Elon is one smart cookie…

But this wasn’t exaclty rocket science.

Musk Says Germany Has ‘Too Much of a Focus on Past Guilt’ – His comments to the hard-right Alternative for Germany party escalated efforts by the billionaire to influence the country’s election for chancellor next month.

‘Too Much of a Focus on Past Guilt’ is one hell of an understatement. Guilt is an all-consuming obsession here.

German of the day: Mehrheit

That means majority.

Despite Scholz’s criticism (German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, SPD): majority of SPD voters support Merz’s asylum ban, according to poll – Scholz had protested vehemently against the CDU’s push for a turnaround on migration. A survey now shows that 66% of Germans support Merz – as do the majority of SPD voters.

I can only hold my breath for 30 seconds

Tops.

This guy rocks.

120 days: German man sets world record for living under water – To celebrate, Rudiger Koch toasted with champagne and smoked a cigar before leaping into the Caribbean Sea.y rocks.

120 days: German man sets world record for living under water – To celebrate, Rudiger Koch toasted with champagne and smoked a cigar before leaping into the Caribbean Sea.

German of the day: Harte Linie

That means a hard line.

When it comes to Germany’s migration policy. Something that has never been taken before. Or maybe this time doch (after all)? Could it really be possible now?? Nah.

Germany’s opposition leader Merz under fire for vowing migration crackdown – Germany’s opposition leader Friedrich Merz is under fire for vowing strict border controls if he is elected chancellor, with the frontrunner citing a deadly knife attack that was allegedly carried out by a rejected asylum seeker as justification for a migration overhaul.

The leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) on Thursday presented a five-point migration plan calling for, among other things, a “de facto entry ban” for all people without valid documents and permanent control of all of Germany’s borders…

Merz has steadfastly ruled out the possibility of working with the controversial AfD — which has been traditionally shunned in parliament amongst Germany’s more established parties.

Yet the AfD’s candidate for chancellor, Alice Weidel, emphatically supported Merz’s proposals, which she claimed her party had put forward first. Weidel said that the AfD could work with the CDU in order to gather enough votes for Merz’s measures to pass.

Nothing will change

The Germans will continue to vote as have; way too Green and way too Red.

And the next coalition government will be just as ineffective as the last one. For whatever mysterious reason, this is what the German electorate wants.

Germany’s likely next chancellor demands migration crackdown after knife attack – Germany’s main opposition leader demanded a sweeping overhaul of migration policy and permanent border controls on Thursday, a day after an Afghan asylum seeker was arrested for a deadly knife attack targeting children weeks before federal elections.

Friedrich Merz, who is likely to become chancellor after the Feb. 23 vote, said the attack, which killed a two-year-old boy and an adult passerby, could not become the new normal, saying all “illegal immigrants” should be turned away at the border.

German of the day: Undenkbar

That means unthinkable.

Austria’s ‘firewall’ against the far right collapsed. Could the unthinkable happen in Germany too?

Could Germany go the way of Austria? Could the party of the far right be invited to form a government? What was previously deemed impossible, then revised down to improbable, is now possible. There are two scenarios in which this could happen…

Meanwhile… Two dead after knife attack in Aschaffenburg.

Overly dependent on Russian energy?

That was different. And that worked out just fine. But…

Germany Says Europe Shouldn’t Become Overly Dependent on U.S. Energy – Europe must not become too reliant on U.S. oil and gas, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Tuesday, a day after Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th U.S. President.

Europe needs to “meet the Trump administration with an outstretched hand, but not have our hand cut off,” Habeck said at the Handelsblatt energy summit in Berlin, just as President Trump urged Europe once again to buy more American oil and gas.

Germany gets off to a great start with Trump 2.0

Its ambassador just caused “maximum disruption” – for Germany.

Where would Germany be without professional diplomats?

German ambassador warns of Trump plan to redefine constitutional order, document shows – Germany’s ambassador to the United States has warned that the incoming Trump administration will rob U.S. law enforcement and the media of their independence and hand big tech companies “co-governing power”, according to a confidential document seen by Reuters.

The briefing document, dated Jan. 14 and signed by Ambassador Andreas Michaelis, describes Donald Trump’s agenda for his second White House term as one of “maximum disruption” that will bring about “a redefinition of the constitutional order – maximum concentration of power with the president at the expense of Congress and the federal states.”

“Basic democratic principles and checks and balances will be largely undermined, the legislature, law enforcement and media will be robbed of their independence and misused as a political arm, Big Tech will be given co-governing power,” it says.

Mess around with carnival witches and find out

They don’t black mass around.

German politician is ‘attacked by a coven of carnival witches who beat him up and broke his ribs’ – German authorities have launched an investigation after a group of carnival witches were accused of beating up a local politican.

Alexander Kebeck, who is a mayoral candidate for the southern German town of Loßburg, claims he was left with broken ribs after an unprovoked assault in the Black Forest region.

The 43-year-old had been attending a local carnival in the area and was making his way home when he encountered the coven of ‘witches’.

Speaking with German tabloid Bild, Mr Kebeck claimed that the group of six witches ‘jumped from behind and hit me in the back, brutally knocking me to the ground’.

“Federal police have warned the public not to risk their lives on Germany’s trains”

Sound advice.

Passenger clings to German high-speed train and survives – A fare-dodging passenger on a German high-speed train ended up clinging to the outside when it pulled out of the station before he was ready to get on, police say.

The 40-year-old man had boarded the ICE train in Munich without a valid ticket and wanted to take a smoking break at the station in Ingolstadt.

But he lingered too long over his cigarette and the train doors closed, leaving him with the prospect of being stranded.

He then jumped on to a bracket between two carriages and held on to cables while the train powered on towards Nuremberg at up to 282 km/h (175mph), until federal police brought it to a halt about 30km away.