed since Oct. 7, 2023.

"Open anti-Semitism is expressed there against people of Jewish faith and origin," continued the police chief, adding that the force has opened over 6,200 investigations into anti-Semitic incidents, including 1,300 violent crimes, since the Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel last year.

'The safety of Jews and homosexuals can only be guaranteed by ending mass migration.'

According to Slowik, the city was able to prevent 24 mass gatherings that were explicitly aimed at celebrating the murder of Israeli civilians.

Other rallies featuring anti-Semitic messaging and glorifying Islamic terrorism have apparently gone unchecked in part due to the fact that bans would not ultimately rid Berlin of the extremists responsible as well as a desire on the part of officials to selectively respect residents' rights to expression and assembly.

Although keen not to encroach on the rights of foreign-born anti-Semites, German authorities have sought to ban, vilify, disarm, de-bank, and criminalize the popular Alternative for Germany party and its members, largely over their criticism of mass immigration, open borders, and Islamization.

Marie-Thérèse Kaiser, a member of the AFD, was convicted of a "hate crime" in May for sharing statistics about the disproportionate number of gang rapes committed by immigrants, specifically Afghan nationals, and for asking whether multiculturalism means accommodating rape culture.

Just last week, 113 German lawmakers from various leftist and establishment factions reportedly signed an application to begin proceedings to ban the AFD. They appear especially concerned by recent polls showing that the AFD ranks second going into the 2025 federal election.

While kneecapping the AFD is a key priority for the German political establishment, the AFD alternatively appears keen on tackling the fallout of Germany's failed multicultural project — having learned independently what former British Home Secretary Suella Braverman concluded in 2023: that "uncontrolled immigration, inadequate integration, and a misguided dogma of multiculturalism have proven a toxic combination" for the West.

The AFD said in a statement Tuesday that Slowik's admission about no-go zones was "an absolute declaration of bankruptcy for [Christian Democratic Union]-governed Berlin," adding that this "is what 'cosmopolitan' Berlin looks like under a CDU mayor."

"The police chief is turning the responsibilities on their head. It is not the job of Jews and homosexuals to be 'more attentive' in certain areas of Berlin, but rather it is the job of the CDU-led Senate to be 'more attentive' to consistent deportations, protected borders and an assertive constitutional state," said the AFD.

"The safety of Jews and homosexuals can only be guaranteed by ending mass migration," added the AFD statement.

Berlin is far from the only Western city where Jewish citizens have been told to keep their heads down to avoid the fallout of liberal elites' promised cultural enrichment.

Blaze News reported earlier this year that London's Metropolitan Police threatened to arrest Gideon Falter, the head of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, in April for daring to be "quite openly Jewish" in the English capital's Aldwych area while pro-Hamas protesters were demonstrating nearby.

A police sergeant took notice of Falter and his kippah cap and confronted him, saying, "I'm sure there are an awful lot of people of all sorts of faiths and creeds who want to go where they want. But unfortunately, today is different."

"So basically, because I'm Jewish, I can't cross the road today?" asked Falter.

"Because of the march," said the sergeant.

Falter pressed the issue, saying, "Yes, because I am Jewish?"

"That is part of — unfortunately part of the fact," said the sergeant.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

German officials failed to deport Syrian migrant who allegedly butchered Germans at Christian concert



A 26-year-old Syrian asylum seeker is in custody after allegedly admitting to butchering three people — two men aged 56 and 67, and a 56-year-old woman — and leaving another six grievously wounded Friday at a Christian music festival in Solingen, Germany.

Leftist politicians, poised to lose ground to the right-leaning Alternative for Germany party in next month's state elections, have expressed concern that this latest avoidable blood-letting may embolden critics of the country's immigration and asylum policies.

According to the German publication Spiegel, a witness heard the suspect, Issa Al Hasan, shout "Allahu Akbar" while randomly stabbing bystanders. Hasan allegedly attempted to kill as many Christians and other Germans he regarded as "non-believers" as possible before escaping, masked in his victims' blood.

