Berlin checking if US immigration policy has changed after Fabian Schmidt becomes third German to be detained
Berlin is investigating whether US immigration policy has changed, after a German national who is a permanent US resident was detained and “violently interrogated” by US border officials.
Fabian Schmidt, 34, is being held at a detention centre in Rhode Island after attempting to return to his home in New Hampshire after a trip to Luxembourg.
Continue reading...Maria Ressa says rules-based order ‘can perhaps still exist’ but social media is being used to undermine democracy around the world
The arrest of Rodrigo Duterte is a welcome sign that the rules-based order continues to hold, the Nobel laureate Maria Ressa has said, even as the global order has been marred by the US “descending into hell” at the hands of the same forces that consumed the Philippines.
Ressa’s remarks came after Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, made his first appearance before the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague, accused of committing crimes against humanity during his brutal “war on drugs”.
Continue reading...Likely next chancellor needs two-thirds majority to back €500bn infrastructure fund and relaxation of debt rules
Germany’s likely next chancellor is to face a key vote on plans to unlock a record level of state borrowing, which he argues is necessary to boost the country’s military spending and inject growth into its ailing economy.
Ahead of the crucial Bundestag vote on Tuesday, Friedrich Merz has faced a barrage of complaints from the opposition and from within his own ranks that he is not coupling the historic levels of spending planned – as much as €1tn (£840bn) – to demands for reform.
Continue reading...Backing of Greens is tantamount to approval of chancellor-in-waiting’s proposal to relax debt brake
Germany’s conservative chancellor-in-waiting, Friedrich Merz, has said he has secured the support of the Green party for his radical plan to increase spending on defence and infrastructure after marathon talks that went through the night, paving the way for its approval in parliament.
“Germany is back,” Merz said in Berlin on Friday. “Germany is making its large contribution to the defence of freedom and peace in Europe.”
Continue reading...‘What more do you want from us?’ asks chancellor-in-waiting as he seeks urgent support for fiscal rule changes
Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting has tried to win over the Greens to his ambitious but controversial plans to raise the country’s defence spending, promising to expand the scope of the plans and demanding of them: “What more do you actually want from us?”
The outgoing parliament met on Thursday to debate the creation of a €500bn (£420bn) fund for infrastructure investment and radical changes in Germany’s borrowing limits in order to boost defence spending.
Continue reading...Jessica Brösche to join Lucas Sielaff, who is reported to have returned to Germany on 6 March
A German tourist detained by US immigration authorities is due to be deported back to Germany on Tuesday after spending more than six weeks in detention, including eight days in solitary confinement.
Jessica Brösche, a 29-year-old tattoo artist from Berlin, will reportedly join Lucas Sielaff, 25, from Bad Bibra in Saxony-Anhalt, who is reported to have returned to Germany on 6 March, after being arrested at the Mexican border on 18 February before being detained for almost two weeks.
Continue reading...But Friedrich Merz cautions such a move could not replace the US’s existing protective shield over Europe
Germany’s chancellor-to-be, Friedrich Merz, has said he will reach out to France and Britain to discuss the sharing of nuclear weapons, but cautioned that such a move could not be a replacement for the US’s existing protective shield over Europe.
“The sharing of nuclear weapons is an issue we need to talk about,” Merz said in a wide-ranging interview on Sunday with the broadcaster Deutschlandfunk (DLF). “We have to be stronger together in nuclear deterrence.”
Continue reading...Even Berlin and Brussels are bending fiscal rules in the face of Russia’s threat. Will the chancellor still stick to hers?
As the Nobel laureate Robert Lucas quipped during the 2008 financial crisis: “I guess everyone is a Keynesian in a foxhole.” Donald Trump’s upending of the postwar security consensus has underlined the enduring wisdom of Lucas’s observation. But now, instead of bank bailouts and emergency bond buying, European firepower is being directed at bombs, tanks and drones in the desperate fight to secure the continent’s border with Russia.
Berlin and Brussels – typically capitals of financial orthodoxy – have been convinced that this approach is required once again. Under the plan put forward by Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting, Friedrich Merz, Berlin is on the brink of relaxing its “debt brake” rule to pave the way for spending on defence and infrastructure worth an additional €1tn (£840bn) over the coming decade.
Continue reading...From Istanbul and Warsaw to Athens and Madrid, activists demand equality and the end of gender-based violence
Women took to the streets of cities across Europe, Africa and elsewhere to mark International Women’s Day with demands for ending inequality and gender-based violence.
On the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city Istanbul, a rally in Kadiköy saw members of dozens of women’s groups listen to speeches, dance and sing in the spring sunshine. The colorful protest was overseen by a large police presence, including officers in riot gear and a water cannon truck.
Continue reading...Extremists linked to Reichsbürger movement also planned to kidnap health minister and create conditions for civil war
A German court has jailed five members of an extremist group linked to the Reichsbürger (Reich Citizens) movement for plotting a coup and to kidnap the health minister.
The defendants, four men, aged 46 to 58, and a 77-year-old woman, who belonged to the self-styled “United Patriots” group, were sentenced to between five years and nine months and eight years’ jail by the Koblenz higher regional court on Thursday.
Continue reading...Berlin’s ‘big bazooka’ proposal sends industrial stocks surging but fiscal sea change also hikes borrowing costs
European financial markets have rallied sharply and German borrowing costs have soared after the country’s prospective leaders announced a historic deal to loosen its “debt brake” rule to boost spending on defence.
The yield – in effect the interest rate – on 30-year German government bonds rose by about 25 basis points to 3.08% in its biggest daily increase since October 1998.
