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Breaking News: Angela Merkel Headed for Solid Victory in German Election,

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BERLIN — Angela Merkel is headed toward a fourth term as German chancellor, according to normally reliable exit polls released just after the polls closed in Germany.

But the polls also show that a far-right party, Alternative for Germany, has gotten some 13.5 percent of the vote, a significant showing of voter anger over immigration and inequality. For the first time in more than 60 years the far right will be represented in the Bundestag.

Despite her victory, Ms. Merkel and her conservatives cannot rule alone. The shape and policies of a new governing coalition will involve weeks of painstaking negotiations.

The center-left Social Democrats, Ms. Merkel’s coalition partners for the last four years, ran a poor second to her center-right grouping, and the AfD came in a solid third.

If the Social Democrats decide not to join a governing coalition, to rebuild their political profile, they will be the country’s official opposition. But if they join Ms. Merkel again, the AfD will take over that prominent role, which is bound to shake the consensus politics of Germany.

Azerbaijan Laundromat: Merkel ally ‘received cash from regime’ – The Guardian

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Revelations over payments by Azerbaijan to European politicians have seeped into the German election as it emerged that a close ally of Angela Merkel allegedly received money from the authoritarian regime.

The revelations are embarrassing for the German chancellor who on Tuesday was due to campaign with Karin Strenz, a Christian Democrat member of parliament, in the Baltic port city of Wismar.

According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung , Strenz was paid between €7,000 and €15,000 sent to her via a firm set up by Eduard Lintner, a former German MP and lobbyist for Azerbaijan.

Strenz has refused to comment and did not respond to emails from the Guardian.

The scandal threatens to shake up what has so far been a sleepy election campaign, lacking any of the personal mudslinging or scandal-ridden offensives typical of the US or Britain, with Merkel’s CDU on course to secure victory. Latest polls show it to be on 36% – 14 points ahead of the party’s nearest rival, the Social Democrats.

Lintner was one of several prominent Europeans to have received large sums of money from a scheme nicknamed the Azerbaijani Laundromat, exposed this month by the Guardian and other media partners. Lintner admits the payments but says he did not personally benefit and he was unaware of the original source of the payments.

Azerbaijan’s ruling elite used the $2.9bn (£2.1bn) fund to silence criticism of the country’s dismal human rights record with a series of under-the-table payments made to leading European politicians.

Leaked banking data shows that Lintner received more than €800,000 through UK shell companies. Some of this money was paid to other parliamentarians in Germany and Belgium. The payments to Strenz in 2014 and 2015 were sent through Lintner’s company, Line M-Trade, based at the office of his Nuremberg lawyer.

She registered the money but the ultimate source of the funding was previously unknown. It is not known whether Strenz was aware of its origin.

Strenz has visited Azerbaijan on several occasions, including as an election monitor, and is chairwoman of the German-South Caucasian Friendship Group. She has posted a photograph on her website – slogan “Politics can be different” – with Azerbaijan’s authoritarian leader, Ilham Aliyev.

Strenz, a former teacher, has been a member of parliament since 2009. She is now under pressure to explain whether the payments may have influenced her voting record in Berlin and in the Council of Europe, where she is a member of the parliamentary assembly.

 

In June 2015, Strenz voted against a parliamentary assembly motion calling on Azerbaijan to release its political prisoners, who include several journalists. She was the only German representative who voted no. Strenz has given an approving verdict on Azerbaijan’s elections, in contrast to other observers who have been critical.

 

Can Merkel push the EU towards a new Turkey policy?

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In the middle of Germany’s election campaign and after 12 years of talks, Chancellor Angela Merkel may push for an end to accession talks with Turkey. It would be an overdue step. DW’s Bernd Riegert offers an analysis.

EU accession for Turkey is effectively over. Negotiations that began in 2005 may be soon declared dead, and the government – or, better said, regime – of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is responsible. Turkey has neither met EU requirements nor appears anywhere close to doing so. Turkey’s April referendum effectively turned the state into an autocracy, thereby ending the possibility of joining Europe’s community of democratic states. This much is clear based on regular EU reporting.

