#german-politics

#german-politics

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Ukraine can defeat Russia by the end of this year with western help, and thanked Germany during a visit to Berlin for its big military and economic support.Speaking after a meeting with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, Zelenskiy said Germany was the second biggest contributor to Kyiv after the US.

36 minutes ago36 minutes ago At the German parliament, the chancellor presented Berlin's position before an EU summit next week in Brussels, which is set to largely focus on Russia's war in Ukraine.German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday delivered a government address to the German parliament, the Bundestag, ahead of next week's EU summit.

02/07/2023February 7, 2023 Boris Pistorius's surprise trip came as Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands pledged over 100 tanks to Ukraine.The new defense minister tried to accentuate the positives of German assistance.To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Less than a month after taking office, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius traveled to Ukraine on Tuesday for his first foreign trip in the role.

34 minutes ago34 minutes ago Two-thirds of Germans are against a proposed EU sales ban on cars with combustion engines, according to a new survey.Berlin has recently blocked an EU vote on the ban.A survey released Friday by German broadcaster ARD showed that the majority of Germans oppose banning combustion engines in new cars across the European Union.

Germany increased its coal import by 8% last year, as it tried to cope with a shortage in the country's energy supply after Berlin stopped relying on Russian oil and gas due to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.The country imported 44.4 million tons of coal in 2022, the Association of Coal Importers (VDKI) said in an evaluation covered by the German newspaper Bild on Saturday.

France's President Emmanuel Macron and Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz bump fists after holding a joint news conference at the conclusion of an EU Summit in Brussels, Belgium December 17, 2021.Reuters (pool) A burgeoning row between France and Germany fired by differences over nuclear energy and combustion engines threatens to spill over into a gathering of the 27 European Union leaders on Thursday.

What's going on?A debate has sprung up in German politics about whether the country should bring back some form of compulsory military service.The discussion was kicked off by the new Defence Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD), who said in an interview with the Suddeutsche Zeitung that getting rid of conscription back in 2011 had been a mistake.

12/21/2022December 21, 2022 Berlin says it opposes multimillion-euro payouts for Lufthansa executives.The German state saved the airline from bankruptcy during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the government says the bonuses violate the bailout terms.A German government spokesman on Wednesday said the government would seek legal clarification for Lufthansa's plan to distribute bonuses to bosses  despite the fact it recently needed a government bailout to avoid bankruptcy.

No Iranian citizen seeking refuge in Germany should be deported  that is the view of German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.The Social Democrats (SPD) lawmaker sees no other choice; given the violent crackdown on demonstrators by the government in Tehran, anything else would be irresponsible.The current protests in Iran were sparked in September when 22-year-old Kurdish woman Jina Mahsa Amini died after she was arrested by the morality police for not wearing the hijab as prescribed.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) suffered a setback Sunday in a rerun of the Berlin state election.The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) picked up the largest share of the vote at 28.2%, leaving the SPD in a tie for second place with the environment-friendly Greens, each with 18.4%.

A delivery van converted into a synagogue that is touring through Germany: That's the idea behind the project "Mizwa Mobil" (mobile mitzvah).The first synagogue of its kind in Germany, the van took off from Berlin on Sunday.In the coming months, it will roll across the country and make Jewish culture accessible.

A German charitable group for people with disabilities has urged the national parliament to declare people killed or forcibly sterilized as part of the Nazis' eugenics operations to be among the victims of Adolf Hitler's regime."Seventy-eight years after the end of World War II there is no historical reason to deny the victims of 'euthanasia' and forced sterilizations status among the persecuted groups," the chairwoman of the Bundesvereinigung Lebenshilfe organization, Ulla Schmidt, said.

35 minutes ago35 minutes ago Germany's health minister, Karl Lauterbach, says death threats  not only against him, but also his children  have become a part of everyday life.German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach on Tuesday said death threats to both him and his family had become a regular feature of life.

Climate activists from the German protest group Last Generation cut down a small tree in front of the Chancellery in Berlin on Tuesday, criticizing the government's "exacerbation of the climate catastrophe" through the clearing of forests to build "motorways and quarries."The activists also smeared paint on the side of the office of the chancellor.

17 minutes ago17 minutes ago Russia has deliberately misinterpreted a remark by the German foreign minister for propaganda purposes, Berlin says.Annalena Baerbock seemed to suggest NATO was a party to the conflict in Ukraine, which the West denies.The German government on Friday accused Moscow of pouncing on a statement by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock to twist it to the Kremlin's own ends and reiterated that neither Germany nor NATO were parties to the war in Ukraine.

Germany has pledged to support Iraq and called for urgent reforms amid economic and political crises.Shia al-Sudani took office in October after a yearlong impasse.German Chancellor Olaf Scholz held talks with Iraq's new Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani in Berlin on Friday as Baghdad seeks partners to help solve its electricity supply problems.

01/11/2023January 11, 2023 A leading German lawmaker visiting Taiwan says Germany will not provide the island with weapons and has not been asked to do so.China has warned that foreign politicians who visit the island are "playing with fire."A senior politician in German defense circles told a news conference in Taipei on Wednesday that Berlin had no plans to send weapons to the democratically-ruled island.

32 minutes ago32 minutes ago Annalena Baerbock again condemned Russia's aggression during her trip to the front line city.She said she wanted to get a picture of the wartime situation on the ground in the region.Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited Kharkiv, Ukraine on Tuesday, becoming the first German Cabinet member to survey the war-torn eastern city.

It isn't easy to estimate the cost of rebuilding post-war Ukraine.Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine's prime minister, said in July it would cost $750 billion.The World Bank and European Commission lowered that figure to $349 billion in September.With the war still raging and no end in sight, neither estimate is all that reliable.

29 minutes ago29 minutes ago The government reportedly wants to speed up the naturalization process to make it easier for migrants to become German citizens.Easier dual citizenship is also on the cards.Germany's coalition government is working on making it easier for migrants to become German citizens, according to local reports.

3 minutes ago3 minutes ago German lawmakers have voted to replace the Hartz IV" social safety net with a new proposal from the ruling center-left coalition containing more benefits.The German parliament on Thursday approved the so-called "Burgergeld" social welfare program for unemployment benefits.