BERLIN: The Alternative for Germany (AfD), which rails against immigration and Islam, is set to become the country’s first hard-right nationalist party to clear the five-percent hurdle and enter parliament in the post-war era.
Close to France’s National Front and the UK Independence Party, the AfD is an anti-establishment party that harnesses xenophobia and popular discontent about what it labels unaccountable political and media elites.
The AfD is dominated by white men, is strongest in Germany’s poorer ex-communist east, and has flirted with far-right groups, breaking a taboo in post-Holocaust Germany.
Its leaders have sparked outrage by saying German border guards should as a last resort open fire on illegal immigrants, calling Berlin’s Holocaust memorial a “monument of shame” and suggesting a Turkish-born German politician be “disposed of in Anatolia”.
The AfD is shunned as a radical fringe group by all mainstream parties, but its rise further fragments the political landscape and will complicate coalition-building efforts by the likely election winner, Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The AfD was founded during the eurozone debt crisis in April 2013 when it labeled the single currency “a historic mistake” and campaigned against bailouts for crisis-hit southern economies.
It narrowly missed the five-percent hurdle for entry into parliament in elections four years ago but then notched up wins in several regional votes and, in 2014, won seven seats in the European Parliament.
The right-winger Frauke Petry in 2015 toppled the AfD’s founder, economics professor Bernd Lucke, who quit the party.
The mass influx to Germany of mostly Muslim refugees and migrants in mid-2015 revived the AfD’s flagging fortunes as it angrily attacked Merkel’s open-door policy.
Like the far-right PEGIDA protest movement, the AfD accused her of “treason” and linked her immigration policies to jihadist attacks in Europe and sexual attacks by North African migrants in Cologne on New Year’s Eve 2015-16.
After a series of regional election wins, it now sits on the opposition benches of 13 of Germany’s 16 state assemblies.
The AfD holds that “Islam does not belong to Germany,” a country with 4.5 million Muslims, and campaigns with slogans such as “bikinis not burkas”.
It wants more law and order and promotes traditional, conservative “family values”, urging ethnic German women to have more babies.
The AfD demands the rolling back of European integration and promotes pro-market economic policies, putting it at odds with the anti-globalization National Front of France.
It disputes man-made climate change and has called the VW diesel emissions scandal a “witchhunt”.
The party wants to “return power to citizens”, including through Swiss-style referendums.
In foreign policy, like some other European protest parties, it advocates closer ties with Russia.
Poll support has dropped back from a peak of 16 percent at the height of the migrant influx to 8-12 percent now.
“The refugee issue has lost some of its immediacy,” said political scientist Hans Virchow, adding that many voters had also been turned off by inflammatory comments on German wartime guilt by far-right AfD member Bjoern Hoecke.
After new bouts of party infighting, members voted against making Petry their top election candidate, and the AfD entered the race with an unlikely duo.
One top candidate is Alice Weidel, 38, a Goldman Sachs economist who with her partner, a Sri Lankan-born woman, has adopted two children.
The other is Alexander Gauland, 76, who has repeatedly sparked outrage with racist comments, once claiming that Germans would “not want as a neighbor” a football star with a Ghana-born father.
He also recently questioned Germany’s obligation to atone for its Nazi past.
At the international level, the AfD has established contacts with France’s Marine Le Pen, UKIP and Dutch anti-Islam politician Geert Wilders, while voicing support for US President Donald Trump — a stance that could become a liability.
For now the Trump election and Brexit have “acted as a vaccine against the seemingly unstoppable rise of far-right populism in Europe,” argued Joerg Forbrig from the German Marshall Fund.
Germany: Anti-migrant, anti-Muslim, anti-Merkel nationalist party rises
Germany: Anti-migrant, anti-Muslim, anti-Merkel nationalist party rises
Court hearing set for man accused of fatally burning woman on New York City subway
- Sebastian Zapeta, a Guatemalan citizen who entered the US illegally, has been jailed at the city’s Rikers Island complex
- Authorities say Zapeta approached the woman and set her clothing on fire with a lighter, then sat on a bench and watched as she burned
Sebastian Zapeta has been charged with two counts of murder and one count of arson for the apparently random attack, which occurred early Sunday morning on a train stopped in Brooklyn.
The 33-year-old man made his first court appearance earlier in the week. He was not required to enter a plea, and his attorney has not responded to requests for comment.
The victim has not yet been publicly identified by police.
