The war between the United States and Israel against Iran has reactivated internal disputes within the German far-right. Within Alternative for Germany (AfD), a Trumpist wing coexists with a critical sector that increasingly distances itself from the occupant of the White House. The far-right party sought to get closer to Trump after his return to the White House. They share with him the rejection of immigration, climate change denial, and criticism of the European Union. However, with the start of the war against Iran, AfD leaders are again trying to distance themselves from Washington.

The German government rolled out the red carpet in Berlin this Monday to receive the controversial Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, one year and three months after the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime at the end of 2024. While Al-Sharaa sought to attract German investments and greater international political recognition with this visit, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz wanted to use the meeting to pressure Damascus to facilitate the accelerated repatriation of Syrian refugees living in Germany. And Merz got straight to the point with his wishes: the chancellor has asked that 80% of the more than 900,000 Syrians currently living in Germany return to their country of origin within three years, a decade after the 2015 migration crisis.

The German Social Democratic Party (SPD) is mired in an internal crisis after suffering two major electoral defeats in two weeks. in the regional elections of Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-WürttembergThe leaders of the SPD, Bärbel Bas and Lars Klingbeil, rejected calls for their resignation within their own party on Monday, despite acknowledging that the election results in Rhineland-Palatinate were "catastrophic." A crisis meeting of the SPD leadership will be held on Friday, but personnel issues will not be discussed. "We will not plunge the second-largest party in the government into chaos now, nor will we enter into a process where we focus on ourselves and neglect the country," said Klingbeil, who cited the difficult political situation and the looming global economic crisis to justify his stance. The SPD was one of the biggest losers in the Baden-Württemberg state elections on March 8, obtaining 5.5% of the vote, its worst result to date in that federal state. Below 5%, it would not have gained any parliamentary representation in the state parliament. The Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the party of conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz, He won the regional elections in Rhineland-Palatinate on Sunday, ending 35 years of Social Democratic presidents in that federal state.

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is poised to win the regional parliamentary elections in the southwestern German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, according to projections based on the vote count. Pending final results, conservative candidate Gordon Schneider is projected to win with 31% of the vote, defeating incumbent Social Democrat Alexander Schweitzer, who is expected to garner 25.9%. The CDU, the party of conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz, would wrest control of the state government from the Social Democrats (SPD), dealing a significant blow to the party after 35 years in power. The Social Democrats lose their red stronghold: they had governed since 1991.

Friedrich Merz is now speaking frankly. The German Chancellor initially showed understanding for the US and Israeli attacks against Iran. However, as the days passed, he nuanced his position. Now, three weeks after the start of the offensive, he rules out any German involvement in the conflict—unlike what US President Donald Trump is demanding—and proclaims: "It's not our war."

Germany's super-election year kicks off with a razor-thin victory for the Greens in the Baden-Württemberg state parliament elections over the conservatives, while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is projected to become the third-largest party in the state, according to ARD television. The Greens are projected to have won 30.3% of the vote, slightly ahead of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) with 29.7%, pending final results. Meanwhile, the AfD, which campaigned on security and immigration issues and capitalized on voters' fears about the deteriorating economy, is projected to improve its results, rising from 9.7% in 2021 to 18.7%.

The public silence of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the face of the recent Criticism and threats from US President Donald Trump in Spain Not only has it outraged the Spanish government, but it has also perplexed the Germans. The question being asked by the German press these days is: should the Chancellor have defended Spain against Trump? Should he have responded on camera, or was he right to defend Spain afterward, behind closed doors?

If US President Donald Trump could vote in Hungary's April 12 parliamentary elections, it's clear he would vote for his friend, the ultranationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is running for reelection. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio expressed Trump's clear support for Orbán on Monday, who faces his most challenging election since coming to power in 2010. Both Hungary and Hungary are considered rogue states of the European Union, and this is a show of support for their populist and conservative leaders. Rubio and Orbán agreed at a joint press conference that relations between Washington and Budapest are in "a golden age," which they attributed primarily to the friendship between Trump and the Hungarian leader. "I don't think it's any mystery, and it shouldn't be to anyone here, what the president thinks of you. I can tell you with confidence that President Trump is deeply committed to your success. Your success is our success," the US Secretary of State emphasized. Rubio believes that the perception, held by some, that Hungary is isolated on the international stage is mistaken. He cites bilateral agreements between Washington and Budapest and investments by US companies in the European country thanks to Orbán's "leadership," as evidence of this, since his government promotes a favorable business environment, in his view. Rubio and his Hungarian counterpart, Péter Szijjártó, signed a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement in Budapest. Washington also granted Hungary a one-year exemption from US sanctions last year for using Russian oil and gas. a gesture that rewarded his dissent within the EUNow, the two countries have signed a new investment agreement. "For those who think Hungary is isolated, this agreement is a way of telling them that it isn't. There are American companies that want to invest in Europe," especially in countries with "strong leadership," Rubio said. As detailed at a press conference, the agreement includes 17 investments by American companies in Hungary and also "cheap energy." "We want this economy to prosper, we want this country to do well. It's in our country's interest, especially while you are the prime minister and leader of that country," the US Secretary of State added. "If you face financial difficulties, obstacles to growth, threats to the country's stability, I know President Trump will be very interested in finding ways to provide assistance," Rubio promised. Ukraine Negotiations

Orbán took the opportunity to praise Trump's handling of the conflict in Ukraine, for which, he said, he would continue to support peace efforts: "If Donald Trump had been president of the United States then, this war would not have started, and if he were not president now, there would be no possibility of stopping it." The Hungarian leader once again expressed his willingness to host a potential peace conference in Budapest and invited Trump to visit his country soon. "We don't intend to impose an agreement on anyone [...] We only want to help them. Because we believe it is an incredibly damaging and destructive war," Rubio added. He considered the US to be the only country capable of bringing representatives of Ukraine and Russia to the negotiating table: "I'm not here to insult anyone, but the United Nations hasn't been able to do it. There isn't any other country in Europe that has been able to do it."

