Kremlin Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that the Hungarian authorities’ decision to expel 10 Russian diplomats from the country would have a negative impact on bilateral relations as a whole and would be met with an appropriate response.
“Budapest’s decision will undoubtedly have a negative impact. This will certainly have negative consequences for the entire spectrum of our bilateral relations… As for this particular decision, it will be met with an appropriate response. These actions will not go unanswered,” Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.
The Kremlin spokesman also stressed that Russia remains open to further development of relations with Hungary.
“We are interested in this and do not intend to harm in any way the valuable heritage and experience of our bilateral relations with our Hungarian partners,” he added.
Hungary expels 10 Russian diplomats
Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orbán announced on Tuesday that the Hungarian Foreign Ministry had ordered 10 Russian diplomats who “engaged in activities in Hungary that are unacceptable for diplomats under the Vienna Convention” to leave the country.
The head of Hungarian diplomacy did not specify when the diplomats would leave Hungary, nor did she specify the nature of their actions.
According to Anita Orbán, this does not mean a break in diplomatic relations with Russia.
“Hungary intends to continue the necessary dialogue based on mutual respect and adherence to the rules,” she added.
Hungarian media say an expulsion on this scale is unprecedented, as never before have so many Russian diplomats been sent home from the country.
Zakharova announced a “harsh and painful” response
Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, also reacted to Hungary’s move.
“The response to Hungary’s decision to expel 10 Russian diplomats will be harsh and painful,” she said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman described Hungary’s actions as the work of a “Russophobic lobby in Budapest.”
Three days after the Alternative for Germany’s (AfD) landslide in Saxony-Anhalt, the Bundestag’s general budget debate turned into a verbal battle between AfD co-chair Alice Weidel and Chancellor Friedrich Merz, with the two battling it out over mass immigration, democracy, crime, Ukraine, and the future of Germany.
Heckling filled the chamber. Bundestag President Julia Klöckner repeatedly intervened. The exchange was the first direct parliamentary clash between the two leaders since Sunday’s vote, in which the AfD took 43.8 percent and the CDU collapsed to 17.2 percent.
Weidel opened the debate and treated the election results as a verdict on the ruling federal government coalition led by Merz.
“The voters in Saxony-Anhalt have made it abundantly clear to you, in the language of the democratic sovereign: the Black-Red coalition is over,” she said. Citizens wanted “a change of policy,” she added, “and they do not want more of the same.”
JUST IN: After AfD's landslide victory, Weidel tells Merz that "the voters in Saxony-Anhalt have communicated to you in the language of the democratic sovereign with all clarity: Black-Red (CDU-SPD ruling coalition) is over."
Addressing Merz directly, she said he had failed to hear that message.
“That is not especially relevant, because your time has run out anyway. Citizens want a change of policy, and they will get it,” she said.
She turned next to the draft federal budget. Weidel called it a “declaration of surrender” and accused Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil of “unserious budget management.”
““Despite record tax revenues, you are incapable of managing the public’s money wisely. Why? Because you are unwilling to free yourselves from the shackles of green ideology, left-wing mass migration, and socialist redistribution.”
She said the CDU-SPD government planned more than €1 trillion in new borrowing over its term, a figure she described as unprecedented in the Federal Republic. The result, she argued, would destroy future room for maneuver and leave “scorched earth.”
“You are driving Germany into national bankruptcy in record time,” she said.
Weidel also continued to slam Merz on mass migration, a sore spot for the ruling government.
“You declare the migration crisis to be over. Yet, every year, a six-figure number of migrants enters the country through the back door of asylum, plus another major city through family reunification—most of them from Muslim tribal cultures,” she stated, adding: “More than a million refugees live whose asylum application has been rejected more than once. What are these people actually still doing in this country? They should be deported!”
Weidel accused the coalition of declaring the crisis over while still admitting large numbers of people through asylum procedures and family reunification. She claimed more than a million people whose asylum claims had already been rejected remained in the country and should be deported. Ordinary workers, she said, were paying the price.
“Because [Germans] have to deal daily with the consequences of mass migration, with the hatred of foreign groups toward their own, with hatred of Christians, with hatred of Germans, with hatred of Germany, and you are even providing financial support to these people. This must finally come to an end!”
After AfD's victory in Saxony-Anhalt, Alice Weidel takes Chancellor Merz to task during a raucous debate.
"Because [Germans] have to deal daily with the consequences of mass migration, with the hatred of foreign groups toward their own, with hatred of Christians, with… pic.twitter.com/lBjLNPt9hM
Energy policy drew the sharpest interjections from the government benches. Weidel called the energy transition “the greatest millstone dragging our economy into the abyss” and “lost, burned money.” Germany, she said, was facing a possible winter gas shortage after the destruction of Nord Stream 2 while still sending billions to Ukraine.
She demanded renewed Russian gas deliveries, a return to nuclear power, and peace talks.
“While the United States is making another attempt to end the murderous Ukraine war, you are stepping up the war propaganda and the confrontation with Russia,” she told the chancellor. When SPD deputies laughed, she snapped: “Do you find that funny? Voters out there can see that the SPD finds deindustrialization funny. So stop laughing.”
Merz responds
Merz came out swinging against Weidel, conceding the Saxony-Anhalt result was “remarkable,” but said the AfD had missed its actual goal: an absolute majority of seats.
“Fifty-six percent of voters in Saxony-Anhalt did not vote for you,” he said. “And you will not achieve that anywhere in Germany with this policy.” He accused Weidel of having pushed lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund, within hours of the polls closing, to seek a governing majority after having promised before the election to govern only with an absolute majority.
“You are, and you will remain, Ms. Weidel, a destructive force,” he accused.
The sharpest attack from Merz concerned remigration. He said the concept is “nothing other than a synonym for ethnic cleansing based on origin and skin color.”
Germany
The anti-immigration AfD party is pursuing a plan of "ethnic cleansing based on skin color and origin," said Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a Bundestag debate.
If that program were carried out, he claimed, skilled trades, nursing homes, hospitals, and restaurants would cease to function, because one in six workers in the crafts already holds a foreign passport and millions of people with a migration background keep essential services running. The coalition, he said, agreed on deporting people without a right to stay, but distinguished between those who work and contribute and those who must leave. AfD deputies erupted. Several shouted that the claim was false.
On Ukraine, Merz accused the AfD of reversing perpetrator and victim. Neither NATO, the European Union nor Germany had threatened Russia, he said.
“The only thing that truly threatens Russia and Putin is the radiance of democracy.”
The AfD, he added, still stood with Moscow.
“Right there runs the deep rift between you and us, in foreign policy, in European policy, in social policy and in peace policy,” he said.
He also charged that Weidel had said nothing about a failed drone incident at Leipzig Airport, a hacking attack on Berlin infrastructure, or this year’s fires and weather extremes.
“Not a word from you, Ms. Weidel, about what has been going on in this country this year, he accused her.
At one point in Merz’s speech, Klöckner told the AfD that heckling is part of parliamentary life, “but it is not part of constantly interrupting a speaker. You also have to accept that there are other opinions.”
When the noise continued, she warned one deputy: “We are not on the football pitch here right now. Save this for the weekend.” Later she threatened MPs with expulsion.
