Germany hits back at Marco Rubio after he panned labeling of AfD as ‘extremist'
On Thursday, Rubio took to X and wrote: 'Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That's not democracy – it's tyranny in disguise. What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD – which took second in the recent election – but rather the establishment's deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes.'
Rubio went on to say: 'Germany should reverse course.'
In a response on X, the German foreign ministry pushed back against the US secretary of state, saying: 'This is democracy. This decision is the result of a thorough & independent investigation to protect our Constitution & the rule of law. It is independent courts that will have the final say. We have learnt from our history that rightwing extremism needs to be stopped.'
Germany's response to Rubio comes after its domestic intelligence service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), designated the AfD as a 'confirmed rightwing extremist' force on Friday.
The BfV's decision marks a step up from its previous designation of the country's anti-immigrant, pro-Kremlin and largest opposition party as a 'suspected' threat to Germany's democratic order. According to the BfV, the AfD's xenophobic stances based on an 'ethnic-ancestry-based understanding' of German identity are 'incompatible with the free democratic basic order' as indicated by the country's constitution.
The spy agency added that the AfD 'aims to exclude certain population groups from equal participation in society, to subject them to unconstitutional unequal treatment and thus to assign them a legally devalued status'.
It also said: 'This exclusionary understanding of the people is the starting point and ideological basis for ongoing agitation against certain individuals or groups of people, through which they are defamed and despised indiscriminately and irrational fears and rejection are stirred up.'
During February's general election in Germany which was rocked by extensive US interference including public votes of confidence by staunch AfD supporters such as Elon Musk and JD Vance, the AfD amassed approximately 21% of the vote, finishing second.
The far-right party's rise to popularity in Germany has come as a result of a broader wave of growing rightwing extremism across Europe.
Sign up to This Week in Trumpland
A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration
after newsletter promotion
At the same time, public figures in the US have openly made remarks or gestures that are sympathetic to nazism, despite the Trump administration's sweeping crackdown on antisemitism across the country – a move which has been called into question by higher education institutions and Jewish senators who accuse Trump of targeting free speech.
Musk, who had been given the designation of a 'special government employee' by the Trump administration, made back-to-back apparent fascist salutes during the president's inauguration rally earlier this year.
Last month, during a Capitol Hill hearing that sought to explore supposed government censorship under Joe Biden, Republican representative Keith Self quoted Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister under Adolf Hitler.
'A direct quote from Joseph Goebbels: 'It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion,' and I think that may be what we're discussing here,' he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
9 minutes ago
- The Independent
NYC candidate Zohran Mamdani is making his messaging for the mayoral race clear: Me vs Trump
As he heads into November's general election for New York City mayor, Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani has a warning: If he loses, the next mayor could be in Donald Trump's pocket. Mamdani has launched a 'five boroughs against Trump' tour to draw attention to the president's agenda and how the administration's impact has already been felt throughout the city — from threats to food stamps and healthcare to immigration raids and courthouse arrests. 'There is no borough that will be free from Donald Trump's cruelty,' Mamdani told supporters in Manhattan Monday. But he's also using the tour to tie his opponents — former Governor Andrew Cuomo, current mayor Eric Adams, and Republican challenger Curtis Sliwa — to the president. The race for the Democratic primary saw Mamdani relentlessly focus his campaign around affordability, including no-cost childcare, freezing rent in tens of thousands of rent-controlled apartment units, boosting taxes on corporations and the wealthiest residents to fund free buses, and creating city-owned grocery stores in one of the country's most expensive places to live. That platform remains at the center of his campaign, but Mamdani is ringing alarm bells about the future of the city under the Trump administration with an ill-equipped mayor at the helm — or, worse, one that works in concert with the president. 'We see far too many parallels between Donald Trump and Andrew Cuomo, far too many stories that make clear that both administrations have been characterized by corruption, by a sense of impunity,' Mamdani told reporters Monday at the offices of the 1199SEIU labor union, which had endorsed Cuomo in the primary but is now backing Mamdani. 'We know a fraud when we see one,' he said. Cuomo, who resigned from the governor's office under a cloud of sexual misconduct allegations, conceded to Mamdani in the Democratic primary after losing by nearly 13 points. Then, he entered the general election as an independent, arguing that he faced off against Trump as governor and can do it again as New York City mayor. 'Trump will flatten him like a pancake,' Cuomo recently wrote on X. 'There's only one person in this race who can stand up to Trump: the one who already has, successfully and effectively.' Trump and Cuomo spoke directly about the mayor's race on a recent phone call, according to The New York Times. Both Trump and Cuomo have denied speaking to one another, though the president has been briefed by allies about how best to keep Mamdani out of the race. Mamdani said the call is 'disqualifying' and a 'betrayal of New Yorkers.' 'While housing experts are ringing the alarm, Andrew Cuomo is ringing Donald Trump's cell,' Mamdani told supporters in Brooklyn Tuesday. In a recent meeting with New York business leaders, Cuomo also said he was not 'personally' looking for a fight with the president and said their relationship was more like a 'dysfunctional marriage.' Adams, meanwhile, has avoided speaking out against the president after the Department of Justice dropped federal corruption charges against him in an apparent effort to win his support for the president's anti-immigration agenda. The current mayor has said he is not beholden to anyone, including the president, while insisting he can develop a working relationship with Trump for the city's benefit. Sliwa, the longshot Republican candidate taking another stab at the mayor's race after losing in 2021, has even urged the president to stay out of the race. 'Every day it's Trump versus Zohran Mamdani, it's a good day for Zohran Mamdani,' Sliwa said in a recent radio interview. 'Every day that Cuomo and Adams talks about you, 'you drop out, you job out,' it's a good day for Zohran Mamdani,' he said. 'The fact is that the president has three candidates in this race,' Mamdani recently told WNYC. 