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air dog's avatar

It's pretty impressive that Germany has a Constitutional Court division responsible for banning political parties.

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eugyppius's avatar

well tbf there are only two divisions, and they split the entirety of constitutional jurisprudence between them.

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air dog's avatar
1dEdited

Understood, but still, it's impressive/terrifying that they even thought to put "banning political parties" on the list of duties.

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Solemn Traveler's avatar

It's part of the collection of measures that make up the "defensive democracy". Most people in Germany are incredibly proud of having developed such measures in order to not have a repeat of 1933 ever again.

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The Big Ugly's avatar

And yet, that's exactly where they are heading. Outlawing opposition parties, cancelling elections if the wrong person is elected, censorship, we all know where this leads.

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Solemn Traveler's avatar

Well, it's not looking great, no. Though the only rebuttal you'll hear is "Have you ever heard of Popper's paradox of tolerance? GOTCHA!".

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Andreas Stullkowski's avatar

It probably even made sese in the 1950/60s, when we still had actual Nazis.

After the DDR, one could have imagined we also needed measures to make our "defensive democracy" resistant against the socialists and extreme left. Curiously, that was never an issue.

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air dog's avatar

Nowadays, the demand for Nazis greatly exceeds the supply.

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Danno's avatar

To the point where our own FBI had to invent "right wing terrorist" groups (complete with extremely lame cosplay https://www.newsweek.com/video-shows-black-man-confront-neo-nazis-marching-florida-1824396) in order to justify its budget.

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Andreas Stullkowski's avatar

Because the totalitarian left and the totalitarian right are fishing in the same pool of people, and currently the totalitarian left is more fashionable.

All those people on the left who are today fighting for Our Democracy would have firmly stood on the side of Our Nation 90 years ago.

Especially the judges. As a profession, German judges were famously the first to switch to the Nazis in 1933 and became the most vicious fanatics.

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joe stuerzl 85's avatar

On the other side of the world ,I read in the underworld press ,that the biggest and strongest party in Germany is the ''migrant lives matter party '' All members of that party are black .

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LiquidMSL's avatar

Planned, executed and contrary to LAW in in Our Republic, all enabled by leftists…

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Hunterson7's avatar

Yet post 1933 is manifesting in real time.

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Franz Kafka's avatar

rotflmao!

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air dog's avatar

Yes, of course democracy must be defended at all costs!

From, you know, the people...

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LiquidMSL's avatar

That would be true if they were not leftist… just like the NAZIs…

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_ikaruga_'s avatar

Perhaps it was "the Allies" to come up with that, not Germans.

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LiquidMSL's avatar

That would be par for the course…

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Riri's avatar
1dEdited

Here is some info I found interesting myself :

The Court is composed of two Senates, each functioning like a separate chamber.

Each Senate has eight judges, making a total of 16 judges on the entire Court.

Both Senates deal with constitutional matters, but they are assigned different areas of responsibility:

The First Senate typically handles issues related to fundamental rights (e.g. human dignity, freedom of speech, personal liberty).

The Second Senate usually deals with matters involving state organization (e.g. separation of powers, federalism, political party bans, disputes between federal organs).

2/3 of the judges need to agree on a ban for it to be successful.

And there are term limits of 12 years (or reaching the age of 68)- that also plays into the hands of leftists

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Franz Kafka's avatar

What are Constitutions for but violating?

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W’sMN?'s avatar

Rather concerning, even disturbing.

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Jillian Stirling's avatar

Impressive? It’s terrifying for ordinary Germans.

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Dr. Hubris's avatar

... they also have a Constitutional Court division responsible for turning the Nazi switch ON...

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LiquidMSL's avatar

It circumvents the will of the people… as much as I am enjoying the deserved downfall of the left here in America, I don’t trust a good number the Republican Congressmen are for or willing to protect conservative values. The problem is “citizens united” … it has given Corporations & Billionaires the ability to purchase our representation out from under us. At this point, the best alternative in my mind is for our felonious federal government, who continually shit on American’s Rights & Liberties, is to be locked up and unable to pass a bill. With each and every bill they pass, there is some aspect of it that is a step in shit. They sneak their graft into every bill that is passed… there is no such thing as a “clean” bill anymore…. and we can attribute this to big interest/big money having more weight(I.e. payoffs to elected congressmen & women) than the Citizens. In large part due to the criminal bill called “citizens united.”

