In front of the Holocaust Memorial.
Breaking News from Germany
— Make Britain Great Again (@UkandNireland) February 21, 2025
A knife attacker has gone on the rampage in Berlin injuring several people next to the Holocaust memorial and a second person was arrested earlier for attempting an attack on the Israeli embassy..
Now tell me JD Vance was wrong? pic.twitter.com/sywsRdHaFv
Not to put too fine a point on it for the umpteenth time, but it's as if these 'migrants' are daring the German people to change course.
DARING THEM
Another stabbing attack in Germany, this one at the Berlin Holocaust Memorial
— Shaun Maguire (@shaunmmaguire) February 21, 2025
Stabbing attacks in Austria, Czech Republic and Germany all in the last week https://t.co/OaqKNhjPDW
A fellow simply standing there, minding his own business was brutally attacked and so seriously injured he had to be hospitalized.
A man has been stabbed and seriously injured at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial, two days before a watershed national election.
Police said they did not know the identity of the male attacker, who was still at large late on Friday, or motive and were investigating.
Video of the scene showed emergency vehicles and heavily armoured police lined along one side of the memorial site, a vast field of grey concrete pillars where the attack took place. The memorial is across a street from the US embassy.
“An as yet unidentified male suspect attacked a person standing here, who was so seriously injured that he had to be taken by the fire brigade to hospital for emergency treatment,” police spokesperson Florian Nath said.
Don't think for two seconds that the liberal European press isn't aware of the possible ramifications - they nervously note the closeness of the election in their reporting. ''Days before crucial election" was part of the Grauniad's subheading for the piece above.
Why are the elections 'crucial'?
Because the traditional German ruling parties are facing a populist threat like never before, and to the European mindset, it's 'crucial' that they be beaten back.
...The national election campaign, in which polls suggest a far-right party could come in second place for the first time in nine decades, has been marred by a series of high-profile attacks. One of those was a stabbing blamed on an Afghan immigrant, which prompted a fraught debate on immigration.
But these 'high-profile attacks' are making it ever so much more difficult, as they only serve to emphasize what the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been preaching about the immigration crisis, the impotence, and culpability of the parties who did this, and why it resonates with ever more Germans.
I stopped going out in the evenings for the past 4-5 months except if there is an emergency.
— Sanket (@Sanket15213) February 21, 2025
Ah. A Spanish tourist, poor man.
Official statement from the Berlin police:
— Lane Kendall (@lanedeankendall) February 21, 2025
The victim was a Spanish tourist. The only detail given on the identity of the suspect is they don’t speak German. Police state they have no indication of his nationality. pic.twitter.com/wZA0kZL1UQ
I hope they are able to stabilize him and that he heals quickly.
Tensions are high concerning Sunday's national election. You won't be surprised to learn that the incumbents are nervous enough that there's underhanded politicking going on.
They're not finding 'dead' voters like our Democrats, though - just really shiny new ones as fast as they can.
The German government is naturalizing foreigners as fast as possible before elections.
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) February 20, 2025
This Turkish woman appears to struggle with basic German and needs a translator to tell her she's a citizen.
Now, she can vote, perhaps for Olaf Scholz, who she doesn't appear to understand. pic.twitter.com/nI6HDNv5ZP
CNBC even went so far as to do a puff piece on frontrunner Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democrats (CDU). Maybe they're hoping the good vibes will pull him out far enough on top he'll be able to fend off an AfD challenge.
Friedrich Merz, migration hard-liner and longtime rival of Angela Merkel, is expected to become Germany’s next chancellor. His party the Christian Democratic Union is leading polls alongside its affiliate the Christian Social Union just days before the election.
Back in September, Merz was elected as the CDU party’s designated candidate for chancellor in this year’s federal elections, after leading the organization and heading the opposition CDU-CSU parliamentary group since 2022. The CSU is a regional party which has dominated Bavarian politics for decades and forms a union with the CDU at a federal level.
...On the foreign policy front, Merz suggested during last weekend’s Munich Security Conference that Germany should take on a stronger leadership position within Europe and said that the war in Ukraine must soon come to an end, while indicating that he would be open to further weapon deliveries to the embattled country.
Merz has however broadly dodged questions about plans for Germany’s defense spending amid the debate about whether NATO members should boost their funding in this area.
A policy issue that has gotten Merz into hot water is immigration. He has advocated for heightened security measures, increased deportations and sharper border controls, criticizing Germany’s current asylum and migration policies for being too relaxed and slow moving and linking them to violent attacks carried out in the country by people due to be deported.
Yeah. Talking about deporting immigrants is what got Merz in trouble. I don't think so.
His momentary lapse in what quivering Euro-elites would call 'sanity' for working across the aisle with the reviled Alice Weidel, head of AfD is what brought out the howls of outrage from the defenders of democracy crowd.
...The situation came to a head in January, when a non-binding motion spearheaded by Merz was backed by the AfD — marking the first time in Germany’s postwar history that a majority was achieved with the help of the far right.
The CNBC piece ends there, but, if you'll remember, even Angela Merkel roused herself to become Moaning Merkel at her former rival's apparent treachery - breaking down the cordon sanitaire with which the ruling class had carefully and strategically isolated the populist AfD for decades.
The cowardly Merz skittered like a cockroach back into platitudes and swore he'd never touch a Weidel deal again - never, ever, EH-VAH.