Merz thanked her and said the interruptions themselves showed the AfD’s “contempt for the German Bundestag,” adding that “listening is not your strong suit.”
With the battle brewing over who controls Saxony-Anhalt still to be decided, and with Merz’s CDU crashing below 20 percent in the latest poll, political tensions are set to rise in the coming month
A 33-year-old Cameroonian illegal migrant has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for raping a 75-year-old woman in her home in Ozoir-la-Ferrière, Seine-et-Marne, France.
The Seine-et-Marne criminal court handed down the sentence on Monday, along with a permanent ban from French territory and registration in a list of sexual and violent offenders (FIJAIS).
The attack occurred in the early hours of Jan. 1, 2024, which Remix News covered at the time. Shortly before 6:30 a.m., the intoxicated man, who had a whiskey bottle in his pocket, broke into the home of an elderly couple on a quiet residential street. He first entered the room of the victim’s husband, who is bedridden and severely disabled after a stroke. The husband cried out but could not intervene.
A French journalist says there is a shocking pattern of foreigners raping elderly women in France.
Just this week, a Moroccan migrant was arrested for raping and torturing a 74-year-old woman in Romainville with a telescopic baton.
The intruder then went to the 75-year-old woman’s bedroom and forced the woman to have unprotected sexual intercourse. He then demanded money and took a €50 note before leaving. He remained in the house for about 45 minutes.
Investigators identified him through video surveillance. On New Year’s Day, he traveled from Paris’s Saint-Lazare station to Ozoir-la-Ferrière after a night of heavy drinking during which he and two companions consumed five bottles of alcohol. Once in the town, he is believed to have gone first to the home of a prostitute he knew who lived on the same street; that woman then led him toward the victims’ house.
The defendant, who is married and has four children in Cameroon, entered France in 2022 after traveling through Libya and Italy. On arrival, he was housed free of charge in a maid’s room in Paris’s 16th arrondissement by the association “Surviving Insecurity – Diogenes,” for which he also worked. His asylum applications were rejected twice, and he was in an irregular situation at the time of the crime.
During the trial, the attorney general noted that ten years of detention would cost French taxpayers approximately €1 million.
The victim, now 78, has not left her home since the attack. She has said she believed she was going to die. Her son, who is in his fifties, has moved back in with his parents to care for them.
The victim’s lawyer, Christophe Gérard, told Le Figaro: “There are two types of rape: incestuous family rapes and those committed in the street, in parking lots, or even worse at home, the place where one is supposed to be safest. The events took place in the middle of the night, on New Year’s, on the 1st. The son left his parents’ house around 10:30 p.m., closed everything, before discovering in the early morning that his mother had been raped. It is a horrible and terrible crime.”
Just months ago, Remix News published in an in-depth news article covering at least 14 cases involving migrants raping elderly French women in recent years.
Go on a job interview in Germany and become a rape victim? That is what happened to one young woman, according to prosecutors.
Authorities say a 45-year-old German citizen, who originally from Kosovo, raped a 24-year-old woman during a job interview for a secretary position in an empty warehouse in the city of Kerpen. While the woman’s lawyer said she has been traumatized by the rape, the suspect said it was the “best sex” of his life.
Go on a job interview in Germany and get raped?
According to prosecutors, a 45-year-old “German” originally from Kosovo raped a 24-year-old woman during a job interview for a secretary position in an empty warehouse in the city of Kerpen.
During the “job interview,” he asked her a series of inappropriate questions, including whether she was still a virgin, say prosecutors.
When she tried to leave, he reportedly grabbed her handbag, blocked her way, and told her “she could not leave.” The German-Kosovar man then proceeded to press her against a wall, strip her, and rape her. The defendant repeatedly forced her to perform oral sex and sexual intercourse while asking her if “she enjoyed it.” Prosecutors say the woman only endured the rape because she was afraid the man would hurt her.
After the crime, he allegedly gave her €100, reports the German newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger.
During the trial, he denied that he raped her and said, “She wanted it… she participated.”
The defendant, who owns his own company, reportedly has a wife and three children.
This is not the only case in Germany in which a migrant has been accused of rape in connection with a job interview. In Braunschweig in December 2022, a 37-year-old Syrian conducted an unauthorized “job interview” with a 19-year-old in the morning at a restaurant. That evening he went to her apartment under the pretext of discussing the position further and raped her there. He was later convicted and sentenced to two years and ten months.
Austria’s new nationwide ban on “traditional Muslim” head coverings, including hijabs and burqas, for girls under 14 in both public and private schools, has now taken effect as of Sept. 7, 2026. in Vienna, Lower Austria, and Burgenland. The start date coincided with the start of the new school year. Austria’s remaining states will follow with a ban next week as well.
The measure, framed by the government as a child-protection and gender-equality policy, immediately faced visible resistance from Muslims and the first formal legal challenge.
At an Islamic primary school in Vienna, reporters from Austrian news outlet Heute observed young girls arriving to school still wearing headscarves accompanied by their mothers. One child wore a pink hijab coordinated with her dress; two slightly older students entered in simple hijabs without parents. School officials did not immediately clarify how they would apply the ban on private Islamic institutions.
The law requires schools to start with conversations involving the student and her legal guardians. Repeated violations trigger involvement of child-protection services, with fines of €150 to €800 possible for parents as a last resort. Teachers, already under strain, must initiate these talks. There are now fears of real conflict arising in the coming months.
Integration Minister Claudia Bauer of the conservative ÖVP described the headscarf as “a sign of oppression and a means of controlling girls from the earliest childhood.” Chancellor Christian Stocker has separately called for a constitutional ban on political Islam, saying he does not “want to live in an Islamic state.”
The right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), the most popular party in the country is known for its even harsher stance toward migrants and Islam in the country. FPÖ politician Ricarda Berger stated there is “no place for political Islam in Austria, and certainly not in our schools.”
The party wants a general ban on all headscarves and face coverings in schools for both students and teachers alike, which would cover all ages.
Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr of the liberal NEOS acknowledged uncertainty about the law’s fate at the Constitutional Court, stating: “You can never be completely certain.”
He added that the government and education ministry “carried out very intensive consultations” to draft a constitutionally compliant text.
Only the Greens opposed the bill in parliament. Green politician Sigi Maurer accused Wiederkehr of “creating new conflicts and offloading them onto the teachers,” saying the minister wanted to “foist the role of police officers onto them.”
Teachers’ union chairman Paul Kimberger noted that some communities had already announced they would resist and that certain conversations with parents “will probably have limited success.”
The Islamic Religious Community in Austria (IGGÖ), the largest Islamic organization in the country, condemned the ban as discriminatory. Spokesperson Carla Amina Baghajati said, “We believe it unjustifiably restricts the fundamental right to freedom of religion and disproportionately affects Muslim girls. Rather than protecting children, it singles out a specific religious practice and risks excluding the very children it claims to support.”
The IGGÖ has pledged to support families challenging the law at the Constitutional Court. A request for annulment was filed on the first day of school.
