C CSep 7, 2026 12:46 AM (This post was last modified: Sep 7, 2026 01:02 AM by C C.)
Glock AI summary: "Frustrated Deutschland voters send a clear message of being tired of deindustrialization (plant closures and job losses), waves of tedious and expensive micromanaging bureaucracy, and parties that think mimicking church and playing social-virtue posturing games [competing for sainthood awards] is the most important endeavor in the world."
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EXCERPTS: Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) scored a historic victory in Sunday's Saxony-Anhalt election, with exit polls showing the party winning 44.6 percent of the vote and finishing well ahead of its rivals.
The result marks the strongest performance by a far-right party in a German state since World War II. The New York Times reported on Sunday afternoon that 90 percent of the votes have been counted, adding that the AfD "looks likely to fall short of an absolute majority."
While the party emerged as the clear winner in Sunday's pivotal state election, it fell short of what was needed to govern alone. The AfD could nonetheless play a role in forming a government in Saxony-Anhalt, depending on coalition talks among other parties that have ruled out supporting an AfD administration.
The result also marked a major setback for Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative bloc, Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), and a major breakthrough for the AfD, which has built its strongest support in eastern Germany and campaigned on tougher immigration controls, opposition to the political establishment and a more nationalist agenda.
The AfD, led in Saxony-Anhalt by Ulrich Siegmund, had been polling consistently above 40 percent ahead of Sunday's election, as reported by Reuters, well ahead of the CDU, which governs the state.
[...] “Some would say it was a dark day for Saxony-Anhalt,” Sven Schulze, the Christian Democrat and incumbent leader of the Saxony-Anhalt government, said on a German television broadcast, per the Times. “I say this is democracy,” he continued. “The people have sent a clear message.”
The result could be a "turning point," Lars Klingbeil, Germany’s vice chancellor and a center-left Social Democrat, said in a television interview, the newspaper reported.
[...] Immigration has emerged as one of the defining issues in the election, reflecting a broader debate playing out across Germany ahead of the next federal vote. AfD has campaigned heavily on promises to tighten border controls, reduce asylum applications and increase deportations, arguing that migration levels have placed pressure on housing, schools and public services.
According to German public broadcasters and national polling, immigration consistently ranks among voters' top concerns, alongside the economy and cost of living, helping drive increased political engagement and turnout in the state election.
[...] The party's manifesto has been described as "radical" and calls for a major shift in policy, including tougher measures on migration and asylum, while also promising changes to education and security policy, along with greater support for traditional families. It also looks at an expansion of nuclear energy, limits on wind power, a smaller public broadcasting system, more nationalist cultural policies and lower taxes and regulation for businesses. (MORE - missing details)
AfD came close with 39 seats, so if they are to form a government they will need three more.
If the ostensibly "conservative" CDU is to form a government with only 16 seats, they will need to find 26 more. That will require them to form a coalition government with three parties of the left, the SPD (Social Democrats), the Greens, and the Linke (left) which is the descendant of the old East German communist party, each of which have eight seats. That probably unstable coalition with the communists would still leave them 2 seats short.
Which leaves the BSW as potential king-maker. This is generally classed as a left-leaning party and is a spinoff of Linke. But the reason why they spun off and formed their own party is interesting - they oppose open borders and the flooding of Germany with migrants that the CDU and SPD have engineered. So with regard to immigration they are close to AfD. And both BSW and AfD are quite populist, supportive of regular German voters in opposition to ruling globalist elites. So these supposedly "right" and "left" parties might have much more in common than people assume. And importantly, BSW has refused to participate in any cordon sanitaire engineered by the CDU/SPD establishment in hopes of freezing AfD out of any potential government anywhere in Germany.
So I'm hearing that the German federal government is now threatening to outlaw AfD. Chancellor Merz, a scared little man, gave an angry speech in which he said he will not allow AfD to destroy everything that Germany has built since Adenauer (the German leader before Adenauer was Hitler, so the implication was clear). Then he said something very revealing: that he would not allow Germany to return to nationalism, which he clearly identified with Naziism.
So a German government that favors policies that are in the interest of Germany and the German people would be a return to Naziism as he sees it. And outlawing a political party because too many voters favor it would somehow be a defense of democracy!
From the American perspective it's simply bizarre, but it's contemporary Europe. Thankfully, there are growing signs that the European peoples are starting to reject it.
