Germany’s AfD being targeted ahead of European elections

Pam Barker | Director of TLB Europe Reloaded Project

Below we offer three RT articles, as well as links to two FreeWest Media ones, reporting on two very recent, alarming attacks against Germany’s Alternative fur Deutschland party and the publication of their election platform ahead of the European elections in May of this year. Common sense says they are being targeted. Three members of the far-left have been detained for questioning in the case of the bombing.

In reverse date order, the first article reports on the brutal attack against Frank Magnitz on Monday night (January 7), member of the Bundestag and leader of the Bremen AfD party. The second article discusses the AfD’s proposal for Dexit, Germany’s version of Brexit, which is included in their policy platform. This article was published on January 4. And the third reports on the bombing of the party’s Doebeln offices in Saxony on the night of January 3. It should be added that the popularity of the AfD has gained some serious ground recently.

This is very disturbing to the globalist EU establishment who are rumoured to be very concerned about a populist groundswell in the European elections coming up in May. See RT’s short video report on this below.

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German AfD MP brutally beaten in ‘politically-motivated attempted assassination’ (GRAPHIC)

RTGerman AfD MP brutally beaten in ‘politically-motivated attempted assassination’ (GRAPHIC)

The Bremen chairman of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Frank Magnitz, is battling for his life after sustaining a gaping wound to his head following an attack by three unknown assailants.

Magnitz was rushed to the hospital on Monday night after suffering a serious head injury following a “politically-motivated attempted assassination,” Bremen AfD said in a statement, posting a graphic image of the injured chairman.

Armed with wooden sticks, the three men beat the politician repeatedly on the head and kicked him while he was already on the ground until a construction worker saw the assault and tried to intervene. According to the statement, the attack took place immediately after Magnitz left the New Year’s reception near Bremen’s Goetheplatz.

WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTO

“Today is a black day for democracy in Germany,” the AfD said, noting that Magnitz remains in serious condition. “He was beaten half dead,” AfD national spokesman Jörg Meuthen wrote on Twitter, calling the assault a “cowardly and disgusting plot.”

As police continue their hunt for the attackers, German politicians have begun condemning the brutality of the incident. “I hope the perpetrators will soon be investigated & sentenced,” said Germany’s Green party MP, Cem Özdemir, adding that there is no justification for violence “even against the AfD.”

Authorities have yet to determine the motives behind the attack, but with its growing popularity, the opposition AfD party has become a target of increasing criticism and attacks over its anti-immigration and other ultraconservative policies. Just last week, the party’s Doebeln office in the eastern state of Saxony was targeted by an explosion, which the AfD leadership denounced as an attack on democracy.

The Alternative for Germany became a major political force in Germany in 2017, when the party won 12.6 percent of the vote in federal elections, entering the Bundestag for the first time with 94 seats.

Original article

See also this article by FreeWest Media titled Bremen: Top AfD member brutally assaulted:

The AfD has already been the target of several attacks in the past week. At a party office in Döbeln, Saxony, there was a serious explosion on Thursday. The building suffered considerable damage. Three suspects were arrested.

Over the weekend in Lower Saxony, the house of a Emsland AfD district council member was vandalized. In Berlin unknown people damaged a party office in Berlin with paint bombs.

But according to the Otto Brenner Foundation (OBS), in a published report, the German media has learned over the past year not to report on such attacks.

The Foundation said news about the AfD have become “more steady, less erratic” because journalists have have been ignoring attacks on AfD party members and news on immigration issues.

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Dexit after Brexit? Alternative for Germany party threatens EU withdrawal

RT

Dexit after Brexit? Alternative for Germany party threatens EU withdrawal
Germany’s major rightwing party, the AfD, is threatening to push for a so-called ‘Dexit’ if the EU doesn’t restore its members’ national sovereignty and takes no action against “Islamization of Europe” within the next five years.

“The European Community has evolved into an undemocratic structure that’s been occupied by Europe’s political classes and designed by non-transparent, uncontrolled bureaucracies,” Alternative for Germany (AfD) party claims in the latest edition of their election program unveiled ahead of the 2019 European polls.

Habitually slamming the EU for being too bossy and interfering, the AfD said the bloc is being dominated by “particular interests of certain states and lobby cliques.” Therefore, there’s a need to completely rebuild the alliance by 2024, when the next legislative term of the European Parliament comes to an end.

If the reforms aren’t implemented or fail to work properly within those five years, “we deem necessary to consider a withdrawal of Germany [from the EU] or an orderly dissolution of the European Union and the establishment of a new European economic and interest community.”