German policy shifts

Turkey’s rule of law has deteriorated since the failed coup one year ago, and has flipped Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) on the matter of Turkey’s EU candidacy. In April, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel expressed his hopes that Turkey could remain a candidate for EU membership.

By August, he had given up that position in light of Ankara’s aggressive actions. Martin Schulz, the SPD chancellor candidate and longtime advocate of Turkey’s membership, has taken a similar step, calling for an end to talks. During Sunday’s televised chancellor debate, Merkel stated what has been obvious for months: “There cannot be a Turkish accession to the EU.”

Read more: Turkey’s moribund EU accession process

Foreseeable end to negotiations

Merkel’s comments hardly say anything new. Last week, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in Brussels that Turkey had already taken huge steps away from Europe, making membership impossible. An official decision to expel Turkey from talks could come as early as this weekend’s foreign ministers’ meeting or at an EU summit at the end of October. Making good on the unavoidable would be a dramatic turn of events after 12 years: slamming the door to the EU on Turkey.

Juncker had previously warned that Erdogan will have good reason to blame the EU for the failure. However, that would not make the damage any worse. An end to accession talks could also be an end to financial support for accession. So far, suspending payments has been illegal, although the EU has been paying just a small portion of them since 2013.

Turkey never seriously tried

Turkey-EU relations could hardly get any worse. A July meeting between Turkey’s foreign minister and the EU’s foreign affairs representative showed how little chance there was at renewed progress. The EU ending accession talks would be unprecedented in its history, but at most symbolic. In reality, talks have been on ice since December, when the Council of the European Union refused to open the next chapter in the negotiation process.

Negotiations have effectively gone nowhere since their start 12 years ago because Turkey has repeatedly refused to recognize Cyprus’ membership in the EU, an island whose northern half remains occupied by the Turkish military. Even without Turkey’s dramatic descent into dictatorship in the last year, this alone shows that Turkey was never really serious about EU membership.

EU social democrats were the most hopeful for Turkey’s membership in 2005. At the time, Erdogan was Turkey’s EU-friendly prime minister. That hope waned as Erdogan moved ever further away from European values and, with them, EU accession criteria.

Angela Merkel, who was at the time parliamentary opposition leader, spoke out against membership even then. Her conservatives were satisfied with a “privileged” partnership for Turkey. She continued her resistance to membership even after she became chancellor, which meant inheriting negotiations from her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder of the SPD.

Merkel threatens to pull troops from Turkey’s Incirlik military base

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel has threatened to withdraw German soldiers from the Turkish air base in Incirlik. The statement follows a year-long row over allowing German lawmakers to visit soldiers stationed there.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel made the comments ahead of a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a renewed row over letting German lawmakers have access to troops stationed in Turkey.

“I will make it very clear to the Turkish president during our talks that it is indispensable for our soldiers to be able to be visited by members of the German Bundestag, as ours is a parliamentary military,” Merkel said during her trip to Brussels to attend the NATO summit, where Erdogan will also be in attendance.

“Otherwise we will have to abandon Incirlik,” Merkel added.

Erdogan made flippant comments about the prospect of Germany leaving the base the previous day, saying that if Germany decided to leave the base he would simply say “Auf Wiedersehen.”

Broken relationship

The row between Turkey and Germany over allowing German parliamentarians access to the base has been ongoing for about a year but escalated once more last week when the Turkish government refused to grant visits for lawmakers once more.

Around 250 German soldiers are stationed at the military facility, supporting the US-led coalition against the so-called “Islamic State” (IS) in neighboring Syria and Iraq with reconnaissance flights. Germany also has a refueling jet on the base in Turkey that helps fighter jets from other nations in their fight against IS.

The German government has taken initial steps to assess whether the troops could be moved to another country in the region, with Jordan being one option under discussion.

Turkish-German relations have reached a low point, as the erstwhile allies have run into a series of disagreements in recent times. In addition to the controversy surrounding parliamentary visits to German troops, arrests of German nationals, in particular journalists, under the ongoing state of emergency in Turkey and conflicting strategies for achieving peace in Syria have turned things sour between the two countries.