Heaven forbid that the lowly voters get a direct "yah or nay" on policies rather than that limited to the administrative and bureaucratic elites. "Behold, the moral savants of the priesthood knoweth what is best for thee."
The AfD advocates the introduction of referenda in Germany based on the Swiss model. The German people should have the right to vote on laws made by Parliament. From the outset this would have a limiting and moderating effect on Parliament, and over time would stem the flood of nonsensical legislation. Further, the content of regulations would be more carefully considered in order to secure a popular vote.
Changes to parliamentary allowances and expenditure would be limited in order to gain approval by the electorate. Over and above, the electorate itself could initiate new draft laws. The Constitution may not be changed, and no significant international treaty be entered into, without the direct approval of the German people.
Vice versa, the people themselves should have the right to initiate changes to the Constitution. In particular, the relinquishing of national sovereignty to the EU and other institutions would be scotched without prior approval by the German people. The German electorate is just as qualified as their Swiss counterparts to vote directly and without curtailment on any topic. A natural limitation is constituted by principles of international law.
The Swiss model proves that citizens take a greater interest in public welfare than professional politicians, even when their own interests collide with the common good. Decisions based on political majorities and those favouring special interest groups are more likely to be found in representative democracies.
In particular, decisions of a financial nature should be put to a public vote. On a number of social issues Germany finds itself at political crossroads. No government may or should initiate changes in this area without directly consulting its citizens. Therefore, the introduction of national referenda based on the Swiss model is a non-negotiable component of any coalition agreement signed by the AfD.
[...] Following the tradition of the German constitutions of 1848, 1871 and 1919 as well as the “Grundgesetz” (German Constitution) of 1949, the Federal Republic of Germany is a constitutional state built on the principle of the separation of powers. In reality, numerous laws and regulations impair the separation of powers, which is one of the basic principles of governance underlying every modern democracy. In essence, the separation of powers guarantees the existence of checks and balances, which enables the executive, legislative and judiciary branches of government to exercise mutual control over one another.
The idea of checks and balances is incompatible with the current situation in which government ministers are also Members of Parliament (where Parliament’s task is to control the executive branch of government), and former politicians, who are appointed as high court judges. The same argument applies to party political networks known for their close personal relationships between holders of a political office and officials from other branches of government. These networks impede the checks and balances between the three powers.
Glock AI summary: "The legacy media brings its far-left counterpart of the John Birch Society out in force. Nazis and fascists jumping out of the woodwork and lurking in the shadows everywhere. Baba Yaga is coming to get you."
YazataSep 9, 2026 05:34 AM (This post was last modified: Sep 9, 2026 06:11 PM by Yazata.)
(Sep 7, 2026 09:35 AM)confused2 Wrote: Strengthen the German Armed Forces
Which is exactly what the United States has been pressuring them to do.
Given Germany's wealth, population, technology and industrial strength, it's a military weakling. Their army seems largely designed to be a jobs program for unemployed youth, rather than a fighting force. Their navy and air force are too small, and even worse, their readiness levels are terrible. When NATO organized a rapid deployment force to come to the aid of the Baltic Republics should Russia attack them, the Germans struggled to get together the armored brigade that they were supposed to contribute. Too few of their tanks and armored personnel carriers were functional.
Quote:4.4.1 No European Army
I have mixed feelings about that.
On one hand, Europe needs to be a stronger geo-political force in the world and be better able to defend its own interests. The United States sees its biggest threat coming from China, not Russia. The US is "pivoting" from the Atlantic to the Pacific whether Europe likes it or not, and the Europeans are going to be on their own to a greater extent. That's not the evil Trump talking. It was the Obama administration view too. I think that Hillary Clinton coined the "pivot" phrase in one of her speeches.
So the US favors the Europeans having the military capability to defend themselves. And they aren't going to have that ability unless they act together in concert. That's one argument for a European army.
But there's the counter argument that whoever controls the European army will have the muscle to suppress the independence of individual European states whose policies or electoral choices aren't favored in Brussels. I think that idea is what the AfD is expressing, and I have a great deal of sympathy with it.