A 2020 Constitutional Court ruling had struck down an earlier ban limited to children under 10, finding it violated Austria’s duty of religious neutrality. The court dismissed premature challenges to the new law in July because it had not yet entered force, but that procedural barrier is now gone. Left-wing student groups have called for protests. An 11-year-old girl demonstrated against the ban in February carrying a banner that, translated into English, read, “My headscarf, my decision.”
The Constitutional Court is likely to have the final word on the issue.
Non-German suspects account for nearly half of all violent crime in the German state of Bavaria, with the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party now calling for remigration for all criminal migrant suspects.
The Interior Ministry data was released in response to a request from AfD state parliament member Martin Böhm. It revealed that police recorded 20,367 suspects in violent offenses in 2025 and about 47 percent did not have German citizenship.
Remarkably, foreigners are responsible for this massive amount of serious crime despite making up only 15.5 percent of Bavaria’s population.
Syrians were the largest group of non-German suspects, at 1,284, followed by Turks with 799, Ukrainians with 797, Afghans with 784, Romanians with 687, Iraqis with 428, Bulgarians with 350, Poles with 328, Kosovars with 319, and Italians with 250.
A different ranking appears when the figures are adjusted for population. The suspect burden figure, or TVBZ, measures how many suspects police identified per 100,000 people in a group over one year.
Ukrainians had the highest TVBZ, at 555. Turks followed at 445 and Romanians at 435. The figure for German citizens was 106. That means Ukrainians, for instance, are more than five times more likely to commit a violent crime than Germans.
The government did not calculate a TVBZ for other nationalities because each had fewer than 100,000 residents.
“For smaller population groups, the crime rate would have to be mathematically extrapolated to 100,000 people,” the state government wrote. “However, since the relationship between population size and crime burden is not strictly linear, an error would occur in the TVBZ calculation, which is greater the smaller the population group. For this reason, the TVBZ are only calculated for non-German citizens who have a population share of over 100,000 people.”
When it comes to murder and manslaughter, there were 411 suspects in Bavaria and 177 were non-Germans, equaling 43.1 percent of all murder and manslaughter suspects. The TVBZ for Germans was 87, while Turks had a TVBZ of 478 and Ukrainians with a TVBZ of 499.
In cases of rape, sexual assault and sexual assault in particularly serious cases, including those resulting in death, police registered 1,288 suspects in Bavaria. Of those, 551 were foreigners, equaling 42.8 percent.
It must also be noted that for all German suspects counted in this data, the Interior Ministry does not release if they have a foreign background.
Böhm said the figures show that violent crime in Bavaria is an imported problem to a “far too high” extent.
“No amount of sugarcoating or trivialization will help. The numbers speak for themselves,” he told Junge Freiheit, which exclusively received the figures.
“The AfD therefore demands: decisive action by the judiciary, an end to mass naturalizations and rigorous remigration of foreign violent criminals,” Böhm said.
After a historic democratic victory for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the eastern German state of Saxony-Anhalt, a top Christian Democrat (CDU) politician, Hendrik Wüst, is now calling for the first concrete steps towards a possible ban of the AfD party.
“I said something today, but I don’t think any CDU member has said it publicly yet: That I am in favor of appointing this working group, which will then do this work,” said North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister-President Wüst.
Wüst has already repeatedly referred to the AfD as a “Nazi party.” North Rhine-Westphalia itself faces a state election in April 2027.
Wüst made the remarks on Monday evening in Berlin to a mostly left-leaning audience during a talk hosted by “transformation researcher” Maja Göpel. He presented this working group as a prerequisite before any application to Germany’s top court, the Federal Constitutional Court, for an outright ban of the AfD.
While the AfD nearly obtained an absolute majority with 43.8 percent in the Saxony-Anhalt election, Wüst’s own party saw a historic crash, with its support cut in half to 17.2 percent. The results have reportedly sent CDU leadership, along with Chancellor Friedrich Merz, into a potential existential crisis.
Wüst apparently does not like that voters are moving away from his party and now wants this working group to examine the AfD in preparation for a potential ban, but he says other outcomes are possible besides a ban.
Beyond his position as minister-president, there is also speculation that Wüst himself is a strong front-runner to replace Merz should he step down. Merz himself has rejected a ban of the AfD, saying that it “smacks too much of the elimination of political rivals.”
Besides the Bundestag and the federal government, the Bundesrat, of which Wüst is a member as head of a state government, can also launch such proceedings. However, the final decision on a ban is ultimately made by the Constitutional Court.
Wüst framed the outcome of that review as a constitutional duty. If the working group’s examination reveals that the AfD could be banned, that would be a “command to protect this constitution.” As reported by Die Welt, Wüst added: “If, after an examination, the following is on the table: This party can be banned, then this ban procedure must be initiated. For me, that’s relatively clear. But step by step.”
Earlier the same day, at a campaign event in Berlin, he had already warned against underestimating the AfD after its result in Saxony-Anhalt.
“We must not be naive and believe that the AfD would somehow change course. They have a plan with this country, and it’s not a good plan,” he said.
Wüst was careful to say that it is not a foregone conclusion that such a working group would recommend a ban.
Wüst said the working group should “not operate with the politically predetermined goal” but rather “examine this party and the possible legal consequences.”
“That could be a ban, that could also be something else,” said the CDU politician.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that only “idiots and traitors” could celebrate the recent historic victory of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Saxony-Anhalt, prompting a sharp backlash after his post on X.
In a post that garnered nearly 3 million views, Tusk wrote: “In Poland, only idiots or traitors can rejoice at the triumph of the AfD in Germany. Quite a few of them have gathered in Confederation and PiS.”
W Polsce tylko idioci albo zdrajcy mogą się cieszyć z tryumfu AfD w Niemczech. Trochę się ich nazbierało w Konfederacjach i PiS.
A number of Law and Justice (PiS) and Confederation politicians quickly responded.
“I understand that frustration. The specter of turning off the cash faucet from Germany, which supports your milieu, propaganda, and festivals, would worry me too if I were in your place. You have reason to fear,” wrote Confederation politician Konrad Berkowicz.
Some critics of Tusk’s statement took a more measured approach. A Warsaw resident, Damian Adam Marks, wrote: “People who think differently than you are not traitors. Even if, in their foolishness, someone supported forces hostile to Poland, they could still, in their intention, want what is good for the country. It simply doesn’t concern you. What matters exclusively is creating the boundary of us and them. You must point out the enemy.”
Some in the AfD are looking to assure the Polish right that
the AfD is a party they can work with. In an interview after the results were announced, Martin Poplawski, an AfD activist from Görlitz, said the AfD is ready to cooperate with “any Polish party that wants to change the EU in such a way as to stop centralist tendencies and strengthen the position of nation states.”
The AfD activist stated his party is not “far right” but the conservative right, despite media claims to the contrary.
“I can tell you what it looks like from my perspective. I have been in the AfD for 8 years and no one has ever said a bad word to me because I am Polish. What’s more, no one even looked at me askance,” said Poplawski.
Poplawski was also asked, among other things, about Polish-German relations and Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Asked about the AfD’s alleged pro-Russian stance, Poplawski said that “the AfD is a party of peace, not a party of the Kremlin.”