Refugee crisis

Another bone of contention between Turkey and the European Union at large has been the migrant situation, with Turkey helping to keep hundreds of thousands of migrants at bay following a 2016 migrant deal. To this end, Erdogan also met with European Council chief Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker during the NATO summit in Brussels.

Turkey had agreed to curb the flood of migrants into Europe, in return for visa-free travel for Turks to Europe, among other conditions. Brussels, however, said it first wants to see Ankara modify its anti-terrorism laws, which it regards as too broad and far-reaching, often infringing upon fundamental human rights issues especially under the ongoing 10-month state of emergency.

The fascist Erdogan Merkel created now she has to deal with, Turkey’s Nazi analogy ‘cannot be tolerated’

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The fascist Erdogan Merkel created now she has to deal with it.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has called on Turkish officials to stop comparing modern Germany to Nazi Germany as tensions continue to escalate between the two countries.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Germany of “Nazi practices” last week after several Turkish ministers were denied permission to hold rallies in Germany in support of an upcoming referendum on extending his powers.

Addressing the German lower house of parliament, Bundestag, on Thursday, Merkel said Turkey’s accusations of “Nazi-style practices” in modern Germany are “sad” and ”cannot be tolerated.”

“Comparisons with Nazi Germany always lead to misery, to the trivialization of the crimes against humanity committed by National Socialism [more commonly known as Nazism],” the German leader said.

Such comparisons by Ankara must stop, she said, adding “they are not worth considering our close ties between Germany and Turkey and our peoples – politically, in our society, as a NATO partner and economically.“

Merkel, however, said German officials would continue to do all in their powers to secure the release of detained German-Turkish journalist, Deniz Yucel.

In February, Turkey arrested the German newspaper Die Welt journalist, whom Erdogan has described as both a German spy and a representative of the outlawed Kurdish rebel group PKK, triggering a row between the two countries.

“The profound and serious differences between the Germany and Turkey touch fundamental issues of democracy and law,” Merkel said.

She cited “the situation of the freedom of opinion and the freedom of press in Turkey, about the fate of the many arrested journalists, also the journalist Deniz Yucel, for which the German government will do whatever they can.”

Last weekend, several German cities cancelled planned events in which Turkish cabinet ministers wanted to address pro-Erdogan rallies, citing security concerns.

Ankara described the cancellations as efforts by Berlin to sabotage the pro-Erdogan rallies as well as “meddling” in Turkey’s affairs.

About 1.5 million people of Turkish descent living in Germany are eligible to vote in the referendum next month on constitutional reform that would grant President Erdogan extended new powers.

Politicians in other European countries have also urged bans on any pro-Erdogan campaigning aimed at gathering support for a “yes” vote in Turkey’s April referendum on constitutional reforms.

German Greens co-chief Özdemir raps Merkel and Gabriel on Turkey, Afghanistan

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The co-chief of the Greens has accused Germany’s government of complying with the Turkish regime’s crackdown on liberties. Cem Özdemir also says Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel needs to stop deportations to Afghanistan.

Greens co-leader Cem Özdemir launched an election-year broadside in the Sunday edition of the populist broadsheet “Bild,” calling Germany’s government compliant with rights abuses in Turkey.

He also criticized Chancellor Angela Merkel’s planned trip to Ankara in April, just ahead of a referendum in which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will seek to expand his powers – and the amount of time he spends in office.

Özdemir said the trip could “only be evaluated as support for Erdogan’s journey toward dictatorship.”

He condemned a planned pre-referendum speech by Erdogan in Germany. “Erdogan abuses our democracy to campaign for his dictatorship,” Özdemir said. Seventy-seven percent of respondents in a recent survey also want Germany’s government to find a way to ban Erdogan’s speech.

Özdemir also said the government had been too reticent in calls for the release of Deniz Yücel, a journalist for the German newspaper “Welt” – also owned by “Bild” publisher Axel Springer – who has been arrested in Istanbul for his reporting.

Afghanistan: ‘Not safe’

Özdemir also struck out at Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel’s pursuing of deportations of rejected asylum applicants to Afghanistan despite the fact that much of the country remains at war or experiences warlike conditions. Gabriel must “swiftly adapt the appraisal of the situation to the reality,” Özdemir told Bild.

