Category Archives: Germany

Germany has voted. But what kind of government will it have?

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The country faces weeks or even months of coalition negotiations after no party won a majority

It has been a extraordinary election in Germany, and the result has been keenly awaited around the world to see what new government might emerge in Europe’s largest but ailing economy.

Results show a clear win for the CDU/CSU centre-right alliance, followed by the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) – an anti-Islam party that has advocated “remigration” for migrants as well as German citizens deemed to have integrated poorly – in second place.

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Willingness to ease off ‘debt brake’ may decide the German election

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Rule dating from 2009 that limits borrowing looks vulnerable as main political parties promise to revive stalled economy

Germany is used to running its economy with the brake on. Ever since the 2008 financial crisis Berlin has sought to burnish a reputation as the world capital of fiscal discipline, with a near-pious aversion to debt and pride in strong government finances.

Under a rule known as the “debt brake” – introduced in 2009 by Angela Merkel to show Germany was committed to balancing the books after the banking crash – the federal government is required to limit annual borrowing to 0.35% of GDP.

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St Pancras and Channel tunnel plan rail routes to Germany and Switzerland

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Partnership comes as London station looks at ways to almost triple passenger numbers

St Pancras railway station in London and the Channel tunnel operator have agreed to work together to open up more trains from Britain to France, and routes to Germany and Switzerland.

The agreement is the latest sign of growing momentum for new passenger rail links from England across the Channel, after Great Britain’s only international station announced plans to triple the number of people who can travel through every hour.

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All eyes on far-right AfD in German election rocked by violence and US interference

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Extremists tipped for second place after shifting debate to immigration and crime and winning endorsements from Musk and Vance

In the tumultuous German election campaign, which has been rocked by jaw-dropping US interference, a spate of violent attacks and rare fears for the country’s political stability, all eyes have been locked on the party most likely to finish second.

When the dust settles after Sunday’s vote and conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz is – barring further surprises – elected chancellor, the 2025 race will be remembered as the moment the far-right Alternative für Deutschland, consistently polling in second place, went from sideshow to centre stage.

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‘Allo ‘Allo! Europe’s leaders get together dans Paris for emergency sommet | John Crace

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Emmanuel Macron, Kier Starmer and others discuss Trump, Russia and Ukraine at hastily arranged conference

Emmanuel Macron: Bienvenu á Paris.

Keir Starmer: Bonjour, Monsieur le President. Thank you for organising this “once-in-a-generation” summit at such short notice.

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Two-year-old girl and her mother die from Munich car attack injuries

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Afghan man was arrested on suspicion of deliberately driving car into trade union demonstration on Thursday

A two-year-old girl and her mother died on Saturday from injuries suffered in the car-ramming attack in Munich on Thursday that left 37 others injured, police said.

“Unfortunately, we have to confirm the deaths today of the two-year-old child and her 37-year-old mother,” a police spokesperson told AFP.

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Trump and Vance are courting Europe’s far right to spread their political gospel

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US vice-president’s speech and meeting with Germany’s AfD chief signal administration’s wider plans for continent

The Trump administration is making a big bet on Europe’s hard right.

Speaking at a conference of Europe’s leaders in Munich on Friday, the US vice-president JD Vance stunned the room by delivering what amounted to a campaign speech against Germany’s sitting government just one week before an election in which the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim AfD is set to take second place.

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Munich car attack believed to have had Islamist motive, says prosecutor

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Gabriele Tilmann says suspect’s online communications point to extremism but investigators have found no links to jihadist groups

German police and prosecutors have said the Afghan suspect in a car ramming in central Munich that injured at least 36 people is believed to have had an “Islamist” motive and will answer to charges of attempted murder.

One day after the attack on a trade union rally during the final stage of the German election campaign, the chief prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann told reporters that online “communications” by the suspect, a 24-year-old asylum seeker, pointed to Islamic extremism.

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Two British nationals arrested in Iran on ‘security’ allegations, say state media

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Photo appears to show UK ambassador to Iran meeting pair, whose detention comes after tit-for-tat releases with Germany and Italy

Two British nationals have been arrested in Iran and given access to the UK ambassador, Hugo Shorter, according to reports.

State media published photographs purportedly showing Shorter meeting two British “national security” suspects at the general and revolutionary prosecutor’s office in Kerman province, about 500 miles south-east of Tehran.

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Rediscovered, a young English novelist’s warning of the Nazi threat

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Crooked Cross, Sally Carson’s ‘electrifying masterpiece’ from 1934, to be republished

Sally Carson was not an oracle or a prophet, just a young woman from Dorset, born in 1901. Yet she foresaw a dark and violent future for Europe and gave voice to those fears in a 1934 novel that is now being hailed as “an electrifying masterpiece”.

Carson’s book, Crooked Cross, predicted the scale of the Nazi threat and is to be republished for the first time this spring, ahead of the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war. Controversial in its day, her novel had to walk a careful path to avoid the accusation that it was alarmist about the Fuhrer’s aims. A stage adaptation of her story was even censored, shorn of all its “Heil Hitlers”.

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Merz doubles down on gambit with German far right in combative speech

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Prospective chancellor takes startlingly aggressive line against those protesting against gamble with AfD

The German conservative opposition leader, Friedrich Merz, whose party is widely tipped to win this month’s general election, defended his hardline migration proposals after a wave of protests accused him of breaching the time-honoured “firewall” between the far right and centrists.

