Diesel prices have climbed to record or multiyear highs in several European countries this week, squeezing truckers, farmers and households already strained by months of elevated energy costs tied to the Middle East conflict, the war in Ukraine, and tight global fuel supplies.

Germany posted a new all-time high of €2.471 per liter on Wednesday, according to the ADAC motoring club, as reported by German news outlet t-online. This price has left motorists paying about €0.71 more per liter than before the war began. Gasoline prices also set a nationwide record. 

Alternative for Germany (AfD) politicians are going on the offensive.

“Fuel price: Merz government is done for! Incredible €2.55 per liter for diesel and €2.34 for super here at the gas station. In Germany, the highest taxes on fuel are paid. Two days ago, I filled up for €176.00 and my car wasn’t even full,” wrote German MP Dr. Ingo Hahn.

Spritpreis: Merz-Regierung hat fertig!

Unglaubliche 2,55 € für den Liter #Diesel und 2,34 € für SUPER hier an der #Tankstelle. In Deutschland werden die höchsten Steuern auf den #Sprit bezahlt. Vor zwei Tagen hatte ich für 176,00 € getankt und mein Auto war nicht voll. pic.twitter.com/fgHfK1CMy0

— MdB Prof. Dr. Ingo Hahn AfD (@IngoHahnAfD) September 18, 2026

Finland led the European Union at €2.505 per liter in the latest official weekly data, followed closely by Denmark at €2.502 and the Netherlands at €2.494. The EU-wide average stood at €2.075 per liter as of mid-September.

Some individual stations in Germany, France and Italy have even approached or exceeded €2.90 per liter. The weighted average across eight major markets reached €2.172 per liter on Thursday.

One AfD politician, Martin Hess, even highlighted one gas station where prices reached €3.00 per liter for the first time.

Erstmals kostete Diesel gestern an einer Tankstelle im Kreis Göppingen (Baden-Württemberg) über 3 Euro pro Liter, Super 2,859 Euro.

Und was macht Merz? Kurz vor den Wahlen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern und Berlin kündigt er Entlastungen an, statt endlich zu handeln. Die Bürger… pic.twitter.com/fSgtbHB2qk

— Martin Hess (@Martin_Hess_MdB) September 17, 2026

Physical wholesale diesel prices in northwest Europe and the Mediterranean hit record or near-record levels earlier this week before easing slightly.

The surge in energy costs stems from disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, along with advances by Houthi forces in Yemen, Russia’s extended ban on diesel exports, depleted inventories, high refining margins, and seasonal demand. With winter heating season fast approaching, experts warn the energy crisis could worsen.

“Supply disruptions, depleted inventories and strong refining margins highlight an increasingly severe shortage of middle distillates,” Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo, wrote in a note Sept. 16.

Crude prices have remained elevated above $100 a barrel, but the price of refined diesel has risen at a much faster rate compared to crude barrels, which is also the case across the Atlantic in the United States.

‘Diesel the most expensive ever! This may be just the beginning’

Electricity wholesale prices vary widely across Europe. Italy has seen day-ahead prices well above €200 per megawatt-hour in some zones, while Nordic markets have managed to remain much lower.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament on Wednesday that the Hormuz crisis has added €90 billion to the EU’s fossil-fuel import bill since the conflict started “without a single molecule of energy added.”

She urged faster investment in grids, storage and clean power, saying Europe cannot remain an industrial powerhouse with structurally high energy prices.

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“Let’s make Europe’s future electric,” she said, calling for electricity’s share of energy consumption to double by 2040.

The Commission’s AccelerateEU package, launched in April, emphasizes closer coordination on gas storage filling and possible oil stock releases, a new Fuel Observatory to track supplies, and a temporary state-aid framework (METSAF) running through Dec. 31 for agriculture, fisheries, transport and energy-intensive industries.

Member states are encouraged to use targeted, time-limited tools such as income support, energy vouchers, social tariffs and lower electricity taxes for vulnerable households rather than broad fossil-fuel subsidies.