Hasan turned himself into a police patrol late Saturday night, still wearing bloody clothes, and reportedly admitted to having committed the crime.

Police arrested two other individuals, including a 36-year-old man in a residence for asylum seekers. It is unclear what connection the other arrestees had to Hasan or his plan.

The terrorist organization ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack "on a gathering of Christians in the city of Solingen in Germany," reported the Telegraph.

The terrorist organization circulated a video on its propaganda channels showing the alleged attacker brandishing a knife and explaining his motives. Apparently, the terrorist wanted to avenge the supposed killing of Muslims in Iraq, Syria, and Bosnia, as well as to exact retribution for the "people of Palestine," reported Spiegel.

The terrorist noted further in the video that he hails from Deir al-Sor in eastern Syria, where ISIS still has a foothold.

'It should now be clear: it is not the knives that are the problem, but the people who carry them around.'

The last time ISIS claimed responsibility for a terrorist attack in Germany was in December 2016. An Islamic terrorist from Tunisia who unsuccessfully applied for asylum intentionally drove a truck through a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 56 others. A 13th victim later died of his injuries.

The attacker in the 2016 Christmas attack pledged allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi whose reign as caliph of the Islamic State was brought to an end in 2019 during a U.S. military raid green-lit by President Donald Trump.

Hasan, the apparent attacker in the Friday stabbings, reportedly entered Germany in December 2022 and applied for asylum. He was, however, ineligible under the EU's Dublin Regulation, which in this case would have made Bulgaria responsible for him.

Although Germany and Bulgaria agreed on the Syrian's deportation, Hasan managed to dodge the authorities and go into hiding.

Spiegel indicated that an arrest warrant was not ultimately issued for Hasan, in part because there were not enough detention facilities for prospective deportees. Since Hasan was not deported by the transfer deadline in August 2023, he officially became Germany's problem.

Hasan subsequently secured the special protection Syrians oftentimes receive in Germany and was dispatched to Solingen in September 2023.

As of July, German authorities reportedly made at least 43,000 transfer requests to other EU countries, but had only followed through on 3,500 deportations.

The anti-Christian terror attack comes just months after an Afghan migrant, Sulaiman Ataee, went on a German stabbing spree at an anti-jihad rally in Mannheim's supposed knife-free zone. After stabbing multiple people, Ataee fatally slit a police officer's throat. The terrorist was subsequently shot dead by another cop.

Friedrich Merz, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union and the opposition in the Bundestag, noted on Sunday:

The attack is one of a whole series of knife attacks that have claimed the lives of many people in Germany in recent months. The coalition has been discussing — and arguing — for several weeks about tightening the gun laws and banning knives. After the terrorist attack in Solingen, it should now be clear: it is not the knives that are the problem, but the people who carry them around. In the majority of cases, these are refugees, and in the majority of the attacks, there are Islamist motives behind them.

Merz called on German chancellor Olaf Scholz of the leftist Social Democratic Party of Germany to "join us in making decisions quickly and without further delay that are consistently aimed at preventing further terrorist attacks like the one last Friday in our country. People can be deported to Syria and Afghanistan, but we will not accept any more refugees from these countries."

Scholz subsequently noted on X, "Islamists endanger the peaceful coexistence of Christians, Jews and Muslims. We will take action against them with all severity and will not stop persecuting them."

Despite Scholz's strong rhetoric online, his party appears reluctant to take meaningful action.

'So of course, we are all very afraid that the right wing is getting more and more power.'

The German publication Junge Freiheit reported that Scholz's general secretary Kevin Kühnert suggested Merz's proposal for a moratorium on asylum seeker admissions from Syria and Afghanistan is not legally possible.

Kühnert apparently claimed that in the wake of such a terrorist attack, Germany cannot "now slam the door in the faces of people who are themselves fleeing from Islamists."