Zapeta, who federal immigration officials said is a Guatemalan citizen who entered the US illegally, has been jailed at the city’s Rikers Island complex.
Authorities say Zapeta approached the woman, who might have been sleeping on the train at the Coney Island station stop, and set her clothing on fire with a lighter. He waved a shirt at her to fan the fire, causing her to become engulfed in flames, prosecutor Ari Rottenberg said during the court appearance Tuesday.
Zapeta then sat on a bench on the platform and watched as she burned, prosecutors allege. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police took Zapeta into custody while he was riding a train on the same line later that day.
Zapeta told investigators that he drinks a lot of liquor and did not know what had happened, according to Rottenberg. However, Zapeta did identify himself in photos and surveillance video showing the fire being lit, the prosecutor said.
A Brooklyn address for Zapeta released by police after his arrest matches a shelter that provides housing and substance abuse support.
Federal immigration officials said he was deported in 2018 but returned to the US illegally sometime after that.
India announces state funeral for ex-PM Manmohan Singh
- Manmohan Singh, who held office from 2004 to 2014, died at the age of 92 late Thursday evening at a hospital in New Delhi
- The official date for the funeral was not announced, but a member of Congress party suggested it would be held on Saturday
NEW DELHI: India on Friday announced seven days of state mourning after the death of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, one of the architects of the country’s economic liberalization in the early 1990s.
Singh, who held office from 2004 to 2014, died at the age of 92 late Thursday evening at a hospital in New Delhi. He will also be accorded a state funeral.
“As a mark of respect for the departed dignitary, it has been decided that seven days of state mourning will be observed throughout India,” the Indian government said in a statement Friday, with mourning running until January 1.
“It has also been decided that the state funeral will be accorded to late Dr. Manmohan Singh,” it said, adding that the national flag will also be flown at half-mast.
India’s cricket team battling hosts Australia in the fourth Test took to the ground Friday with black arm bands to show respect for Singh.
The official date for the state funeral was not immediately announced, but a senior member of the Congress party suggested it would be held on Saturday.
The former premier was an understated technocrat who was hailed for overseeing economic boom in Asia’s fourth-largest economy in his first term but his second stint ended with a series of major corruption scandals, slowing growth, and high inflation.
The unpopularity of Singh in his second term, and a lacklustre leadership by Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi, the current leader of opposition in the lower house, led to the first landslide victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014.
Born in 1932 in the mud-house village of Gah, in what is now Pakistan, Singh studied economics to find a way to eradicate poverty in the vast nation and never held elected office before taking the nation’s highest office.
He won scholarships to attend both Cambridge, where he obtained a first in economics, and Oxford, where he completed his doctorate.
Singh worked in a string of senior civil service posts, served as a central bank governor and also held various jobs with global agencies such as the United Nations.
He was tapped in 1991 by then Congress prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao to reel India back from the worst financial crisis in its modern history
In his first term Singh steered the economy through a period of nine-percent growth, lending the country the international clout it had long sought.
He also sealed a landmark nuclear deal with the US that he said would help India meet its growing energy needs.
India announces state funeral for former PM Manmohan Singh
- Former leader was one of the architects of India’s economic liberalization in the early 1990s
- He sealed a landmark nuclear deal with the US that he said would help India meet its growing energy needs
NEW DELHI: India on Friday announced seven days of state mourning after the death of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, one of the architects of the country’s economic liberalization in the early 1990s.
Singh, who held office from 2004 to 2014, died at the age of 92 late Thursday evening at a hospital in New Delhi. He will also be accorded a state funeral.
“As a mark of respect for the departed dignitary, it has been decided that seven days of state mourning will be observed throughout India,” the Indian government said in a statement Friday, with mourning running until January 1.
“It has also been decided that the state funeral will be accorded to late Dr. Manmohan Singh,” it said, adding that the national flag will also be flown at half-mast.
India’s cricket team battling hosts Australia in the fourth Test took to the ground Friday with black arm bands to show respect for Singh.
The official date for the state funeral was not immediately announced, but a senior member of the Congress party suggested it would be held on Saturday.
The former premier was an understated technocrat who was hailed for overseeing economic boom in Asia’s fourth-largest economy in his first term but his second stint ended with a series of major corruption scandals, slowing growth, and high inflation.
The unpopularity of Singh in his second term, and a lackluster leadership by Nehru-Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi, the current leader of opposition in the lower house, led to the first landslide victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014.
Born in 1932 in the mud-house village of Gah, in what is now Pakistan, Singh studied economics to find a way to eradicate poverty in the vast nation and never held elected office before taking the nation’s highest office.