Continue reading...Ministers issue joint statement after Israel cuts off supplies in effort to push Hamas to accept change in ceasefire deal
Britain has joined Germany and France to warn that Israel could be in breach of international law by halting the entry of aid into Gaza, which is facing a “catastrophic” humanitarian crisis.
The foreign secretary, David Lammy, signed a joint statement with his French and German counterparts to urge Israel and Hamas to engage constructively to get ceasefire talks back on track.
Continue reading...Conservative alliance and Social Democrats to propose exempting spending of more than 1% of GDP on defence
The prospective partners in Germany’s next government have said they will seek to loosen rules on running up debt to allow for higher defence spending.
They said they will also seek to set up a huge €500bn ($533bn ) fund to finance spending on Germany’s infrastructure over the next 10 years.
Continue reading...Woman, 83, and man, 54, killed and several injured after attack by SUV driver during carnival celebrations
A car has rammed into crowds in the centre of the German city of Mannheim, killing two people and injuring several others, in what police described as a deliberate attack.
Police said they had arrested a man, the driver of a black Ford Fiesta, who was reportedly being treated for his injuries in hospital under tight police protection. Thomas Strobl, the interior minister of Baden-Württemberg state, said the suspect was a 40-year-old German man from the south-western state of Rhineland-Palatinate who was believed to have acted alone.
Continue reading...Image posted on social media rekindles idea that prospective new chancellor has a Frauenproblem
Six beaming election winners huddled around a table and not a woman among them: a viral social media image of the man likely to be Germany’s next chancellor and his transition team has revived longstanding questions about whether Friedrich Merz can bridge a persistent gender gap.
“Not great optics” was among the more generous of the thousands of comments on the post by Merz’s Bavarian ally Markus Söder, which seemed to hark back to another time.
Continue reading...After Sunday’s election the far-right party has decided to allow Maximilian Krah and Matthias Helferich to return to the parliamentary group
Two politicians for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) who were sidelined over remarks they made relating to the Nazis have been welcomed back into its parliamentary group after the party’s historic performance in the German general election.
Maximilian Krah resigned from the AfD’s federal executive board before the European elections last June after telling an Italian newspaper that not all members of Adolf Hitler’s SS had been “automatically criminals”.
Continue reading...Friedrich Merz, expected to be next chancellor, has spoken of urgent need for ramped-up defence, but ‘blocking minority’ could form in future Bundestag
Germany’s outgoing parliament could be asked to sign off on a new defence fund in its final weeks as the conservative winners of Sunday’s election seek to balance geopolitical demands with the looming pressures of a new Bundestag hostile to military spending.
Since the victory of his CDU/CSU alliance, Friedrich Merz has spoken of the urgent need for Europe to ramp up its own defence capabilities, saying it needs “independence from the USA” amid an unpredictable Trump administration and a looming threat from Russia.
Continue reading...Leader of victorious conservative alliance says continent must build defence capability as US moves towards ‘America alone’ motto
The man expected to be Germany’s next chancellor has said Europe must act swiftly to increase its defence capability in the face of a US administration whose motto is moving towards “America alone”, adding: “This is really five minutes to midnight for Europe.”
In a wide-ranging press conference after his conservative alliance’s victory in Sunday’s federal election, Friedrich Merz made it clear his focus was on the turbulent geopolitical landscape, saying that although he would seek good ties with the US he was also ready for “the worst-case scenario”.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: The far-right AfD may have come second, but at 20% they have been held off by the performance of mainstream parties, with the CDU leader Friedrich Merz on course to be the new chancellor
Good morning. Germany’s elections always matter far beyond the country’s borders – but yesterday’s vote could be the most important in a generation.
After decades as the stable linchpin of European liberal democracy, Germany has found itself sucked into the same crises that are erupting all over the continent – over its economy, attitudes to immigration and the war in Ukraine. And after the shocking interventions of JD Vance and Elon Musk in favour of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, the election became a symbol of a wider struggle for ideological supremacy – and posed a serious question over whether the centre can hold across the continent.
Ukraine | Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is not willing to cave in to intense pressure from the Trump administration to sign a $500bn minerals deal – adding that that he was ready to quit as president if it meant “peace for Ukraine” or membership of Nato.
Catholicism | Pope Francis, who is battling pneumonia and a complex lung infection, remains in a critical condition, the Vatican has said. Archbishop Rino Fisichella, a senior Vatican official, told participants at a mass in St Peter’s Basilica on Sunday morning they should make their prayers for Francis “stronger and more intense”.
Afghanistan | The Taliban have arrested a British couple in their 70s for “teaching mothers parenting with children”. Peter Reynolds, 79, and his wife, Barbie, 75, have been running projects in schools in Afghanistan for 18 years.
Farming | Hospitals, schools and prisons are to be urged to buy more British food, as part of a government push to heal a rift with farmers over changes to inheritance tax. The environment secretary, Steve Reed, will set a target of sourcing at least half of public sector food from farms with the highest welfare standards, which should benefit British producers.
Green economy | The net zero sector is growing three times faster than the overall UK economy, analysis has found, providing high-wage jobs across the country while cutting climate-heating emissions and increasing energy security. 22,000 net zero businesses generated £83bn in gross value added last year.
Continue reading...Preliminary results show CDU/CSU will be largest party but success of Alternative für Deutschland likely to complicate formation of a government
The conservative opposition has won the most votes in Germany’s general election, preliminary results indicated, but a dramatic surge by the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is likely to complicate the formation of a government to help spearhead a European response to growing global threats.
The CDU/CSU candidate, Friedrich Merz, was preparing on Sunday night to try to form a ruling coalition after clinching roughly 29% of the vote from a high turnout.
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