In an uncompromising speech to a party congress of his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Berlin, Merz said he was confident they would win the 23 February vote “with a very good result”, well ahead of the anti-immigration, anti-Islam Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which has been consistently placing second in the polls.

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‘Vicious cycle’: how far-right parties across Europe are cannibalising the centre right

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Hardline agendas, especially on immigration, are copied by mainstream conservatives in vain effort to win back votes - but it’s not working

Far-right parties could become the largest force on the right in Europe within a decade, experts have said, as mainstream conservative parties look to copy their hardline agendas, especially on immigration, in a vain effort to win back votes.

Germany’s conservatives last week sparked fury when their leader, Friedrich Merz, the country’s likely next chancellor, broke a longstanding pledge by relying on far-right votes to adopt a non-binding motion urging a drastic immigration crackdown. The leader of Alternative für Deutschland, Alice Weidel, hailed “a historic day for Germany” as the Bundestag, for the first time in its history, passed a vote with the backing of her party, which is second in the polls weeks before this month’s elections.

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German parliament rejects immigration bill backed by far right

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Plan to tighten migration policy was brought by the opposition leader Friedrich Merz with the help of AfD

The German parliament has rejected a bill to tighten immigration controls brought by the frontrunner to be the next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, with the backing of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland.

It came after a similar but non-binding motion was passed by parliament on Wednesday with the votes of the AfD, prompting a wave of protest from those who said it was a breach in Germany’s longstanding “firewall” between the far right and the mainstream.

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‘Did they learn nothing?’: Auschwitz survivor to return German honour over AfD vote role

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Albrecht Weinberg ‘horrified’ that MPs relied on far-right party to pass anti-immigration motion

A 99-year-old Holocaust survivor has said he will return his federal order of merit to the German president in protest over MPs passing an anti-immigration motion in parliament with the support of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland.

Albrecht Weinberg, whose parents were murdered in Auschwitz, told the Guardian he was “horrified” on learning that a proposal submitted by the conservative parties had relied on the anti-immigrant, xenophobic AfD to get it over the line.

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‘Disrupt or be disrupted’, mainstream parties warned as voters turn to populists

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Research shows voters losing faith in traditional centre-left and centre-right to deliver meaningful change

Voters in western democracies are turning away from mainstream political parties and towards populists because they are losing faith in their ability to implement meaningful change, a major report based on surveys of 12,000 voters has found.

The popularity of traditional centre-left and centre-right parties across major democratic countries has plummeted from 73% in 2000 to 51% today, according to research by the Tony Blair Institute.

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Angela Merkel rebukes CDU leader for alliance with far-right on immigration

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Ex-chancellor makes rare intervention to criticise her own party for passing asylum policy with support of AfD

The former German chancellor Angela Merkel has criticised Friedrich Merz, her eventual successor as leader of the country’s conservatives, for pushing through proposals on migration and asylum with the backing of the far-right AfD party.

In a rare intervention in public affairs since stepping down from politics in December 2021, Merkel said Merz, who is tipped to become Germany’s next chancellor, had in effect performed a U-turn.

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German immigration motion passes, breaking taboo on cooperation with AfD

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Narrow passage of controversial CDU-CSU motion ends longstanding boycott on cooperating with far-right party

The German parliament has narrowly passed a motion urging tough restrictions on immigration that was highly controversial because it was backed by the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party.

The motion was brought by the conservative opposition CDU-CSU and backed by, among others, the AfD, breaking a longstanding taboo on cooperation with the anti-immigration party.

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‘Groundbreaking’: scientists develop patch that can repair damaged hearts

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Cells taken from blood and ‘reprogrammed’ into heart muscle cells may help patients with heart failure

Damaged hearts can literally be patched up to help them work, say researchers, in what has been hailed as a groundbreaking development for people with advanced heart failure.

According to a recent study, heart failure affects more than 64 million people worldwide, with causes including heart attacks, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease.

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Woman accused of stealing Ukrainian soldiers’ mobile numbers, court hears

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Prosecutor at Old Bailey says Katrin Ivanova was only member of Bulgarian spy ring able to pull off plot

A lab technician has been accused of being the only member of a Bulgarian spy ring able to pull off a plot to steal the mobile numbers of Ukrainian soldiers training in Germany.

Katrin Ivanova, 33, was told by prosecutor Alison Morgan KC at the Old Bailey that she had been described by the plotters’ leader as the most technically adept member of the group and that she was necessary to the planned surveillance in Stuttgart.

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Fears for ‘security of Jews worldwide’ in wake of Elon Musk AfD speech

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Top US Jewish advocate Halie Soifer calls Trump adviser’s address to far-right Germany rally ‘incredibly dangerous’

Elon Musk’s remarks to a German far-right party that Germans should not focus on their country’s Nazi past should prompt “deep concern” about “the security of American Jews” and “of Jews worldwide”, a leading US Jewish advocate has told the Guardian.

“Speaking as a deeply concerned American Jew,” said Halie Soifer, chief executive of the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA), “I am deeply concerned about the security of American Jews, of Jews worldwide, given our president’s clear alignment with dangerous rightwing extremists.”

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