Nancy Faeser, another leftist serving in Scholz's cabinet as Germany's federal minister of the interior, has expressed concerns that the Islamic terror attack may cause domestic division.

Solingen city councilor Simone Lammert told Euronews, "We just heard that the far right Youth Party is talking about coming together today here. So of course, we are all very afraid that the right wing is getting more and more power. And that's definitely not the way of course, we have to ask some hard questions, but, you know, racism is never the answer."

While the current German political establishment appears unwilling to address its problem with violent migrant crime, it is more than happy to hound immigration critics.

Blaze News previously reported that Marie-Thérèse Kaiser, a member of the right-leaning Alternative for Germany, was convicted in May of a hate crime for sharing statistics about the disproportionate number of gang rapes committed by immigrants, specifically Afghan nationals, and for questioning whether multiculturalism means accommodating rape culture.

In the wake of the AfD's strong electoral showing in June, a Bavarian court ruled that the country's domestic intelligence agency could surveil a regional association of the party as a suspected extremist group.

The 22nd Chamber of the Düsseldorf Administrative Court — not far from Solingen — revealed last month that membership in the AfD precludes German citizens from owning firearms.

AfD Bundestag lawmaker Nicole Höchst tweeted Saturday, "In Germany, thousands of people fall victim to knife attacks every year. Anyone who continues to vote for the CDU, CSU, Greens, SPD, FDP, Left, BSW is choosing to carry on as before. Change can only happen with us."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

German courts ban members of popular right-wing party from owning guns



A German court has effectively banned all members of the Alternative for Germany (AFD) party from owning firearms.

The AFD is a right-leaning populist party that — like Marine Le Pen's National Rally party in France — has grown increasingly popular despite a concerted suppression campaign by the leftist German establishment, which has sought to ban, vilify, and criminalize the AFD outright.

The party was founded in 2013 by free market economists keen to strengthen German sovereignty and enraged by the European Union's bailout of Greece and other debtor nations. Over time, the AFD attracted the ire of leftists over its members' criticism of mass migration, open borders, gender ideology, climate alarmism, Islamization, and the European slide toward continental post-nationalism.

The AFD emphasized in its 2017 manifesto, "We believe in direct democracy, the separation of powers, the rule of law, social market economics, subsidarity, federalism, family values, and Germany cultural heritage."

Clearly, something about the party has begun to resonate with Germans in recent years. After all, the AFD gained six seats and placed second with 15.9% of the national vote in the European parliamentary elections last month, handily beating German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's establishment Social Democratic Party. According to Reuters, the party's membership has also grown by 60% since January 2023.

The German powers that be have worked to neutralize the AFD's gains at the polls.

In the wake of the AFD's strong electoral showing last month, a Bavarian court ruled that the country's domestic intelligence agency could surveil a regional association of the party as a suspected extremist group. In certain German states, such as Saxony and Thuringia, the party had already been classified as a "right-wing extremist" group.

Last week, leftist activists successfully petitioned to de-bank the AFD. Deutsche Welle reported that the AFD's donation account had been deactivated and that the Berliner Volksbank confirmed its receipt of the leftists' petition.

The AFD will not only find it difficult to raise money but find it impossible to raise firearms in self-defense against the kinds of savage attacks an AFD politician suffered in early June.

'Membership in a party suspected of anti-constitutional activities regularly leads to the presumption of unreliability.'

The 22nd Chamber of the Düsseldorf Administrative Court revealed on July 1 that membership in the AFD precludes German citizens from owning firearms. This ruling is at odds with another regional court's determination last year that suspicion of a party's elements does not alone justify the revocation of members' firearm licenses.

According to an English translation of a court release, the chamber determined that "membership in a party suspected of anti-constitutional activities regularly leads to the presumption of unreliability under gun law under the applicable strict standards of gun law, even if the party has not been banned by the Federal Constitutional Court on the grounds of unconstitutionality."