“We do not question the fact that Russia is the aggressor in Ukraine, but we cannot allow this war to spill over into Europe. We also advocate dialogue, including with Moscow. This war can only be ended at the negotiating table. The alternative is the annihilation of Europe,” he stated.
In a post-election interview, Dr. Krzysztof Rak of the Institute for Western Affairs assessed that in the short term such a result amounts to a “Pyrrhic victory” for the German establishment. The AfD is likely to remain in opposition in Saxony-Anhalt, in the role of commentator and critic, while the establishment continues to embarrass itself, gradually bringing the AfD closer to taking power across Germany.
The mother of a disabled woman is outraged after a rape complaint was dismissed against 40-year-old Moroccan man serving as the daughter’s caregiver in a care facility near the French city of Toulouse. In addition, prosecutors dismissed the sexual assault allegations involving two other disabled female victims at the same facility.
The mother, Nathalie Muet, is openly publicizing a case in where she says her 23-year-old quadriplegic daughter, Mayline, was raped at an Association for the Protection of Disabled Children (ASEI) center in Ramonville-Saint-Agne.
Speaking to French newspaper La Dépêche, she called the decision “incomprehensible.”
The rape complaint was first filed on Mayline’s behalf in July 2025 and was dismissed on Aug. 1. Muet is now speaking up about the dismissal and exploring different legal options, including an appeal, after prosecutors dropped the case.
Within 24 hours, Noelia Castillo Ramos will be euthanized in Spain.
In 2022, Noelia suffered a gang rape in a supervised care center.
This completely shattered her life. She attempted suicide, jumping from a 5-story building, which left her a paraplegic.
The mother points to what she says is clear evidence that requires a criminal trial. In fact, Mayline is not the only woman who has filed a criminal complaint. The Moroccan was indicted in a total of three cases involving the sexual assault of young women, including Mayline.
One of the key pieces of evidence the mother cites is the medical report. The report notes the absence of traumatic injuries, while specifying that the genital examination was incomplete and that “the hymen could not be visualized.” However, the medical expert considered the exam “compatible with acts of anal penetration,” as reported by the mother.
However, there is additional evidence, according to the mother. She says Mayline herself was terrified to go back to the facility due to the rape.
“She was screaming and didn’t want to go back to that center again,” Nathalie Muet said to French newspaper Midi Libre, adding that she gathered information from her daughter, despite Mayline’s significant communication difficulties, about what she allegedly suffered.
The mother stated that it was not just one incident either, but that Mayline was the victim of “repeated” sexual touching by the caregiver.
The accused man was dismissed from his post and placed in pre-trial detention. He was released at the end of 2025 and denies any accusation of rape. In Mayline’s case, as in two other similar cases, the Toulouse public prosecutor’s office concluded after more than a year of proceedings that the offenses were not sufficiently constituted.
For Nathalie Muet, the medical report’s conclusions justify further investigation.
“There is still evidence to be found and educators who may not have said everything,” she said.
Mayline left ASEI in 2025 for another specialized care facility in Gratentour.
Germany’s political establishment is still absorbing the shock of Sunday’s state election in Saxony-Anhalt, where the Alternative for Germany (AfD) surged to 43.8 percent and the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Chancellor Friedrich Merz crashed to 17.2 percent. Merz called the result the CDU’s “heaviest defeat” in decades and said it could not simply be treated as business as usual.
“And I have to admit, this is the heaviest electoral defeat that the CDU has suffered in years, in decades,” Merz told reporters in Berlin after CDU leadership meetings. “We are all deeply shocked…We did not expect it to be like this.”
“That does something to us. Including me personally… All of this will, of course, have to have consequences,” he continued.
BREAKING: Merz just said he is "deeply shocked" by the AfD's landslide victory.
"And I have to admit, this is the heaviest electoral defeat that the CDU has suffered in years, in decades."
"That does something to us. Including me personally… All of this will, of course,… pic.twitter.com/L4cycKdH6h
It remains unclear what those “consequences” will be exactly, as Merz did not clarify. However, he did point to two upcoming elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which will be held in the next two weeks. If the CDU faces further routs, there may be pressure for Merz to step down.
He accepted the democratic verdict but insisted the outcome had changed the political landscape “not only in Saxony-Anhalt, but throughout Germany.” When nearly 60 percent of voters backed parties that question the country’s democratic institutions, he said, “that is an election result with which we can not just treat as business as usual.”
Merz said he was searching for explanations, including in his own record: “What fear is there in the population that we may have underestimated?”
Merz has plans to hold talks in the coming days with SPD leaders on how the coalition could continue on its present course.
“Giving up is not an option,” he added.
Meanwhile, the AfD federal co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla pledged support for an AfD government in Saxony-Anhalt. Weidel called it a “dream result” and argued Merz had become “a great burden.” She predicted the CDU/CSU would never again win a federal election and said the AfD’s goal was to widen the gap to at least 40 percent by the next national vote. Chrupalla called the outcome “absolutely historic.”
Merz’s coalition partner, Bärbel Bas of the far-left Social Democrats (SPD), used her own press conference to argue that the government’s language on work and welfare had itself fueled public anxiety.
Outgoing Minister-President Sven Schulze was blunt: the CDU no longer held a government mandate and would sit in opposition. He ruled out CDU defectors joining any AfD-led arrangement and predicted the BSW would help put an AfD in power.
AfD lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund described the result as “a very clear government mandate” and said he could be “perhaps the next minister-president.”
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) scored a resounding and historic win in Saxony-Anhalt, but when specific data points are examined, the victory is even more remarkable.
Perhaps the most positive aspect of the election for the AfD is that the tremendous victory was achieved with a record high level of voter participation of 77.8 percent. In essence, more democracy equaled more votes for the AfD, according to calculations from the Infratest dimap. The firm pointed out that the AfD won 170,000 voters who stayed home during the last election in 2021, which is 10 percent of Saxony-Anhalt’s roughly 1.7 million eligible voters.
This means that the AfD’s total voting pool was made up of approximately 30 to 35 percent non-voters.
For those disillusioned by politics, the AfD’s program is drawing them back into participating in democracy. The country’s media should be celebrating this result in theory, but in reality, they would perhaps prefer that these voters simply stayed home, disillusioned and downtrodden.
Workers and those with financial problems backed the AfD
The AfD’s results show there might be futrher room for improvement. Approximately 65 percent of the AfD’s voters reported facing financial issues. As the German economy continues to falter, the pool of potential voters the AfD can tap into is likely to expand in other states.
It is important to note that just because many of these voters are facing financial difficulties does not necessarily mean they are unemployed. In fact, AfD won 61 percent of all blue-collar voters who actually voted. However, many of these often lower-income workers may also be struggling financially in a system that often rewards not working at all.
Some see the AfD’s results as a template.
“65% of AfD voters in Saxony-Anhalt reported facing financial struggles. Turns out that when you correctly link mass immigration to the decline in job security, homeownership, accessible healthcare, quality education, decent wages, and almost every other quality of life indicator for existing residents, they respond accordingly at the ballot box,” wrote Gabe Guidarini, the chief of staff for the Ohio Young Republicans wrote. Although an American, his post underlines that the AfD election results are being watched by the right-wing across the world, especially when they offer a clear blueprint for victory.