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Fast Eddy's avatar

'We are Overwhelmed - Hospitals are Overwhelmed'

Chatting with two St John's ambulance paramedics

https://fasteddynz.substack.com/p/we-are-overwhelmed-hospitals-are/

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SCA's avatar

Somewhere Gorbachev is lifting a glass of unpleasantly warm vodka and toasting the Russian equivalent of the West "getting what you wish for."

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Franz Kafka's avatar

As the devils turn up the heat under the frying pan his ass sits in!

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SCA's avatar

It's a little more nuanced I think.

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Franz Kafka's avatar

Lovely French word, "nuance". How has the 'nuanced' approach been working out so far? More to the point: whom does it serve?

https://archive.org/details/demons-2014-dostoevsky-part-1-of-2/Demons+(2014)+Dostoevsky+Part+1+of+2.mp4

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SCA's avatar

It's not for us on the human plane to imagine we know anything about how the Higher Authority runs things.

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AwakeNotWoke's avatar

Russia knows that there is no difference between the CDU and AfD except on who should lead Germany's coming war against Russia. Germany was never deNazified. Even Die Linke is full of Nazis. Russia has a nice surprise waiting for Germany which will cease to exist in non-radioactive form after it attempts to rearm.

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SCA's avatar

You need to try and not smoke the hard stuff.

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AwakeNotWoke's avatar

I think it is you who needs to put down the opium pipe. It is a fantasy to think the Russians will take what you are planning lying down.

In German budget debate, Merz threatens Russia with war and declares himself leader of Europe

"The budget debate in the Bundestag (federal parliament) was a repulsive spectacle, clearly demonstrating the ruthlessness with which the Social Democrats (SPD) and Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) are implementing a reckless programme of rearmament and a return to German great‑power politics—with the backing of virtually all parties.

Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) used his speech in the general debate to beat the war drums against Russia. He denounced the Russian government as a “criminal regime” that was “on its way to destroying the political freedom order of the entire European continent.” Merz declared: “The tools of diplomacy have been exhausted.”

That is a barely veiled declaration of war. First, the German government deliberately provoked Russia’s reactionary invasion of Ukraine, then systematically escalated the conflict and torpedoed any diplomatic solutions in order to use it today as a pretext to prepare for a comprehensive war against Russia. That is the purpose of the rearmament madness debated in the Bundestag over recent days.

The sheer figures alone show that this is not about defence, but about an aggressive war policy. In 2024, NATO defence budgets amounted to US $1.5 trillion, constituting 55 percent of global military expenditure—10 times what Russia spends. Now, NATO has decreed that spending must rise to 5 percent of GDP by 2035. That would equate to roughly US$2.5 trillion—17 times the Russian and eight times the Chinese military budgets."

"The Greens differ little in their militaristic rhetoric from the AfD. When they criticise the government, it is only on the grounds that rearmament is not proceeding quickly enough. “What is needed is not lamenting the Trump administration, not whitewashing, not coalition squabbles—but a clear, action‑backed message to the war criminals in the Kremlin: Do not dare to attack our democracy, our freedom—in Ukraine, in the Baltic states, and certainly not here in our country!” declared Agnieszka Brugger, deputy spokesperson for the Greens’ parliamentary group."

https://share.google/gKjer1esSmM0KGqNG

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SCA's avatar

You know Sheridan La Fanu's story "Green Tea?"

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AwakeNotWoke's avatar

Medvedev sees the monkey. Medvedev knows that the Greens are the successor to the NSDAP and no different to the CDU and AfD and he will not continue Putin's kid gloves approach to Germany.

Germany is a far greater threat to not just Israel but the entire world than Iran is or was.

Germany cannot be permitted to rearm or obtain nuclear weapons.

Not even Putin will be as gentle with Germany as Trump has been with Iran.

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SCA's avatar

Sufficient hydration solves a lot of ills.

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Danno's avatar

I think Germany is being de-Nazified as the last actual Nazis die off.

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Jillian Stirling's avatar

Exactly the opposite is happening.

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AwakeNotWoke's avatar

New Greens are being born every day. They are the heirs to the NSDAP but there is not much difference between them and the other German parties. In time the mask will come off unless Putin or his successors take decisive action. Germany faces a far bigger reckoning than a bombardment with Oreshniks.

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Henrybowman's avatar

In other words, the party whose stupid strategy was for the alligator to eat them last, now gets moved to the top of the menu.