Meanwhile, EU governments are scrambling to contain the crisis.

German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche proposed a temporary cut in fuel VAT from 19 percent to 7 percent, saying it “could address the burden where it is felt directly: at the gas pump and it would take effect immediately.”

Chancellor Friedrich Merz has pledged action against “price gouging” but has not announced specific actions. German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil and other officials pressed on Friday for discussion of windfall taxes on energy companies, arguing these companies are “exploiting the situation.”

EU Economic Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said Brussels has no current plan for an EU-wide levy and that taxation remains a national competence.

Industry groups warn that high diesel costs are raising freight rates and threatening competitiveness, particularly for road transport, which remains heavily dependent on the fuel.

EU and national officials say winter gas storage is on track and there is no immediate supply emergency, but they acknowledge prices will stay elevated until geopolitical risks ease and more homegrown clean energy comes online.

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Pierre-Alain Cottineau, the former candidate of the far-left France Unbowed (LFI), has been treated after a suicide attempt at Brest prison. He is being held in the prison during a child sex and torture investigation that investigators said “pushed all the limits of horror.”

Authorities say his life is not in danger.

The incident took place on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, in the exercise yard of the Brest prison, also known as L’Hermitage. According to the Ouest-France news outlet, the attempt came days after other prisoners physically attacked him. The paper added that he had already threatened to kill himself when he first arrived at the Breton prison in 2024. In the spring of 2025, he attempted a medication-related suicide as well.

Cottineau, an advocate for LGBT rights before his arrest, has been in pretrial detention since his arrest on Sept. 23, 2024 at Nantes-Atlantique airport, after returning from Tunisia. Investigators from France’s Office for Minors  (OFMIN) identified him from images circulating online. He was immediately placed under formal investigation for rape of minors with acts of torture or barbarity and for human trafficking by an organized group.

Subsequent digital forensics on his phone led police to additional footage posted in a Telegram group allegedly administered by Cottineau. One video reportedly showed the abuse of a five-month-old baby boy, identified as the first foster child placed in his care. Other footage featured multiple men participating in the abuse of a toddler, with one scene showing the child crawling on all fours, wearing a collar and leash.

Remix News originally reported on his alleged role in the pedophile ring when the story first broke, which also involved rape and abuse of children with disabilities.

The case, described by investigators as pushing “all the limits of horror,” first came to light in September 2024 when Dutch police discovered an appalling video depicting serious child sexual abuse of a very young child on the darknet. The child, who was believed to be around three years old, appeared to be disabled and reliant on a gastric feeding tube.

According to Le Parisien, one of the accused claimed that Cottineau sedated the children using Xanax, sleeping pills, and poppers hidden in yogurt before the abuse took place.

France: Far-left LGBT activist allegedly ran pedophile ring, preying on children in his care

The Nantes investigation remains open. In early September 2026, Ouest-France reported that prosecutors had added a charge of corruption of a minor.

Four other men, aged between 32 and 53, have also been placed under investigation in the same case. Identified victims include children between five months and four years old, among them a disabled girl placed with Cottineau by child-welfare services after he obtained family-assistant approval in December 2023.

‘We are deeply saddened and shocked!’ — French far-left activist indicted in disabled child rape case

The latest suicide attempt has been independently confirmed by the Brest prosecutor’s office. The 33-year-old Cottineau, from Oudon near Ancenis-Saint-Géréon in Loire-Atlantique, is being treated after the attempt, which was not life-threatening.

The investigation into Cottineau, who was an LFI candidate in 2021, is still open. He remains innocent until proven guilty.

Career as LGBT rights activist

During police interviews he admitted some of the alleged acts and said he had pedophilic urges for years, according to reporting by Le Parisien and Libération. A court-appointed psychiatrist found no mental illness but a sexual-preference disorder with “major potential dangerousness.” The expert said his judgment was not impaired at the time of the alleged acts.

Before his arrest, Cottineau was a familiar figure in the Ancenis area. A former nursing assistant, he obtained departmental approval to foster children and presented himself as an advocate for child protection and LGBT rights.

