Latest news with #HolgerHansen
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Factbox-Why has German spy agency classified far-right AfD as 'extremist'?
By Thomas Escritt and Holger Hansen BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's spy agency on Friday classified the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as "extremist", enabling it to step up monitoring of the country's biggest opposition party, which decried the move as a "blow against democracy". The decision by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) was based on findings in a 1,100-page confidential report compiled by experts. Here are some of the key findings and pieces of evidence cited, according to security officials who have seen the report: ANTI-MIGRANT INCITEMENT Party officials frequently described citizens of immigrant background as "passport Germans" and used terms such as "population replacement" to describe what they say is the impact of large-scale migration. Migrants were often compared to invasive species or described as "knife migrants" or "knifemen". In October 2023, the party leadership accused the Greens in posts on social media of having a "Population Replacement General Plan", which carried echoes of "General Plan East", the Nazis' label for their plan for a genocide of Jews and other ethnic groups in eastern Europe during World War Two. Party co-leader Alice Weidel described knife crime in July 2023 as something exclusive to "people from a totally alien culture, from violent cultures ... It doesn't exist in our culture ... It only exists in the cultures of Africa and the Middle East". Senior party official Hannes Gnauck said on August 11: "We have to be able to decide again who belongs to our country and who doesn't. There's more to being German than a citizenship certificate... We are linked by an invisible band that you don't have to explain." RACISM The party youth wing ran a campaign, involving a song, a mini-game and a video clip, that depicted Black men as violent in "an extraordinarily racist way". ISLAMOPHOBIA Asserting that there had been 761 mass rapes in Germany the previous year, Weidel in 2023 said: "What we are seeing on German streets is jihad. A religious war is being fought against the German population." ATTACKING GERMAN DEMOCRACY AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla described the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in 2022, and the lack of an immediate response, as proof "that this country can't be sovereign. That's not how you react when you're attacked." He later described mainstream parties as "American vassals". The Nord Stream pipelines, which brought Russian gas under the Baltic Sea to Germany, were blown up shortly after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
German budget committee gives green light for 3 billion euros in Ukraine aid
By Holger Hansen BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's budget committee cleared the way on Friday for another 3 billion euros ($3.25 billion) in military aid for Ukraine, after chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz pushed through reforms to ramp up investment in defence. Both houses of parliament passed plans this week by Merz's conservatives and the Social Democrats, who are in talks to form the next German government, that lift a long-held cap on debt. The move to shore up support for Ukraine was earlier reported by Reuters and confirmed in a statement by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's outgoing coalition government. The 3 billion euros include 2.547 billion earmarked by the finance ministry for Ukraine this year, topped up by other contributions, including a reimbursement from the European Peace Facility. The finance ministry also plans to authorise commitments of 8.252 billion euros for military aid to Ukraine for the years 2026 to 2029, bringing the total to more than 11 billion euros. It was "high time" for the parliamentary committee to clear the use of the funds and Germany was now setting the pace for Europe's support of Ukraine, Foreign Minister Baerbock said in a statement. "Ukraine's military situation has become increasingly difficult over the last few months," she added. European Union countries, whose leaders met to discuss Ukraine aid this week, are under increasing pressure to show their commitment to Ukraine in its war with Russia as uncertainty grows about the future of U.S. security guarantees under President Donald Trump. ($1 = 0.9232 euros) (Writing by Rachel More and Ludwig Burger, Editing by Friederike Heine and Susan Fenton)