He won scholarships to attend both Cambridge, where he obtained a first in economics, and Oxford, where he completed his doctorate.
Singh worked in a string of senior civil service posts, served as a central bank governor and also held various jobs with global agencies such as the United Nations.
He was tapped in 1991 by then Congress prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao to reel India back from the worst financial crisis in its modern history
In his first term Singh steered the economy through a period of nine-percent growth, lending the country the international clout it had long sought.
He also sealed a landmark nuclear deal with the US that he said would help India meet its growing energy needs.
North Korean soldier captured in Russia-Ukraine war: Seoul
- The soldier was captured by the Ukrainian army
- Location where he was seized was unknown
SEOUL: South Korea’s spy agency said Friday it had confirmed that a North Korean soldier sent to back Russia’s war against Ukraine had been captured by Ukrainian forces.
Pyongyang has deployed thousands of troops to reinforce Russian troops, including in the Kursk border region where Ukraine mounted a shock border incursion in August.
“Through real-time information sharing with an allied country’s intelligence agency, it has been confirmed that one injured North Korean soldier has been captured,” South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said in a statement.
The soldier was captured by the Ukrainian army, an intelligence source told AFP, adding that the location where he was seized was unknown.
The first confirmation of the capture of a North Korean soldier came days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that nearly 3,000 North Korean soldiers had been “killed or wounded” so far.
Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) also said Monday that more than 1,000 North Korean soldiers have been killed or wounded.
The JCS had also said that Pyongyang is reportedly “preparing for the rotation or additional deployment of soldiers” and supplying “240mm rocket launchers and 170mm self-propelled artillery” to the Russian army.
Seoul’s military believes that North Korea was seeking to modernize its conventional warfare capabilities through combat experience gained in the Russia-Ukraine war.
North Korean state media said Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a New Year’s message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying “the bilateral ties between our two countries have been elevated after our talks in June in Pyongyang.”
A landmark defense pact went into effect in December after the two sides exchanged ratification documents.
Putin hailed the deal in June as a “breakthrough document.”
Putin says Slovakia offered to host Ukraine peace talks
MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Slovakia had offered to be a “platform” for possible peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, nearly three years since the launch of Moscow’s offensive.
Putin told a televised press conference Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico “said that if there are any negotiations, they would be happy to provide their country as a platform.”
He added that Russia was “not against it,” praising Slovakia’s “neutral position.”
Fico, one of the few European leaders to maintain ties with the Kremlin, met with the Russian president in Moscow on December 22.
His visit came despite Western efforts to isolate Putin and present a united front in support for Kyiv.
Slovakia, an EU and NATO member, has already halted military aid to Ukraine since autumn 2023 under Fico’s government, and called for peace talks.
Fico has accused Kyiv of jeopardizing his country’s supply of Russian natural gas, on which it is heavily dependent.
Ukraine has said it will not renew a contract expiring at the end of this year to allow Russia gas to transit its country toward Europe, and no feasible alternative has yet been found.
Ukrainians “are already punishing Europe by ending the contract to supply our gas,” Putin said, adding that no new contract could be reached “in three or four days.”
But he suggested he was ready to supply gas to the EU, possibly via the Yamal-Europe pipeline that transits Poland.
The prospect of peace talks to end the conflict in Ukraine that began in February 2022 has grown since the re-election of Donald Trump to the White House.
Trump has vowed to push for a quick deal to halt the fighting when he takes office in January.
That has sparked fears in Kyiv and Europe that Ukraine could be pushed to make concessions to Moscow.
Putin reiterated his vow that his country would achieve “all the objectives in Ukraine.”
“This is our number one task,” he said, warning that Moscow was ready to again use its latest-generation Oreshnik missile, first fired in a strike last month.
Putin has repeatedly threatened to strike “decision-making centers” in Kyiv in retaliation for its use of Western-supplied long-range missiles to hit targets in Russia.
He also claimed Thursday that in 2021, US President Joe Biden offered to “push back” Ukraine’s entry into NATO — a move urgently sought by Kyiv but that Putin considers an unacceptable threat.
“In 2021, the current President Biden offered exactly that: push back Ukraine’s NATO membership by 10 to 15 years, because it was not yet ready.”
“I answered reasonably that ‘Yes, today it is not ready. But you will prepare it for it and you will accept it.’“
But for Russia, “What is the difference — today, tomorrow or in 10 years?“