He co-founded a local LGBT association and helped organize pride events. In 2021, during departmental elections, he ran with Annie Lecat for the LFI party in Ancenis-Saint-Géréon, taking 9.81 percent of the first-round vote. Their platform included environmental issues, local democracy and support for women facing domestic violence.

LFI has since excluded him.

Investigative pieces in a wide variety of French news outlets, such as Le Point and Libération, later examined how earlier reports about him did not lead to an arrest before September 2024, including a July 2024 statement by a former partner at a police station in Morbihan detailing child abuse allegations.

Prison overcrowding and pedophiles targeted

Brest prison has been under strain. In August 2026, Ouest-France reported occupancy near 200 percent and said the facility had, for a time, refused new arrivals. Inmates accused of sexual crimes against children are often targets of violence from other prisoners, a pattern prison staff and unions have described for years.

Ouest-France linked last week’s assault on Cottineau to the current prison conditions, without naming the attackers or detailing injuries suffered by Cottineau.

Notably, these crowded prison conditions are exactly the type of situation exacerbated by mass immigration, while Cottineau’s LFI party is well known for its support of continued immigration. While nearly 25 percent of prisoners are foreigners, while many of the remaining 75 percent are French citizens with a foreign background. 

The post France: Far-left candidate tries to commit suicide in prison while facing charges of sexual torture of toddlers, child trafficking, and running a pedophile ring appeared first on Remix News.

A leaked video of a French military chaplain addressing paratroopers in a cathedral has circulated widely on social media. In the clip, the chaplain makes disparaging remarks about leftists, tells soldiers to keep fighting for their national heritage, and warns of the risk that French values and culture could be displaced.

The clip, recorded during a Saint-Michel Mass on Oct. 7, 2025, shows Father Romain Ghandour speaking to soldiers of the 3rd Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment (3e RPIMa) at Carcassonne’s Saint-Michel Cathedral. Soldiers can be heard laughing and applauding as he delivers his pointed remarks. The clip was leaked and published by Le Canard Enchaîne news outlet.

JUST IN: A video has been leaked of a French military chaplain roasting leftists and warning of the Great Replacement in front of French paratroopers in the city of Carcassonne.

"Calm down, lefties! Quiet! Breathe through your nose!"

Remarkably, the massive audience of… pic.twitter.com/kkteRaaTu0

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 18, 2026

The video was released in mid-September 2026, nearly a year after the Mass.

Saint-Michel is the patron saint of paratroopers and airborne troops in the French army, which explains why the regiment was gathered in the cathedral. Christophe Barthès, then a municipal election candidate and later elected mayor of Carcassonne for the right-wing National Rally, was among those present.

Ghandour begins by invoking the names and dates of men and women who died so that France would remain “a beautiful country,” one in which architects could continue building “basilicas, cathedrals, housing, and fortified castles.” He contrasts that heritage with the present: instead of knights, he says, “we put incompetent people. We put people who eat seeds, people who lecture everyone, ideologues.”

Top officials warn of potential civil war in France linked to mass immigration

The phrase “people who eat seeds” is widely understood as a jab at what he presents as weak or overly ideological leftists.

The line that has drawn the most attention comes next: “Calm down, lefties! Quiet! Breathe through your nose!” The assembled soldiers respond with laughter and applause.

He then warns that if they lose courage and conviction, “we will be ridiculed” and “this beautiful country that is France will be mocked, and others will take our place.”

He continues: “In fact, after a while, when you’re thirsty, when you’re hungry, it’s the law of the strongest that reigns. And others will take the place of our values, of this freedom of speech, of action, of this equality between men, and of this fraternity, of this culture, of this society. Nature abhors a vacuum.”

France: Poll reveals vast majority worried about ‘Great Replacement’

While he never directly mentions the “Great Replacement,” many commentators have taken this remark to be a direct reference to the phenomenon, which is not only a reference to mass immigration, but also relates to the constant replacement of technology, culture, society, and peoples through all spheres of modern life at an ever accelerating pace.