65% of AfD voters in Saxony-Anhalt reported facing financial struggles.
Turns out that when you correctly link mass immigration to the decline in job security, homeownership, accessible healthcare, quality education, decent wages, and almost every other quality of life indicator… pic.twitter.com/g0HJLtTs79
The tired narrative of the left, which depicts right-wing parties only garnering support from “old White males,” was once again smashed by the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt. The AfD won the youth by overwhelming numbers, reaching 42 percent of voters aged 18–24 vote and 44 percent of voters aged 25–40.
Martin Sellner, CEO of the Remigration Institute, celebrated the results, writing: “The kids are all right. The German youth are increasingly patriotic and reject ‘German guilt,’ replacement migration, trans ideology, and cultural Marxism.”
The kids are all right.
The German youth are increasingly patriotic and reject "German guilt", replacement migration, trans ideology, and cultural Marxism altogether. pic.twitter.com/LhcM3le7QX
In fact, it was the oldest voters that actually cost the AfD an absolute majority, with only 31 percent of voters 70 and older backing the party. Similar figures have been consistently found across Germany, with older voters turning to the establishment parties while young and middle-aged voters turning to the AfD.
While the AfD can celebrate its support among younger voters, the combined weight of the older voting population means the AfD will have to make inroads with these voters or continue to fail to reach a position of power at the state and federal level.
The CDU’s results are just as dramatic as the AfD’s results
The story of Saxony-Anhalt cannot be told without the collapse of the Christian Democrats (CDU). The party halved its support since the last election, dropping to 17.2 percent.
Political scientist Petra Dobner was asked if Chancellor Friedrich Merz will now resign. She responded: “That may also depend on how the next elections turn out. So maybe he can survive Saxony-Anhalt, but if Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin show similar results, then I really don’t see a future for Merz.”
Notably, Merz famously said in 2018 that the CDU can cut the AfD’s support in half.
“We can achieve up to 40% again and halve the AfD. That’s possible! But we ourselves must create the conditions for it. That’s our task,” he said.
Since then, Merz has managed to cut the CDU’s support in half in Saxony-Anhalt and double the AfD’s support.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) just won the largest share of any party in a German state election in the party’s history. Despite the historic result, which has sent shockwaves through the German political establishment, lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund in Saxony-Anhalt still fell short of an absolute majority needed to govern.
That gap, three seats in an 83-member Saxony-Anhalt Landtag, is now the focal point of unfolding drama in the capital city of Magdeburg, where the future direction of the state, and perhaps even of the country, will be decided. AfD has a political mandate and a number of options that could produce dramatic results. Here are three possible scenarios.
An AfD and BSW coalition?
On the preliminary official count, the AfD took 43.8 percent and 39 seats. The threshold for an absolute majority is 42. The BSW scraped in with 5.3 percent and five seats. Together they would have 44. Everyone else together also has 44. Without the BSW, the chamber splits 39–39.
The BSW has already been open that it is willing to pursue a coalition with the AfD, but this is not a comfortable coalition for the AfD.
Siegmund spent the campaign insisting he would not take office without a stable majority of his own. After election night he kept the hard line in one respect and loosened it in another. He still rejected the BSW’s preferred model, a non-partisan minister-president governing with shifting majorities, as messy power politics.
Siegmund called the offer “nonsense” and said he did not want to give up the AfD’s goals and values in the face of “power games.”
He still said the AfD would not trade away its program for power, but he also said he would extend a hand to anyone prepared to deliver a “fundamental political change,” including, if necessary, individual deputies rather than whole parties.
If that fails?
“In an emergency, there will simply be new elections.,” he said. In such a scenario, he predicts the AfD would score “50 to 55%.”
The question is whether cooperation with the BSW on some level is possible. Sahra Wagenknecht framed the result as a chance for a change of course on energy, Russia sanctions, education, and public broadcasting. State-level BSW figures say they will not join a “firewall” coalition against the AfD. They also say they will not elect Siegmund. Their offer is a third way, involving a new leader both parties can agree on, plus issue-by-issue majorities that could include the AfD.
However, the BSW is already hinting they may be willing to give up even more for an AfD government.
BSW’s lead candidate, Thomas Schulze, suggested that in the third ballot for minister-president, the BSW may abstain from the vote, which in theory, could let Siegmund through to become the state leader.
What the BSW would obtain in return remains to be seen.
However, despite the differences between the AfD and BSW, the two parties have much in common. The overlap involves a strict crackdown on migration, tackling energy costs, shifting policy on Ukraine, and hostility to the public broadcasters.
At the same time, BSW politicians have already flagged education policy and parts of the AfD’s economic and social agenda as unacceptable. A formal coalition was ruled out by Wagenknecht before the vote. What remains is only a quasi gray zone where both parties can exist together a vote a time.
For Siegmund, the political costs of that gray zone are obvious. He ran as the man who would reshape the state standing alone. Accepting a non-AfD premier, or even a minority premiership propped up only with the support of Wagenknecht’s left-wing party, would look like the opposite. However, stepping back from the deal would leave his party out of the halls of power once again.
AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel both appear eager for Siegmund to take the deal. Chrupalla has already talked up the possibility of a minority government that would seek majorities case by case.
Peel off CDU MPs?
Siegmund’s second option may prove even more explosive for German politics. He spoke of not working with parties, but with individuals from the parties. He suggested individual deputies could “support an AfD government.” Some in the AfD’s federal circle even talk about CDU members crossing the floor to the AfD camp, and there are even suggestions that some MPs may defect.
If any CDU politician defected to the AfD, there would be a national firestorm. While if only one vote was needed, this might be in the realm of possibility, but finding three such MPs may prove a very tall order. The CDU has tried to build the firewall into its DNA, and if three CDU members helped bring the AfD to power in a state, it may be enough to collapse the federal government and end the chancellorship of Friedrich Merz.
Regardless of whether the AfD can peel off three CDU votes, the pressure on the party is tremendous after it collapsed to a mere 17.2 percent, effectively halving its support. The CDU is almost assured to continue facing a political reckoning in the future, which means the dam may break at some point, and CDU politicians may be more and more willing to jump ship to the AfD.
A repeat election possible?
An anti-AfD government is mathematically possible but politically? It would be a total mess.
It would need the CDU, SPD, Greens, Left, and BSW — five parties, two of which spent the campaign treating each other as the problem. The CDU already ruled out coalitions with both the AfD and the Left Party. The BSW campaigned to push the CDU out, with Wagenknecht also calling another firewall coalition an affront to voters.
That does not mean it cannot be attempted, and it very well might be, even despite the potential consequences for all the parties involved. If that project forms and then staggers, Siegmund’s threat of new elections stops being a far-fetched scenario. A second vote in such a scenario could indeed catapult the AfD above the 50 percent mark.
Procedurally, the clock is already running, as the new Landtag must convene by Oct. 6. The strongest group proposes the Landtag president in the first round. The minister-president is elected by secret ballot, with no fixed deadline once nominations begin. While the first ballot requires a majority of all votes, in the final round, a simple majority of votes cast can suffice to elect a new minister-president.