Other Greens took to the press Sunday to criticize Gabriel and deportations sought by Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere. Federal parliamentarian Omid Nouripour told the public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk that the classification of Afghanistan as a “safe” country for deportations was “politically motivated.” Nouripour, who recently traveled to Afghanistan to evaluate the situation with his own eyes, said the ruling parties had fallen into a “panic” in the face of the rising anti-immigrant, nationalist party Alternative for Germany.

Last week, Gabriel said the situation could not be evaluated in Afghanistan as a whole – and that 56 percent of asylum applicants from the nation were approved anyway. “There are safe and very unsafe regions,” Gabriel said on Wednesday. According to numbers reported by “Welt” at the end of January, Germany has ordered more than 12,500 Afghans deported, and some politicians, especially from Bavaria’s ruling Christian Social Union, have called for removals to be accelerated.

Dietary dispute

In the interview, the Greens lawmaker also gave “Bild” a bit of personal information.

Now 51, Özdemir told the newspaper that he quit eating meat when he was 17 years old – and that his parents were not happy with the decision.

“For my father, meat was something that one had to work hard for,” Özdemir said. “He did not accept that his own son no longer wanted to eat it.”

mkg/tj (AFP, kna, epd, dpa)

German politics: Poll shows ‘reds and greens’ could oust Merkel’s conservatives

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A new poll in Germany shows the Social Democrats (SPD) still gaining in popularity. The results indicate that they could potentially form a majority coalition with the Greens and Left party if elections were held soon.

Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) have again overtaken the conservative bloc of the Christian Democrats (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) in a poll, the “Bild am Sonntag” newspaper reported on Sunday.

The “Sonntagstrend” survey by the polling institute Emnid showed the SPD climbing by one percentage point over the week to reach 33 percent, while the CDU and its Bavarian sister party CSU fell by one point in the ratings to receive 32 percent.

The result marks the first time in 10 years that the leftist SPD has achieved ascendancy over the conservative parties in the “Sonntagstrend” poll, which Emnid conducts weekly for “Bild am Sonntag.”

Another recent poll conducted for the “Bild” newspaper by the Insa institute also showed the SPD ahead of the CDU/CSU bloc for the first time in a decade.

Popular leader

With the Left party and the Greens remaining stable at 8 and 7 percent respectively, the poll indicates that a coalition of the three leftist parties – which would be called a red-red-green coalition according to the German political color-coding system – would have a ruling majority if elections were held in a week’s time.

The recent success of the SPD in surveys is widely attributed to the party’s choice of charismatic former European Parliament President Martin Schulz as its new leader to replace Sigmar Gabriel , who has stepped down as party chief and become the German foreign minister.

The business-friendly Free Democratic Party (FDP) also maintained its popularity in the poll, scoring 6 percent. But the anti-immigration, euroskeptic Alternative for Germany (AfD) continued its downward trajectory, losing one percentage point to hit 9 percent, its lowest popularity rating in the poll in a year.

German federal elections are scheduled for September 24 this year.

tj/rc (AFP, dpa)

France: Marine Le Pen REFUSES ‘I will not submit!’ to grovel to Merkel and EU in swipe at elite

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MARINE Le Pen delivered a rousing speech last night promising that as French President she will not take instructions from Angela Merkel nor beg for her approval.

Marine Le Pen continued her fight for the French Presidency, as she laid her policies to put her country’s sovereignty first and foremost.

In a rallying cry to a crowd in Clairvaux-Les-Lacs, Ms Le Pen said she will not bow down to Angela Merkel and Jean-Claude Juncker.

She said that for too long nationals leaders had to ask for permission from the German Chancellor before announcing any action.

The Front National leader told a cheering crowd last night: “What will be the first thing these presidential candidates will do?

“They will go and see Mrs Merkel and ask: ‘Mrs Merkel is it right to do this? Is it right to do that?'”

She added: “Merkel and Juncker are the perpetuators of this dominance.

“You will see that. They will all make the same trip to Brussels to ask for instructions and permission.

“But I won’t. I will not ask for instructions from Mrs Merkel! Not from Mr Juncker! Nor from Mr Draghi! I will not submit.”

