“Americans don’t accept limits on freedom of expression”

Not even on that yucky awful terrible German AfD.

Top AfD politician makes surprise visit to White House – Vice President JD Vance has spoken out against the far-right AfD’s political exclusion in Germany…

A White House official confirmed the meeting and said that representatives of the national security council, the vice president’s office and the State Department attended.

The talks focused on democratic participation and election procedures in Germany, according to the AfD and White House officials. AfD politician Joachim Paul, whose candidacy was disqualified by a German court earlier this year, was presented as a case study in what the AfD describes as the narrowing of political freedoms in Germany.

At the Munich Security Conference in February, Vance raised eyebrows by questioning Germany’s political “firewall” against the AfD, a political agreement by other forces not to include the far-right party in governance. Mainstream parties say the policy is intended to avoid a repeat of country’s Nazi era.

German of the day: Verdreifachen

That means to triple.

Support for far-right triples in western German vote, early forecasts show – Support for Germany’s far right surged in local elections in the country’s most populous state on Sunday, sending a warning to conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s four-month-old national coalition with the Social Democrats, early projections showed.

Initial forecasts from pollster infratest dimap for broadcaster ARD after voting ended for councils, districts and mayors in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia showed support for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party had more than tripled to 16.5% from 2020.

Drawing swastikas on ballots is always a serious mistake in Germany…

If only he had used a little more imagination and drawn one of these instead.

He’d be in the clear.

German politician steps down over swastika on ballot – The German state of Baden-Württemberg’s deputy speaker stepped down after admitting he drew a swastika on a ballot beside an AfD lawmaker’s name. Daniel Born said he had made a “serious mistake” during a vote.

Ban the AfD!

Its political competetors demand.

Gee, I wonder why? German voters seem to be much less concerned.

Poll: Germans largely reject ban on far-right AfD – Germans reject a ban on the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) by a majority of 52% to 27% in favour, according to a new representative survey published by the Allensbach Institute polling organization on Saturday.

The proportion opposed to a ban rises to 65% in the east of the country, according to the poll published by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily newspaper, while it falls to 49% in the western states. The AfD enjoys widespread support in the formerly communist eastern states.

Germans have been seriously angry for years…

But their anger is being systematically ignored by their old school political parties.

That’s why the AfD keeps getting stronger.

It Is Time for Germans To Get Seriously Angry – Early Sunday morning (last week), Germany was hit by Islamist terror—again. Five people were severely injured, two critically, in a knife attack. The perpetrator, identified as a 35-year-old Syrian refugee, was finally tracked down and arrested by police on Tuesday, 42 hours later. He reportedly entered Germany illegally two years ago. Fellow residents at his asylum shelter told reporters he maintained close connections to Islamist circles—a claim supported by evidence found in his room during the police investigation.

Germany, that much is clear, is in deep trouble. And its establishment—though the police have done a commendable job hunting down the perpetrator—remains unable to get a grip on the persistent terrorist threat.

German of the day: Aller Anfang ist schwer

That means every beginning is hard.

And this one was hard to believe. And hard to follow.

Germany’s Merz becomes chancellor after surviving historic vote failure – Conservative leader Friedrich Merz has won a parliament vote to become Germany’s next chancellor at the second attempt.

Merz had initially fallen six votes short of the absolute majority he needed on Tuesday morning – a significant blow to his prestige and an unprecedented failure in post-war German history.

As it was a secret ballot in the 630-seat Bundestag, there was no indication who had refused to back him – whether MPs from his centre-left coalition partner or his own conservatives.

German of the day: Genug!

That means enough! As in enough already!

Most Germans Have Had Enough of the Firewall Against AfD – While establishment parties continue to ostracize the party, only a third of the country supports the cordon sanitaire, with half wanting AfD to be treated as any other democratic party.

After a turbulent election season dominated by the establishment’s demonization of the national conservative AfD—now Germany’s most popular party—the plurality of Germans believe that ending the undemocratic cordon sanitaire against them is long overdue, regardless of who they vote for.

German of the day: Redefreiheit war gestern

That means free speech was yesterday.

The threat to free speech in Germany – One of the freest countries in the world takes a hammer to its own reputation.

Freedom of expression jeopardized by coalition agreement?

A paragraph in the coalition agreement is now causing new concern online about the right to freedom of expression. “The future black-red coalition does not respect freedom,” according to the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. According to Cicero magazine, the potential new government is “alienated” from the “responsible citizen” and Die Welt warns of a new “kind of truth law.”

German of the day: Ins Ungewisse schrumpfen

That means to “shrink into obscurity.” Like the German Greens just did.

They got their asses whooped, in other words. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

The Greens shrink into obscurity – The Greens finish in fourth place in the federal elections. It is still unclear whether there is an option for power – but the battle to interpret the result has already begun.