As far as the best outcome for the AfD, it is hard to argue against CDU defectors handing the AfD the keys to victory. It would allow the AfD to take control with a like-minded party on paper while sparking a major crisis for the ruling CDU.
However, remaining outside government also comes with plenty of bonuses, and as Remix News previously wrote, avoids serious pitfalls that the federal government and even the EU can put up against an AfD government.
Despite falling short of an absolute majority, the AfD appears to be in the driver’s seat.
After a group of migrant men were filmed parading around with a dead baby bottlenose dolphin in Ceuta, a polarized public debate has erupted and an environmental organization is pushing for Spanish prosecutors to investigate the case as a criminal offense.
On Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026, videos recorded at Trampolín beach showed several people holding a dead baby bottlenose dolphin up as if it were a trophy. It was bleeding above one of its eyes. A Spanish influencer recorded the entire incident, saying they killed the dolphin.
“They killed a dolphin…. They say they killed it. Over there, as you can see, they kill protected species,” said the influencer.
JUST IN: "They killed a dolphin. They say they killed it. Over there, as you can see, they kill protected species."
Some leftists across X and other platforms are claiming these migrants are "allowed to fish."
The calf had been swimming close to shore in an area that has functioned for weeks as an informal settlement for the migrants who arrived in late July. Local reporting and an environmental group say the animal was taken from the water and later appeared dead or dying.
The Ceuta-based association Defense of Urban Trees, Biodiversity, and the Environment (DAUBMA) filed a complaint with the Civil Guard the following day. In its statement, the group said the calf arrived near shore alive and disoriented, was forcibly removed from the sea, and was struck on the head with a stick.
5 migrants tried to gang rape a 12-year-old girl as she screamed for help, said locals in Ceuta who stopped the attack.
"There were five against a 12-year-old girl. She was a little girl, they were taking off her pants. She was screaming, screaming, screaming. She was… pic.twitter.com/g97pj8phUR
DAUBMA submitted photographs and videos that, it said, show a bleeding wound near one eye and people attempting to wipe blood from the animal. The association asked for those visible in the footage to be identified, for an investigation to be opened, and for the case to be sent to Spain’s Environmental Prosecutor’s Office.
The association argued the events could constitute both animal cruelty resulting in death and an offense against a protected species.
BREAKING: A Moroccan migrant wearing only his underwear snuck into a sleeping Spanish woman's bed early in the morning in Ceuta.
"I live in the center on the fifth floor, mind you… He jumped onto my bedroom balcony. He came into my bedroom and got into my bed. I thought… pic.twitter.com/8cs7rasXSv
A beach-cleaning worker from the company Ecoservicios who was present told the group on the beach that they could not treat the animal as a catch and that environmental specialists should be called. After that intervention, the group tried to return the calf to the water. Some accounts say it already appeared lifeless.
Bottlenose dolphins are strictly protected under EU and Spanish law. Intentional capture, harm or killing of cetaceans is prohibited. Recreational fishing licenses issued in Ceuta cover only specified fish and cephalopods; dolphins are not among them. The incident therefore cannot be treated as a case of ordinary and legal fishing.
As of Sept. 4, no official results from an examination of the body, nor any arrests, had been made public.
A Change.org petition calling for identification of those involved also circulated quickly, according to El Faro Ceuta. The beach itself remains crowded with people living in makeshift migrant camp conditions, adding to the tension that has marked Ceuta since the July crossings. DAUBMA and the local marine-conservation group CECAM have used the episode to repeat earlier complaints about repeated case of mutilated dolphins and turtles stranded on the beach which they attribute in part to illegal drift nets. Those earlier cases are separate from Wednesday’s events but form the backdrop against which the association is now pressing authorities to treat this death as a criminal matter rather than an isolated disturbance.
The Civil Guard has the complaint, video evidence, and witness reports. It remains unclear whether an animal-cruelty or wildlife-protection case will be opened.
In the meantime, pressure is growing on the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, with mass protests involving tens of thousands of Spaniards taking place in cities across the country over the weekend.
A 24-year-old man from the African country of Benin is being held in pretrial detention on suspicion of dragging a 27-year-old woman off a sidewalk and raping her in a bush in a small Mecklenburg–Western Pomeranian town. The police are now only reporting the incident four weeks after the initial assault.
Notably, the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has the lowest number of refugees of any German state and, in per capita terms, is the third-lowest.
Police and prosecutors say the attack happened about 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 9, a Sunday, on Mühlenstrasse in Friedland, a town of about 6,000 people in the Mecklenburg Lake District. According to an initial account, the suspect pulled the German woman from the street into bushes beside a building and raped her there. The woman was later found injured.
A detailed description of the attacker quickly pointed investigators toward a specific suspect, the regional newspaper Nordkurier and public broadcaster NDR reported. Neubrandenburg criminal police detained the man in Friedland the following evening, Aug. 10. A local court later ordered him held in pretrial detention at the request of the Neubrandenburg prosecutor’s office.
Authorities did not publicly describe the case when the woman was first raped. Asked later by Nordkurier, investigators said they withheld an appeal for witnesses so they would not compromise the search or an imminent arrest.
A police spokeswoman also told Bild: “In order not to jeopardize a possible arrest, no public appeal for witnesses was issued.”
Interviews and forensic work in the hours after the report strengthened suspicion against the Beninese national, authorities said. T-Online reported that investigators believe the 24-year-old did not try to leave town because he did not think he would be identified.
Police said the suspect had previously been in the neighboring Vorpommern-Greifswald district. He had been seen several times in Friedland and around a communal shelter there, although he did not live at the facility. Why he kept returning is still under investigation.
His asylum application in Germany was rejected. He has challenged that decision in court, and because those proceedings are pending, he was legally allowed to remain in the country at the time of his arrest, police said. A final ruling on asylum or possible deportation would come only after that case is finished.
Police have declined to give a fuller account of the assault, citing victim protection. The rape investigation continues.
Italian police are investigating an alleged attempted sexual assault involving a French volleyball player and a Moroccan footballer during the Mediterranean Games in Taranto, Italy.
The incident is reported to have taken place on the night of Aug. 30–31 aboard the cruise ship serving as the athletes’ village. According to an initial reconstruction, the French athlete rejected a sexual approach by the alleged attacker, who would not stop and kept insisting. She began calling for help, which helped draw the attention of onboard staff. Emergency doctors from 118 and police officers responded at the scene.
The athlete was taken to hospital for checks and did not suffer any injuries. After the medical examination, she returned to the athletes’ village.
Investigators have identified the alleged attacker as a Moroccan footballer. He had already returned to Morocco with his national delegation after completing his tournament commitments. Authorities said there were no grounds for a precautionary measure or police arrest, and he was allowed to board the long-scheduled return flight with his group.
An Italian police squad, led by director Antonio Serpico, is interviewing witnesses and reviewing footage from the ship’s internal cameras, particularly those installed near the pool area. Officials say they have already gathered information that may help reconstruct what happened that night. The footballer’s departure has not halted the investigation, according to Italian newspaper La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno.