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Danno's avatar

When communists seize power, they kill the socialists first.

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J.W.'s avatar

Interesting parallels to politics in the United States, where only anti-Trump derangement manages to unify the Democratic Party’s many factions.

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Abner Knight's avatar

How does a kritocarcy deal with 18 - 29 yo males from cultures not at all interested in what Estrogens in robes and hats decide?

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Danno's avatar

It employs them to help intimidate the law-abiding public and keep them from rising in revolt.

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air dog's avatar

It's fortunate that you have a visionary political genius like Herr Merz in the Chancellor's office. No doubt he has foreseen these threats and is already deploying his immense brainpower to strategically defeat them on behalf of the German people.

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Andrew Marsh's avatar

'Jah', followed by splendid silence.....

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Kazimir Malevitch's avatar

🤣

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Danno's avatar

Maybe he's pretending to be stupid in order to delay the left's ascendancy.

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Ray Noack's avatar

Where are the Great Men ? Goethe,Schiller ..Einstein,Max Plank , Bach Beethoven.

The world is a better place because of Germans .

What is happening over there ? This is sad . Is western civilization coming undone by some strange psychological phenomenon? Guilt and self loathing ? I see it in the USA , England and Canada as well . Again , why is this happening? Where are the Great Men ? ..If ever we need them ,now is the time .

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Dutchmn007's avatar

“The world is a better place because of Germans.”

Sadly, this comment would get you in trouble in the “educated” circles in Germany today as they have succumbed to what current ails the rest of Western Europe (& why Western Europe is destroying itself), the innate cancer of self-loathing. This comes from having “Hitler!” & “The Holocaust!” shoved in your face from a young age every five minutes by cucked members of the edu establishment/media/govt. As a ongoing student of history, it’s become my considered opinion that the Allies were so humiliated by the German Army of 1940 & the stunning defeats inflicted on them (Dunkirk, Norway, Greece, & Dieppe {in 1942}) that they resolved to crush both the Prussian spirit & nationalism in the country once & for all. They did this by utilizing World War II as a cudgel & beating everything nationalistic with it without letup.

80yrs on the results speak for themselves.

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Andreas Stullkowski's avatar

Those Germans who seeked freedom and individualism immigrated to the USA 150 years ago.

What was left died in the world wars or was driven out by various totalitarian regimes.

"The world is a better place because of Germans": but only of those Germans who were born and raised before 1914.

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Franz Kafka's avatar

Germany has been occupied by Zionist and Zionazi Jews since 1945. They hold or control most positions of power. They use that power to avenge themselves for inflated and imaginary 'wrongs'. Everything old is new again!

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Hans Niemand's avatar

Typo:

"...AfD supporters return immediately and en masse to the AfD after an AfD ban,..."

I think you meant to write "...to the CDU after AFD ban,..."

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eugyppius's avatar

yes, thanks, fixed

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shasta (non-English speaker)'s avatar

We face a very similar situation in Spain. The populist right will probably be banned sooner or later. The globalist right thinks we are going to vote them XD

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Hunterson7's avatar

"Globalist right" a humorous dodge and deception.

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Danno's avatar

Not sure that they're really left, either.

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Hunterson7's avatar

Anarcho tyrants, like the corrupt rulers of Athens

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GaiusRipuarius's avatar

"Left parties would suddenly have a majority almost everywhere"

But what happens with the quarter of Germans who support the AfD (almost half in some Saxon regions)? Many of them are hanging on to their last bit of trust in the German political system, which they would then lose (as would some non-AfD voters). I suppose IF Germany was younger, this would be prime material for major riots.

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eugyppius's avatar

in the worst case their support scatters to a bunch of smaller, frequently regional parties. any right party that becomes a problem just gets stamped out, there are no moderating influences any longer.

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Colin Hunt's avatar

Or they do what Europeans did in the 19th century when confronted by increasingly corrupt and incompetent regimes ruling their countries. They emigrated by the millions to other continents, mostly North America. This process of emigration is going on within the United States. People are leaving incompetent socialist states like California, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts for places like Florida, Texas, Georgia, Ohio, South Carolina.

When life under a particular government becomes intolerable, you either revolt or leave.

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ThePossum's avatar

It's an interesting point. It would be fascinating if Trump and the MAGA supporters (of which I am one) created expansive legislation such as that which brought the South African farmers here, for "dissidents" in their own countries. IOW, bring the European Right to America. Establish a new Ellis Island in Florida or Texas.