Ghandour closes by telling the soldiers to “keep fighting” and “continue to have the courage of your convictions, as I am trying to do at this Mass.”

French far-left leader Mélenchon openly calls for Great Replacement in shock speech

As of the video’s release, there has been no detailed public statement from the army’s Catholic chaplaincy or the Ministry of the Armed Forces on whether the remarks violate rules on political neutrality for military clergy. French military chaplains of all recognized faiths operate under a framework that is supposed to respect both freedom of conscience and the state’s neutrality. The 3e RPIMa, based in Carcassonne since 1962 and part of the 11th Parachute Brigade, is an elite unit within the French military.

The left has often been skeptical, and even hostile to, the French military, which has been seen as a bastion of support for the right in the country.

The post ‘Calm down, lefties! Quiet!’ – In leaked video, French soldiers clap and applaud as military chaplain slams leftists and warns of replacement appeared first on Remix News.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the eastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is campaigning on a dedicated “deportation police” unit.

Two days before the Sept. 20 state election, the party’s platform calls for a “border and deportation” police to be created explicitly to return foreigners. The new unit would be created inside the state police.

The unit’s stated tasks would include fighting illegal migration, human smuggling and other cross-border crime. The AfD says it would draw on existing structures and experience from the state police, the federal police and customs officers.

Germany: After AfD victory, top CDU politician calls for first steps towards AfD ban

The party also pledges a detention center for people slated for deportation and a facility for foreigners required to leave Germany. The AfD candidate for minister-president in the state, Leif-Erik Holm, has publicly confirmed that he wants more deportations and special police forces to carry them out.

Instead of an initial reception center, “we need an exit center and we will establish one,” Holm told around 400 attendees in the city of Grimmen.

AfD federal chairman Tino Chrupalla was also present during the speech.

Most polls have AfD leading the election with between 37 and 38 percent of the vote, but a poll released yesterday by ZDF indicates that the AfD is now one point behind the Social Democrats (SPD), which is at 37 percent.

MECKLENBURG-VORPOMMERN | Sonntagsfrage Landtagswahl Forschungsgruppe Wahlen/ZDF

SPD: 37% (+3)
AfD: 36% (-1)
LINKE: 9% (-1)
CDU: 6% (-1)
GRÜNE: 5%
BSW: 4%
Sonstige: 3%

Änderungen zur letzten Umfrage vom 11. September 2026

Verlauf: https://t.co/UMgk9Dtnf7#ltwmv pic.twitter.com/UTM9GlIRAF

— Deutschland Wählt (@Wahlen_DE) September 17, 2026

Top officials within the police have already shot back at the AfD despite the German police’s abysmal deportation record.

The Union of Criminal Police Officers (BDK) issued a statement titled “Nobody needs deportation police.”

The BDK argues that responsibilities are already assigned: state police help carry out deportations, while the main duty sits with the relevant foreigners’ offices. Coordination problems between agencies, the union says, can be fixed without creating another unit.

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Eike Bone-Winkel, BDK chairman in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, accused the AfD of “deportation fanaticism” and called the proposal politically and legally hard to implement. The union also noted that the U.S. agency ICE has become a reference point in the debate around the AfD plan.

One thing is certain. The German government and German law enforcement have failed at every single level in their efforts not only to deport foreigners who have been issued a deportation order, but also to protect citizens from repeat criminal offenders within this category. The result has been tens of thousands of victims of assaults, robberies, murders, rapes, and other serious offenses. Currently, there are at least 258,000 migrants with open deportation orders who have been ordered to leave the country but have not yet left.

Much is riding on the Sept. 20 election in Mecklenburg-Vorpommen. Political observers are not only anxious to see if the AfD comes in first or second, but the result of the Christian Democrats (CDU) is also extremely important. In the ZDF poll, the CDU is at 6 percent, just slightly above the pivotal 5 percent threshold to enter parliament. If the CDU falls below 5 percent, it would reignite calls for Chancellor Friedrich Merz to resign, including from his own party.

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