Mediterranean Games general director Carlo Molfetta said: “We are closely monitoring the development of investigations by the competent authorities to determine any responsibility for what happened. The investigations are using images from the cameras present on the village ship, which number as many as 1,200. For our part, I can only reiterate my full cooperation with the investigators’ work.”
No formal action has been taken against the identified athlete at this stage. Investigators say they are continuing to examine the circumstances and verify the French athlete’s account.
Just months after opening as a centerpiece for the waterfront revival of Hamburg-Harburg’s Inner Harbor, the trendy design hotel “The Niu Quay” is closing its doors to commercial guests. Hamburg municipal authorities have agreed to lease the property to accommodate approximately 340 incoming refugees, drawing sharp backlash from neighborhood representatives who point to the tens of millions in recent investments made to revitalize the district.
The decision comes directly on the heels of the city’s pledged commitment to dial back its reliance on expensive, short-term hotel leases for asylum seekers. The municipal housing agency, Fördern & Wohnen, signed an initial lease for 340 places at the hotel, running through the end of 2026.
While initial local reports suggested a multi-year takeover, the Social Affairs Authority clarified that the property will undergo a gradual phase-out beginning in January 2027, with the facility scheduled to fully return to standard hotel operations by mid-2027.
Local leaders and business advocates have reacted with frustration to the sudden shift in strategy.
Dirk Kannengiesser, chairman of the FDP parliamentary group Harburg, said, “Investors are investing millions, and restaurants and businesses are supposed to provide a boost. Then, in the short term, a key component of this concept is taken away from its actual function.”
Upward of €60 million in combined public and private capital was recently channeled into transforming the surrounding neighborhood, with the hotel meant to serve as an anchor for local commerce, dining, and tourism.
Opposition representatives voiced strong concern over the mixed signals sent by municipal leadership, questioning how the Senate can publicly commit to curbing hotel housing expenditures while simultaneously locking down a brand-new facility. Business owners in the district worry that removing a key commercial hub threatens the long-term economic momentum of the harbor’s revitalization plan.
According to municipal statistics, roughly 3,800 refugees currently reside across initial reception centers and state-run housing in Harburg. The area’s overall housing capacity is projected to shrink in the coming months as several major sites close down, including a large facility on Schlachthofstrasse this autumn, followed by additional location shutdowns next year.
“The Senate cannot announce the reduction of expensive hotel accommodation and at the same time completely tie up a newly opened hotel for years<‘ said Kannengiesser.
Since Hamburg’s public housing facilities are operating at a staggering 102.8 percent capacity, city officials maintain that temporary commercial leases remain an unavoidable safety valve. When large-scale centers close before replacement infrastructure becomes available, short-term options, including hotel rooms, are brought online to fill the void.
The financial terms of the lease have further fueled local controversy. While municipal negotiators state that they consistently push for below-market rates when securing temporary housing, reports indicate that the city may be paying premium pricing for the newly constructed rooms. The Social Affairs Authority declined to comment on specific contractual terms.
Figures from the prior year show that hotel housing in Hamburg averaged approximately €82 per person per day. While city authorities report that overall reliance on hotel placements is dropping, with about 1,000 hotel shelter slots set to be phased out over the course of the year.
As Remix News has previously reported, Hamburg spends hundreds of millions of taxpayer euros to house migrants in the city. Hamburg and Berlin combined spend €4 billion a year.
Warsaw police have arrested a 36-year-old Azerbaijani migrant after he was caught on film masturbating near two girls at a bus stop, according to Polish police, who released a video of the man’s arrest.
The video of a man masturbating was captured at a bus stop in Ochota, which spread on X. Officers say they identified him only after the footage appeared online, and they dispute earlier claims that the incident had already been reported by phone.
BREAKING: An Azerbaijani migrant is now under arrest after he was caught on film masturbating near two girls at a bus stop in Warsaw, according to Polish police.
The 36-year-old migrant has been charged with a sexual offense. Deportation proceedings have been initiated.… pic.twitter.com/9JNGvYRUVO
Poland’s interior minister, Marcin Kierwiński, has also posted a video of the man being arrested.
“Police officers have detained a 36-year-old Azerbaijani citizen in the Pruszków County area, who engaged in indecent behavior at a bus stop near the Kopińska Hall in Warsaw. The collected evidence may serve as grounds for deportation from Poland,” he wrote.
Policjanci @Policja_KSP zatrzymali na terenie pow. pruszkowskiego 36-letniego obywatela Azerbejdżanu, który na przystanku autobusowym przy hali Kopińskiej w Warszawie dopuścił się nieobyczajnego zachowania. Zebrany materiał dowodowy może stanowić podstawę do wydalenia z Polski pic.twitter.com/6RjKmrbjQZ
The original clip was filmed on Sept. 1 at the stop, the man can be seen masturbating next to two girls, who appear unaware that he is behind them. Social-media posts said a man approached girls at the stop, then exposed himself behind the shelter and masturbated before leaving in an Uber around 1:30 p.m.
The video was first circulated by journalist Bartłomiej Wypartowicz and then widely shared.
Dzisiaj na przystanku przy Hali Kopińskiej w Warszawie mężczyzna chodził, zaczepiał dziewczynki, podchodził, patrzył, po czym wszedł za przystanek i zaczął się publicznie onanizować. Obcokrajowiec. Po całej akcji zamówił sobie Ubera, wsiadł i odjechał.
The Metropolitan Police Headquarters says several specialist units joined the inquiry after seeing the post. Officers contacted both the person who published it and the person who recorded it, then traced the suspect to his workplace in Pruszków County, where he was detained.
Investigators are examining a charge of forcing another person to submit to or perform a sexual act other than intercourse. That offense carries a prison term of six months to eight years. Police also say the evidence may be used to start a deportation procedure, however, despite previous reporting, no court has filed a formal charge yet.
Interior Ministry spokeswoman Karolina Gałecka had already said on Sept. 1 that police were identifying the man and were in contact with the person who filmed the incident.
One Polish MP, Dariusz Matecki, wrote on X: “Like my post everyone who believes that this creature should be physically castrated before deportation from Poland.”
Morocco played an active role in the mass influx of migrants into Ceuta through an organized and pre-planned operation at the end of July, according to a Spanish police intelligence report released by the media. The government in Madrid denies the police intelligence report.
The report from the National Center for Immigration and Borders (CENIF), which has been leaked by the media, has caused a political storm in Spain. The report has since been handed to Audiencia Nacional judge María Tardón, who is investigating whether a crime against Spain’s territorial integrity occurred in connection with the events of July 30 and 31.
According to the document, the events were not a spontaneous result of smugglers’ activities or merely a social media campaign. The police estimate that the mass border crossing was planned and took place in several waves.
Particular attention was paid to the activities of the Moroccan security services. According to the report, uniformed gendarmes and plainclothes officers allegedly “actively directed” migrants towards specific points, including the El Tarajal area. The document also points to the exceptional leniency of the Moroccan services and the lack of effective action to stop the influx of people.