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Colin Hunt's avatar

Possum, this has been done before within the last century. In the wake of the Nazis rising to power in Germany in the 1930s, hundreds of people including some of the world's leading physicists, chemists and engineers fled from Germany, many of them to the United States. The United States under FDR had an open door policy for people fleeing Germany.

This scientific exodus terminated Germany's dominance in science permanently, transferring it to the United States and Great Britain. This was manifested visibly within a decade most violently as the results of the Manhattan Project. But every field of science was affected hugely.

The Nazis' dismissal of things like the Theory of Relativity as "Jewish Science" doomed Germany's dominance in science, perhaps permanently.

So, I don't think there's a need for a new Ellis Island. Simply make it clear to people around the world that the US welcomes legal immigrants. How an administration does that, I have no idea.

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ThePossum's avatar

Of course, that's a great reminder. The peril may be different but it is no less than existential for entire nations, just as it was then. This, I believe, could warrant a new effort including outreach rather than the passive immigration currently in effect. Thanks for the reply.

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Colin Hunt's avatar

At this time, the issue of immigration has been heavily polarized and politicized. The question of illegal migrants has become so divisive that it's easy for everyone to forget that LEGAL immigration has been the source of building strength for all of the nations of the western hemisphere. I agree with you that illegal migrants is indeed an existential issue over which some nations are destroying themselves.

And yes, the peril is to some degree similar. One can make a case that Iran dominated by the barbarism of the mullahs is as hostile and uncooperative a nation as was Nazi Germany in 1939. Most of the world found a country ruled by the NSDAP utterly intolerable. So do many of us find the religious theocracy of Iran intolerable.

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Danno's avatar

Imagine the progressive tears. (Laughing emoji)

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Colin Hunt's avatar

The Progs will get what they deserve in due time. For at least six decades, the Progs were on the winning side of the Culture Wars. But the events that gave them impetus, the Vietnam War and desegregation, are now a very long time ago. What is revealing about their weakness is how many black and hispanic Americans vote AGAINST the progressive ticket in every election now.

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Andreas Stullkowski's avatar

That is the key: "If Germany was younger".

We are old, and even tose who are not old, are mostly tired.

"The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity."

The political class isn't afraid that riots would happen.

The most they may deem possible may be Pegida-like marches, as we had some years back.

But these would probably even be welcomed, as an illustration how dangerous the right is, and that we need to be even more intolerant left.

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Eirik's avatar

Good article. Artificially banning any populist party is a mistake

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Andreas Stullkowski's avatar

This is a good, scary post.

If we look at the last 25 years: German politics has veered steadily to the left, no matter which party has the majority.

And in any governmental coalition, always the most left people call the shots.

Even without an AfD ban: with the firewall there is not a small chance that the next government will include Die Linke as a junior partner, and they will completey rule.

If the AfD ban should come, it will be worse and we will be like Venezuela.

And there wont be much protest by the public, definitively no real resistance.

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Ken Braun's avatar

Each time eugyypius mentions the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, just the name leaves me thinking I'm reading a clever dystopian novel.

To an American, it's the inversion of everything a constitutional republic is supposed to be. Our constitution is built to protect us from those federal offices, and says so in multiple places throughout the document, in unambiguous language. We joke the five most beautiful words in the English language are "Congress shall make no law..."

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the long warred's avatar

That’s the opposite of most governments.

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Harry's avatar

This is so insane. “In order to protect our precious democracy, we must destroy it, lest someone other than us ever be elected!” That about sums it up.

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EppingBlogger's avatar

Typo in the last paragraph?

Will Uniparty invent grounds for further suspending elections in the UK or even banning Reform. Our judiciary is further along the radical route than in Germany.

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Susan G's avatar

The ruler of Ukraine keeps suspending elections without consequences. Why not all of Europe?

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Andrew Marsh's avatar

That's when they bother to turn up to court.....

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Sergie's avatar

It feels quite inconguous to discuss why the supposedly "conservative" CDU should align themelves with the new "right" party, instead of building perpetual coalitions with reds and watermelons. Tell me who your friends are...., you know. The last election showed very vividly that East Germans who had practical experience with the implementation of Marx's deranged ideas see the plain truth, that CDU is RED nowadays, while the entire West Germany is still hoping to dig up some Helmut Kohl in that "CDU".

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