It remains to be seen how realistic the proposal to depart from the EU is. Germany remains the mainstay and economic hub of Europe, and the prospect of “Dexit” seems too far away now. However, results of the 2016 Brexit vote sent shockwaves all across Europe as proponents of the ‘Leave’ cause attracted an unpredictably large number of supporters and won the plebiscite.

That aside, the AfD says Germany’s withdrawal from the EU would be the last option. Before it comes into play, the bloc should curb “lobbyism and corruption” as well as cut its apparatus that has grown too big.

According to the rightwing party, 44,000 officials and 11,000 employees cost over €8 billion ($9.1bn) annually. In the European agencies, the program said, some 4,000 officials earn each 290,000 a year, which is more than the German Chancellor’s salary.

Apart from lambasting the EU bureaucracy, the AfD devoted a sizeable part of its paper to immigration and perceived Islamization of Europe. Besides common demands to shut EU borders to migrant arrivals and introduce a far more stringent refugee policy, the program teaches a sort of theology lesson proclaiming that Islam is “the enemy of Europe.”

“Islam does not separate state from religion and is therefore also a political ideology,” it says, suggesting that numerous Koran verses “demand to fight against non-Muslims up to the killing of the other faithful.”

An anti-immigration agenda is what allowed the AfD to garner popular support since it was established in 2013. The rightwing party has frequently blasted Merkel’s “open door” toward migrants from Muslim-majority countries which saw over 1 million migrants arrive in Germany since 2015.

Over the last years, the AfD made solid gains at local and national elections, having formed the third-largest faction in Bundestag. In turn, it is no stranger to an array of controversies, including allegations of harboring neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic sentiments.

Original article

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Explosion at Germany’s right-wing AfD office prompts suspicion of politically motivated attack

RT

Explosion at Germany’s right-wing AfD office prompts suspicion of politically motivated attack
Police in Germany are investigating possible political motivations behind an explosion outside offices belonging to the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Its members slammed the incident as “shameless act.”

The incident, involving the detonation of an “unknown substance,” occurred outside the party’s Doebeln office in the eastern state of Saxony. The explosion happened late on Thursday, yet the information started to make rounds in the local media only Friday.

No one was injured in the attack. However, the blast damaged the doors and windows of the office as well as the adjoining buildings and vehicles parked outside.

Police have remained tight-lipped in revealing any further information about the case citing “tactical reasons,” but Saxony’s State Office of Criminal Investigation did confirm a political angle was being considered.

The attack was described by the AfD’s leader in the Bundestag, Alice Weidel, as “cowardly” and “against democracy.”

“I am deeply shocked by this shameless, cowardly act,” she added.

Also condemning the attack was Saxony’s centre-left deputy prime minister Martin Dulig. Writing on Twitter, the SPD-member said there was “no justification” for the assault adding that the fight against the AfD’s policies should be “fought politically and not with explosives.”

“This attack helps the AfD and hurts democracy,” he added.

Police have already detained three suspects and are checking further information on the blast, local media reported.

Founded in 2013, the anti-immigration AfD began to gain popular support during 2015’s refugee crisis as many German’s expressed anger at Angela Merkel’s open door policy to refugees. While its support is mainly based in Germany’s eastern states, it holds seats in all state parliaments.

In 2017 federal elections, the party won 12.6% of the vote, entering the Bundestag for the first time with 94 seats. However, the party’s stances on many issues such as homosexuality, nationalism, and the environment has led to accusations of the party holding far-right sympathies, something its supporters deny.

Original article

See also the article by FreeWest Media titled AfD party offices bombed:

Three German men aged 29, 32 and 50, from the far-left extremist scene in Dresden, were arrested in connection to the attack the LKA (Germany State Criminal Police) said on Friday.

A police spokesman confirmed that although they suspect a political motivation, they were still unsure of what the connection was. According to the Chemnitz prosecutor, there is not enough evidence currently to keep them in custody and they could be released in the coming days.

Further,

The AfD in the Saxony state parliament said the bombing was a prime example of left-wing extremism, adding that left-wing violence “was getting worse and worse in Saxony”.

The anti-immigration party was elected to the Saxony parliament, but has been targeted in a total of 80 attacks on offices and members’ private homes, it said. German Antifa extremists have even released a booklet which encourages “riot tourists” to burn cars and attack war memorials.

An AfD spokesman told Breitbart London that the party had in fact been subject to 669 criminal attacks of various kinds.

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