Spanish police chief Francisco Pardo denied that the document attributed the operation to the Moroccan authorities. He stressed that the report does not identify a specific government or those responsible for causing the crisis.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska demanded an explanation from Pardo as to why he had not been informed about the document in advance. Pardo explained that the judge presiding over the case had ordered investigators to keep the report secret.
The information revealed is inconvenient for the Spanish government, which had previously rejected suggestions of Morocco’s involvement in the crisis and instead pointed, among other things, to a disinformation campaign on the internet. The opposition Popular Party accused Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s cabinet of concealing the role of the Moroccan services and demanded an explanation.
Before a pivotal election that could potentially result in a state government ruled exclusively by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, a case of potential postal vote fraud is raising concerns.
A 74-year-old nephew of a 95-year-old resident with severe dementia has filed a criminal complaint after discovering that postal voting documents were requested and a ballot cast in her name at a Dessau retirement home – despite staff first telling him the papers had been destroyed. The case is now being reported in Welt, one of Germany’s largest newspapers.
The case involves the Marthahaus senior residence and centers on whether postal votes from residents who cannot meaningfully participate are being handled properly. The nephew, who acts as his aunt’s legal representative, said he routinely receives every letter and document sent to her, including advertising. When the postal voting materials for the Saxony-Anhalt state election never arrived, he asked the home’s director where these documents were located.
Last Thursday, the director directed him to a female staff member who was not on duty until the next day. On Friday, that employee stated she had collected the election documents sent to residents “and shredded” them, without consulting relatives or authorized representatives.
That account did not hold up. When the nephew inquired at the municipal election office, officials confirmed that postal voting documents had been requested on Aug. 10 using his aunt’s date of birth and that a vote had already been recorded. Staff showed him the application bearing his aunt’s “scribbled” signature. Data-protection rules prevented them from disclosing which party was marked.
The nephew described the home’s alleged actions as a “scandal.” He and his wife first noticed problems during the February 2025 federal election; during the current state-election campaign they again encountered “inconsistencies” and this time pursued them. The complaint against persons unknown has been obtained by reporters.
The Marthahaus did not answer written questions from the Ostdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung and declined to comment when reached by telephone. City officials confirmed they were aware of the incident but provided no further details.
A second, still-unreported case has surfaced in Naumburg, according to German newspaper Junge Freiheit. A woman there said she “did not see any election documents for my mother.”
Her mother is “unable to give her own name.” She asked: “Who will vote for her and according to what criteria?”
The allegations come days before voters in Saxony-Anhalt go to the polls and add to the existing debate over how postal ballots are processed in care facilities, where many residents have limited capacity to express a political preference independently. Investigations will determine whether the documented vote was cast with proper authorization or constituted an unauthorized exercise of another person’s vote.
AfD would ban postal voting
One of the parties most opposed to postal voting is the AfD, which has argued that it is prone to fraud, especially in retirement homes. AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla has previously called for an end to mail-in ballots. He discussed his concerns about this form of voting during a conference with top AfD officials in 2024.
“It is also the task of the opposition to always doubt what a government is doing or what happened in an election. That is also a legitimate right and that is a good thing. And I just really want to point out, and we will also question this, for example, the entire security for the legal storage of ballot boxes, some of which are not stored in a legally secure manner, where in some cases only one person or two have access to these ballot boxes,” he said.
JUST IN: "I would ban postal voting."
Germany's AfD party is calling for an end to mass mail-in ballots for elections.
He went on to say that postal voting has been a concern in other elections and that these issues keep coming up. However, he also pointed to a problem plaguing other countries like the United States, which instituted mass mail-in ballots in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, which has involved activists entering retirement homes and potentially manipulating vulnerable elderly voters.
In the case of Germany, Chrupalla stated, “We have also seen this in old and other election campaigns, such as the current campaigning in retirement and nursing homes, especially when the CDU and SPD campaign in these old people’s homes, which are run by Diakonie or Caritas, or go in and out there, and the AfD does not even get access to present their programs to the elderly. These are also things of influence that are not democratic in my opinion.”
Notably, both Diakonie and Caritas are run by the Protestant and Catholic churches, both of which have come out against the AfD, including expelling members of the party from the Church and calling for Germans to vote against them.
Chrupalla is calling for an end to postal voting, saying: “Personally, I would ban postal voting again. It has only been introduced as an exception or initiated in the Federal Republic of Germany. It is not the rule, it should not become the rule and it is not regulated by law in such a way that it is made the rule.”
A 37-year-old man and his partner, a 27-year-old woman, have been charged with murder accompanied by acts of torture and barbarity after a 47-year-old man was beaten, sexually assaulted, and mutilated during a Snapchat sream in his home in the French city of Charleville-Mézières.
The details of the case reveal severe torture.Reims prosecutor François Schneider described the injuries in a statement. The autopsy showed “very severe trauma to the face, at the cervical level that obstructed his airways.” The man also suffered “very serious sexual violence,” genital mutilation, and fractured ribs.
“He was clearly not dead immediately,” Schneider said. A video recovered by investigators “showed him agonizing while his attacker delivered violent kicks to his face.”
The incident reportedly occurred on the night of Aug. 26–27, 2026. Both suspects are in pretrial detention and face life imprisonment.
The victim’s body was discovered on Aug. 27 after an anonymous woman contacted police. She said she had just seen a Snapchat video of a man being violently attacked and lying on the ground, and she recognized the attacker’s voice. Officers identified the victim, already known to police, and found him dead at his apartment. Neighbors later told investigators they had heard arguments between 3:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m., a window that prosecutors say matches the time of death.
According to an initial investigation, the two suspects and a 17-year-old homeless girl had gone to the victim’s home for the evening. All four consumed large quantities of alcohol as well as cocaine and “C,” a mix of cocaine and ammonia.
The evening reportedly turned when the victim offered the 27-year-old woman sex in exchange for drugs. The 37-year-old man then “snapped,” accusing the older male victim of rapes. What followed, Schneider said, citing the teenager’s account, was “a frenzy of violence beyond comprehension.” The couple beat the victim with kicks, furniture, and threw a fan at him. They then turned him over and subjected him to sexual violence while filming his death.
The 17-year-old girl, however, has not been arrested or charged, according to French news outlet France 3. She was in police custody, questioned, and then released. She told investigators she witnessed the beating and some of the sexual violence but did not see the mutilation. She told investigators she was terrified. The couple took her phone and smashed it. Police found her wearing bloodstained clothing.
The 37-year-old man has admitted the violence but accuses the 17-year-old girl of taking part, saying the attack had already been discussed by text with his partner and the young minor. The woman, who was also arrested, has also pointed toward the girl and claimed the teenager was being raped daily by the victim. The girl denies both the daily rapes and active participation in any violence against the victim.
Investigators noted that text message exchanges between the couple raise the possibility they were trying to shift blame onto the girl in the case. Nothing in the inquiry so far supports the rape allegation against the victim.
The male suspect has 36 prior convictions, mostly for violence. The woman was convicted earlier in 2026 for aggravated violence. After the killing, the male suspect fled and was arrested on Aug. 29 at another girlfriend’s home in Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone, near Montpellier. Both were formally charged on Aug. 31 before an investigating judge in Reims and remanded in custody.
Login