A possible solution is to emulate how the US forces, both Union and Confederate, were organized in our Civil War. Individual states raised their own regiments which were put under national command, so you had units like the 3'd Georgia Regiment. Similarly, each European state should have its own strong and well-funded military. But just as with NATO, there should be an overall European command structure. If Europe sees the need to undertake military action, each country would have the option of whether to participate. The different European militaries should exercise regularly with each other so as to be able to operate together as a coherent larger force. Efforts should be made to harmonize procedures and ensure that radios and computers can talk to each other. That kind of solution could give the European militaries the coherence to operate together effectively, while giving individual nations the option of withdrawing their forces from the unified command if they feel the need to defend their own independence from the others.
None of that is really new. It's basically what NATO is already doing right now, except it would be less dependent on the United States which will be turning its attentions to the opposite side of the world.
Quote:4.4.2 Reinstate Compulsory Military Service
That may very well be necessary. But I expect that it would be very controversial domestically in Germany.
Quote:A well armed white European state is what we were seeing before WW2.
I don't want to say that white European states should be weak and impotent on the world stage. Though that's what we seem to be getting now. It's what needs to change.
The problem in the first half of the 20th century is that the European powers saw the other European powers as their rivals and their foreign and military policies were focused on combatting those rivals. Today Europe is a collection of relatively weak middle-powers who face challenges outside Europe that threaten all of them. That's something that should bring the Europeans together in common purpose. Not by giving up their national identities and sovereignty, but in voluntary cooperation.
C CSep 11, 2026 05:01 PM (This post was last modified: Sep 11, 2026 05:05 PM by C C.)
Glock AI advice: Possible AfD ties with Russia should be the preoccupation rather than the tired and predictable anti-fascist hysteria, the left-counterpart of John Birch Society monomania ("Neo-Nazis hiding in every garbage can.")
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KEY POINTS: German chancellor Friedrich Merz cancelled a planned phone call with US president Donald Trump on Wednesday, hours after Trump publicly celebrated a regional election win by Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland party.
The news came hours after a fierce exchanges between Merz and AfD’s leader Alice Weidel during a parliamentary debate in the Bundestag, during which the chancellor accussed the far-right party of seeking “ethnic cleansing, and his defence minister Boris Pistorius pointed out its links with Russia.
Celebrating her party’s win in the Saxony-Anhalt election over the weekend, Weidel said Merz “failed to understand the message” from the voters, but his time was “up anyway”.
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The likely leader of the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the far-right Alternative for Germany's Ulrich Siegmund, suggested a weapons producer could be allowed to operate in the state to provide resources for his party's planned deportation campaigns.
The AfD, which wants to restore ties with Russia and brands itself a "party of peace", opposes Germany's record defence spending under Chancellor Friedrich Merz and military support for Ukraine, raising questions about the future of a planned defence industry investment in the city of Sangerhausen.
The Misinformation Monitor newsletter rounds up international misinformation narratives, with a "Real or Fake?" quiz in every edition. Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Siegmund indicated the AfD was not opposed to arms production for domestic purposes when asked about the site.
"We do not condemn the production of military equipment across the board, because we will naturally need the appropriate resources for future repatriation and deportation campaigns," he said. "This is also in the interest of internal security, our own stability, and national defence," he added.
Local public broadcaster MDR has reported that Israel's Elbit Systems is in talks to build a plant there to manufacture components for other German companies. City officials say no complete weapons systems, drones or artillery shells would be produced at the site, which could create up to 400 jobs.
Elbit Systems Deutschland told Reuters on Friday that it continuously evaluates opportunities for further expansion in Germany but no locations have yet been selected for future expansion. "As a long-standing partner, the company operates across several locations in Germany, employs hundreds of German employees and continues to strengthen its local industrial presence," it said.
The anti-immigration AfD, which is seeking to form a state government after winning a historic election victory just short of an outright majority, has pledged deportations "from the first minute", citizen patrols and separate classrooms for refugee children.
Siegmund said the party was monitoring developments in Sangerhausen. "We want to take a close look at exactly what is being produced and under what conditions, and whether this runs the risk of involving us in foreign conflicts," he said.
Any backing for the project could complicate talks with the left-wing populist BSW, the only party not to rule out cooperation with the AfD. The BSW, which like the AfD opposes German military support for Ukraine, has campaigned against the Sangerhausen project, rejecting economic arguments for attracting foreign defence manufacturers.
Sep 7, 2026 12:46 AM
(This post was last modified: Sep 7, 2026 01:02 AM by C C.)
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