Ms Le Pen, who has continued to rise in the presidential polls, is all but guaranteed to enter the second-round of the election.

Ms Le Pen currently holds around 27 per cent of support among voters.

However, a concerted effort across the traditional parties could thwart her bid to become yet another eurosceptic leader on the continent.

In a survey this week from French thinktank CEVIPOF, the Front National leader came out on top as the candidate “who really wants to change things”.

Her polling has also been boosted following a surge of violence across France.

The alleged rape of a young black man at the hands of the police in the Paris suburbs has provoked a spate of violent protests.

Ms Le Pen has criticised the Government’s response to the violence on the streets.

She has called on officials to ban all anti-police riots.

Germany: Schulz overtakes Merkel in opinion poll as favorite for German chancellor

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SPD candidate Martin Schulz would receive 16 percent more votes than current CDU Chancellor Angela Merkel, a survey showed. The SPD has benefited since Schulz was nominated as the party’s candidate for the Chancellery.

German voters would elect the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate Martin Schulz as chancellor if the country were to hold direct elections today, an opinion poll conducted for the German broadcaster ARD revealed on Thursday.

Schulz would receive 50 percent of votes cast while Angela Merkel, the current chancellor and head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), would receive 34 percent of the vote. However, even when they are called on to cast ballots in the September parliamentary elections, Germans will not directly vote for the chancellor.

Schulz’s capture of half of those surveyed amounted to an increase of 9 percentage points in comparison to the end of January; Merkel saw her share of the vote drop by 7 percentage points. Seven percent of those polled said they would choose neither Schulz nor Merkel as Germany’s next chancellor.

Overall, the poll results reflected broad political gains for the SPD since the left-leaning party announced Schulz, the former European Parliament president, as its chancellor candidate and successor to Sigmar Gabriel as party head.

In findings more representative of the German voting system,the SPD as a party has 28 percent of eligible voters’ support, their best result thus far in the current legislative period that began in late 2013. The CDU remains Germany’s strongest political party, leading with 34 percent support – down 3 percentage points from January.

Half of all participants polled also indicated a desire for the SPD to take over leadership of the federal government from the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union. Only 39 percent of those surveyed thought the federal government should continue to be led by a member of the so-called Union of CDU and CSU parties.

The poll, which surveyed 1,506 eligible voters from Monday to Wednesday, comes eight months ahead of the next German parliamentary elections set for September 24.

Mixed results for smaller parties

The closely watched Alternative for Germany (AfD), the populist, anti-immigrant and Islamophobic party that has made major political gains at regional levels, polled at 12 percent, down three points from January.

The Left and the Green Parties also lost one point each since January, leaving them equal at 8 percent.

The poll results brought good news to the Free Democratic Party (FDP), which saw its popularity increase one point to 6 percent; this puts them over the 5-percent hurdle needed to enter the Bundestag. The FDP has been absent from federal representation since 2013, when they fell just short of the entry threshold with 4.8 percent of the vote.

However, the poll’s margin of error means a re-entrance into the Bundestag is far from guaranteed.

Germany Armenians outraged by Berlin view on genocide

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outrageChancellor Angela Merkel stated that the German government does not distance itself from the Bundestag resolution on Armenian Genocide recognition.

Merkel noted this on Friday, speaking with the German RTL Television. She “categorically denies” all other allegations, reported the German Deutsche Welle (DW) TV and radio company.

But moreover, according to the Chancellor, no resolution should be considered “legally binding,” as they are solely political positions.

Samwel Lulukyan, a representative of the Central Council of Armenians in Germany, however, harshly criticized this stance of Berlin.

“This is even beyond refusal,” Lulukyan told the Rheinische Post newspaper. “This is disgraceful and chaotic.”

He also asked how can an Armenian Genocide resolution not be legally binding, and he called this “wordplay.”

Raffi Kantian, Chairman of the German-Armenian Society, also expressed a similar view. Among other things, he expressed concern that, now, German schools will have less chance to discuss the Armenian Genocide, whereas the said Bundestag resolution advises the contrary.

This view of Berlin, however, has received a positive reaction within the Turkish government circles.