'One that he's directly been in touch with, another that he bailed out of legal trouble and now functionally controls, and the final one literally being a member of the same Republican Party.' Mamdani, a 33-year-old Ugandan-born Democratic socialist, would be the city's first-ever Muslim and Indian American mayor, if elected. He has faced a wave of racist and Islamophobic attacks since securing the Democratic primary, including from Republican members of Congress and the White House. Trump has repeatedly questioned Mamdani's citizenship, falsely branded him a communist, threatened to arrest and deport him, and suggested his administration would 'run' New York City should he win in November. 'I'm not getting involved,' Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting last month. 'But I can tell you this. I used to say we will not ever be a socialist country. Well, I'll say it again. We're not gonna have it,' he continued. 'If a communist gets elected to run New York, it can never be the same. But we have tremendous power at the White House to run places where we have to.' While Mamdani touts endorsements from former Cuomo backers and other prominent New York Democrats on his latest tour, the latest Siena Research Institute poll shows the Democratic nominee in the lead with 44 percent of the vote, followed by Cuomo at 25 percent. Sliwa is at 12 percent and Adams is in single digits with 7 percent, the poll found. Mamdani has picked up key endorsements from progressive powerhouses Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders, as well as prominent New York Democratic officials like state Attorney General Letitia James and U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler — all of whom are targets of the president and his party. But he has not received any full-throated endorsements from New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, as national Democrats fear Mamdani's democratic socialist agenda could be a liability for moderates in a high-stakes race to take back control of Congress in 2026. 'Every seat matters, every race matters, and who is mayor of New York is crucial,' Nadler said. 'New York City needs a leader who won't give Trump an inch, who won't flinch or bargain away our rights.' If elected, Mamdani's fight with the White House would 'be delivered forcefully, rhetorically, through conversations, both public and private,' including staffing up the city's legal departments with dozens of attorneys to push back against Trump threats to send in federal troops, he said. He also argues that his election would also serve as its own signal that the city is fighting back against Trump with 'a governance that is actually characterized by competence and by compassion.'
Reuters
10 minutes ago
- Reuters
Russia has won war in Ukraine, Hungary's Orban says
BUDAPEST, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Russia has won the war in Ukraine, right-wing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Tuesday ahead of a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Friday. In power since 2010, Orban has been criticised by some European leaders for his government's ties with Russia and opposition to military aid for Ukraine, while his cabinet is struggling to revive the economy from an inflation shock. Orban, who has maintained close ties with Putin even after Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, became the only European Union leader on Monday not to endorse a joint statement saying Ukraine should have the freedom to decide its future. "We are talking now as if this were an open-ended war situation, but it is not. The Ukrainians have lost the war. Russia has won this war," Orban told the 'Patriot' YouTube channel in an interview. "The only question is when and under what circumstances will the West, who are behind the Ukrainians, admit that this has happened and what will result from all this." Hungary, which gets most of its energy from Russia, has refused to send weapons to Ukraine, with Orban also strongly opposing Ukraine's EU membership, saying it would wreak havoc on Hungarian farmers and the wider economy. Orban said Europe had missed an opportunity to negotiate with Putin under former U.S. President Joe Biden's administration and now was at risk of its future being decided without its involvement. "If you are not at the negotiating table, you are on the menu," Orban said, adding that he partly opposed the EU's joint statement on Ukraine as it made Europe look "ridiculous and pathetic." "When two leaders sit down to negotiate with each other, the Americans and the Russians ... and you're not invited there, you don't rush for the phone, you don't run around, you don't shout in from the outside."
Metro
39 minutes ago
- Metro
Russians flee to shelter amid fears of 'imminent Ukraine nuclear strike'
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Bus passengers in Moscow were ordered to take cover in bomb shelters over warnings of a 'nuclear bombardment' from Ukraine. A video filmed in Russia's capital earlier today captured the moment an alert was broadcast over the bus intercom system. The announcement said: 'Attention, attention! Ukraine is threatening us with a nuclear bombardment. 'I repeat! Attention, attention! Ukraine is threatening us with a nuclear bombardment! 'Everyone to the shelters! Attention! Attention! Ukraine is threatening us with a nuclear bombardment!' But transport officials in Moscow say the alert was broadcast by hackers, who have not yet been identified. The video was filmed on board a 191 service to Grachevskaya station which is run by the Transavtoliz company, which operates hundreds of services. It's not yet known how many bus intercoms were hacked and played the fake warning. Authorities rushed to reassure passengers that they did not need to go to a bomb shelter, and that the threat was false. A Moscow transport spokesman said: 'Audio messages that did not correspond to reality were played in the buses. 'Currently, specialists are checking the network infrastructure and eliminating the consequences of unauthorised access.' Unlike Russia, Ukraine does not have any nuclear weapons, having given up its arsenal in the 1990s as part of the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances. The memorandum saw Ukraine give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for guarantees from Russia, the US and the UK to respect Ukraine's sovereignty and borders. It comes as US president Donald Trump prepares to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin to discuss the ongoing war with Ukraine and try to negotiate an end to the conflict. More Trending They will not be meeting alongside Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, despite Trump's comments suggesting otherwise. Relations between the US and Russian presidents are fraught, with a Putin stooge warning Trump has made 'another step towards war with Russia' and Trump responding by moving US nuclear submarines. Ukraine stepped up its strikes against Russia this year, causing chaos at Moscow's airports and destroying warplanes. But with the death toll of both soldiers and civilians creeping higher, Mr Zelensky is still calling for a ceasefire in order to bring about a 'just peace'. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Meet Britain's Doomsday preppers stockpiling for World War Three MORE: Trump should give Putin a gift in Alaska – then an order MORE: Putin red-faced after new Russian navy boat sinks during final building work