The storm troops are out doing their part to help Germans decide who to vote for. When they're not marching in organized, government sposored street demonstrations against 'right-wing extremists' and 'Nazis'...
In Germany, it seems the government is spending taxpayer money on demonstrations against the opposition
— Bjorn Lomborg (@BjornLomborg) February 20, 2025
Those governing for us shouldn't be spending our money to lobby ushttps://t.co/ZXWXAnVZtI https://t.co/K7vU1pLg7Ehttps://t.co/nSsbYDu5KA pic.twitter.com/CDjySLxbvx
...they're helping let everyone in town know who is one.
This is the sad truth about freedom of speech in Germany. The family home of Tim Schramm, a young campaigner for the AfD in Wuppertal, was vandalized overnight by state-funded and supported thugs. Everyday life in our 'democracy.'
— Sven W. Tritschler 🥝💙🇩🇪🗽 (@twittschler) February 21, 2025
I thank @JDVance/@VP and @elonmusk for their… pic.twitter.com/4o5urzAn9t
The rhetoric is intense and hyperbolic. Bloomberg says the far-right is 'pushing the German election system to the breaking point.'
WHUT
...An energy crisis triggered by Germany’s reliance on Russian gas has combined with long unresolved issues like aging infrastructure and red tape to contribute to two straight years of economic contraction. Once-steadfast union power is buckling under capital flight and flagging manufacturing competitiveness. In a country founded on the idea of shared prosperity, widening wealth inequalities and a stretched welfare system risk breaking the social contract.
“More and more people are losing faith in the ability of politics to act,” said Harald Christ, a businessman who left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats in 2019 after more than 30 years of membership and then walked away from the pro-business Free Democrats last year. “This is a wake-up call for the established parties to start thinking and acting in new ways.”
As the clock ticks down on the campaign, Germany’s embattled political class needs to show it can fix past mistakes. But the division on display in the Bundestag and beyond raises questions about whether the mainstream is up to the task in what looks like its last chance to turn things around.
The 'last chance' to turn what around?
Oh, of course - before Germany reverts to the Soviet Union should the AfD take over.
...Against the backdrop of spreading anxiety, the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has risen to second in the polls, with support from one in five voters — and particular strength in the struggling former east. The nationalist party would close borders, unwind European integration and steer Germany away from western principles of open societies and closer to authoritarian regimes, especially Russia.
Holy crap, kiddies - get a grip.
They include a doom-laden gem from Merz himself, who casts himself heroically as the bulwark between what is and the disaster that is right-wing populism.
...If the next government doesn’t revive the economy and control migration, then parties in the political center won’t play a role in the 2029 federal elections, and “instead, we will finally slide into right-wing populism,” Merz said during a televised debate on Wednesday. “And I am standing here to avoid exactly that.”
Vance has these authoritarian clowns nailed.
Scholz and Merz have ruled out ruling together, whatever the outcome.
...“That’s something we both see as unlikely,” Merz replied. “I see it the same way, where he’s right he’s right,” Scholz added. “I want to remain chancellor, he wants to become it, and the voters will decide.”
And for all the brave talk, what 'voters will decide' is still very much up in the air. Current polls give Merz's CDU the lead, with Weidel's AfD coming in a strong second (which, again, doesn't guarantee her a place in governing), but the unsettled nature of both the economy...
Here's anther thing for Germans to never forget: Climate Idiocy = National Suicide: "It's a catastrophe" is how a mayor describes the higher energy costs caused by Germany's climate idiocy. Then there's this:
— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) February 21, 2025
"German competitiveness, long a source of national pride, 'was never… pic.twitter.com/y6HlgsoHN1
...and the ongoing assaults by the very immigrants the AfD wants to close the borders to and deport post-haste have political analysts and pollsters nervous. Maybe AfD supporters aren't showing their hands when asked?
In Germany this meme is a crime because it’s true. pic.twitter.com/srHX4M7vyR
— Champagne Joshi (@JoshWalkos) February 18, 2025
In the current dystopian German climate, could you blame them?
The powers that be should be nervous.
Voter surveys gauging support for Germany’s political parties have proved relatively accurate in past elections and barely budged over the three-month campaign leading into Sunday’s ballot. Pollsters are still nervous there might be a surprise.
...At the same time, some AfD supporters may be reluctant to declare their intentions, suggesting the party’s support could be stronger than reflected in the polls, while more than 10% of voters are still undecided.
“Rarely have the uncertainties before a ballot been as great as in this federal election,” according to Manfred Guellner, founder of Forsa, one of Germany’s leading polling institutes.
“The final decision is more difficult than ever for many,” he added. “Many just don’t know who to vote for.”
Investors looking for certainty will be watching closely for any sign that backing for conservative frontrunner Friedrich Merz and his CDU/CSU bloc is weaker than expected.
Merz’s center-right alliance has hovered at around 30% for months, with the AfD in second place at about 20%, according to the Bloomberg polling average. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats trail in third at around 15% and the Greens fourth at 13%
An 18-year-old man has been arrested in Berlin on suspicion of planning a "politically motivated" attack. The target, according to multiple media reports, was the Israeli Embassy.https://t.co/ejFPjna1oR
— DW News (@dwnews) February 21, 2025
They should be nervous with all the help they're getting from their friends.
Sunday is going to be something.
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