The case centered on a married couple associated with the AFD whose permits to keep their combined 224 firearms were revoked. They have since been ordered to hand over or destroy their firearms as well as any related parts or ammunition.

The administrative court claimed that its ruling did not violate Article 21 of Germany's Basic Law, which permits for the free establishment of political parties but apparently does not protect against any disadvantages for parties deemed undesirable.

The administrative court has reportedly enabled the couple to appeal the decision to the Higher Administrative Court in Münster.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Leftist stabs right-wing politician in German city where Islamic terrorist just went on a stabbing spree



With the European parliamentary elections just days away, radicals in the streets and in the media appear to have ramped up their attacks against right-wing politicians. The right-leaning Alternative for Germany, poised to secure new seats Sunday, is a popular target for such attacks.

On Tuesday evening, one radical slashed 62-year-old AFD politician Heinrich Koch with a carpet knife in the southwestern German city of Mannheim, roughly five miles away from where an Afghan migrant went on a stabbing spree Friday.

According to the German publication Junge Freiheit, Koch — a Rheinau district council member and an AFD candidate for Mannheim city council — spotted a leftist tearing down his campaign posters around 10:45 p.m. on Tuesday, near the market square where Islamic terrorist Sulaiman Ataee murdered a police officer Rouven L., stabbed politician Michael Stürzenberger, and cut up four other anti-jihad demonstrators.

Footage of the incident shows Koch run over to confront the vandal tearing down the posters only to realize he was armed with a knife. Police indicated the 25-year-old suspect, who previously damaged and stole several election posters, stabbed Koch.

AFD Bundestag member Markus Frohnmaier told Junge Freiheit that Koch was taken to the hospital with injuries to his stomach and face.

AFD cochairman Tino Chrupalla said in a statement, "Our members and representatives are the most frequent victims of political violence and destruction. That cannot stop us. Get well soon, Heinrich!"

Alice Weidel, cochairwoman of the AFD, assigned some blame to the AFD's leftist political opponents and the media, claiming they "are creating a climate in which even extreme physical attacks are no longer shied away from. We condemn this violence and call on people to finally return to the basic democratic practices!"

Markus Frohnmaier, the regional chair of the AFD, said, "It is unacceptable that this mental agitation against our party continues, with surveillance and an attempt to push us out of the democratic political consensus in Germany. Because incidents like the one in Mannheim are the result of this!"

Hans-Georg Maassen, former president of Germany's domestic security agency, similarly suggested the German left has set the stage for future attacks.

"We are currently seeing the seeds sprout," Maassen told Junge Freihei. "We must finally return to social reconciliation, and that can only work if the political left refrains from treating its opponents like enemies."

Mannheim Mayor Christian Specht, who previously intimated the anti-jihad demonstrators stabbed last Friday were partly responsible for their attacker's rampage, said in a statement Wednesday, "This cowardly act is abhorrent and cannot be justified in any way. Anyone who attacks election candidates is calling into question our free, equal, general, direct and secret elections — and thus the basis of our democracy."

"This despicable incident is one of a series of attacks on campaign workers and politicians that are currently being observed throughout Germany," continued Specht. "The hatred and willingness to use violence that are currently breaking out in our society are unbearable."

The AFD has drawn the ire of the left, in part, by criticizing the fallout of Germany's immigration policies and officials' refusal to deport criminal noncitizens.

For instance, Marie-Thérèse Kaiser, a member of the AFD, generated outrage in 2021 for citing government statistics in an X post that showed Afghan and African asylum seekers disproportionately engaged in certain types of violent crimes. Despite the veracity of her statements, Kaiser was charged and convicted with incitement to hatred.

Weeks after her May appeal fell through, there were two instances of migrant knife attacks: one in Mannheim and another in the northeastern German town of Bergen.

In Sunday's election, EuroNews indicated that AFD stands to secure 15 seats in the European Parliament. A June 5 German voting intention poll showed AFD trailing the center-right Christian Democratic Union-Christian Social Union alliance in second place.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!