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The Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died two years ago, poisoned by the Kremlin. with a lethal toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America, according to the governments of the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany, and the Netherlands after analyzing samples from the political prisoner. "These analyses have conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine. Epibatidine is a toxin found in poison dart frogs in South America and is not found naturally in Russia," explained the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Sweden, France, and Germany. "Russia claimed that Navalny died of natural causes. However, given the toxicity of epibatidine and the symptoms described, it is highly likely that the cause of his death was poisoning," the ministers stated, two years after his death. Navalny died on February 16, 2024, while imprisoned in Russia, meaning that Moscow "had the means, the motive, and the opportunity to administer this poison to him," according to these five European governments.

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Relief washed over the Munich Security Conference after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that, despite criticism and threats from the Trump administration, Washington wants to remain an ally of Europe. In his highly anticipated speech, Rubio emphasized the close ties between the United States and Europe: "We are destined to be together." "Our destiny is and always will be intertwined with yours, because we know that the fate of Europe will never be irrelevant to our own national security," the US top diplomat stated at the world's most important annual forum on international security and defense policy. "That's why we Americans can sometimes seem a bit blunt and urgent in our advice... The reason, my friends, is that we care deeply," Rubio said. The tone of Marco Rubio's speech contrasts sharply with the controversial remarks made a year ago in Munich by JD Vance, in which he harshly criticized Europe for being overly dependent on US support. Vance's speech, in which he questioned the state of democracy and freedom of expression in Europe and offered veiled support for the far right, sparked outrage among European leaders and highlighted the rift between the United States and Europe following Donald Trump's return to the White House. Rubio, on the other hand, received applause from the audience at the Munich Security Conference for emphasizing the importance of ensuring a strong alliance between the United States and Europe. However, despite the more conciliatory tone, the US Secretary of State insisted on the need for Europeans to take greater responsibility for defending themselves against threats instead of relying so heavily on US aid. The Secretary of State asserted that "the United States wants to see a strong Europe." "We want allies who can defend themselves, so that no adversary is tempted to challenge our collective strength," he insisted. There was also room for criticism in his speech. Rubio has warned about the effects of "mass immigration" and "deindustrialization" in the West, phenomena against which he has encouraged Europeans to act together to strengthen the transatlantic alliance. Regarding the peace talks for Ukraine initiated by US President Donald Trump, Rubio stated that he does not know if Moscow is seriously negotiating to end the conflict, but asserted that Washington must continue to test Russian President Vladimir Putin's willingness to negotiate. Zelensky, skeptical of Putin

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, hopes that the negotiations taking place next week in Geneva between Moscow, Kyiv, and Washington will be "serious, substantive, and useful." However, Zelensky noted in Munich that "sometimes it seems the parties are talking about completely different things." "The Russians often speak of a certain Anchorage spirit, and we can only guess what they really mean," Zelensky said, referring to the meeting between Trump and Putin that took place in Alaska in August 2015 without the Ukrainians present. "The Americans often return to the issue of concessions, which are discussed far too often in the context of Ukraine and not Russia," added the Ukrainian president, who lamented that Europe is "virtually" absent from the negotiating table when it should be. "It's a huge mistake," the Ukrainian leader declared during his address at the Munich Security Conference. Zelenskyy said that Putin fancies himself a Russian tsar, but in reality, he is "a slave to war." "He cannot live without war. If he lives another ten years, war could return or expand," he warned Europeans and Americans. The Ukrainian president said Russia's actions remind him of the 1938 Munich Agreement, "when the previous Putin began to divide Europe." "It would be an illusion to believe that this war can reliably end now by dividing Ukraine, just as it was an illusion to believe that sacrificing Czechoslovakia would save Europe from a major war," Zelenskyy maintained. "That is why we need real security guarantees for Ukraine and Europe" before the war ends, he demanded.

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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has championed a strong Europe while calling for the repair of transatlantic relations. "Together we are stronger," Merz proclaimed after noting a "deep rift" between Europe and the United States, at the start of the Munich Security Conference, the world's largest annual forum on international security and defense policy. "The Munich Security Conference has always been a seismograph of the political situation: in its early years, a seismograph of relations between the United States and Europe, and for many years now, a seismograph of the global political situation," Merz recalled. This seismograph, he said, has already detected that "the international order, based on rights and rules, is on the verge of being destroyed. I think it needs to be said even more clearly: this order, however imperfect it may have been even at its best, no longer exists," Merz stated, citing the increasing demand for a leading role on the world stage. Weeks after Donald Trump threatened NATO territory militarily with a possible invasion of Greenland, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also warned Europeans of entering a new era in geopolitics. "The old world is gone—frankly, the world I grew up in—and we are living in a new era in geopolitics, and that will require all of us to re-examine what our role is and what it will be," Rubio said ahead of his highly anticipated speech on Saturday in Munich. The Secretary stated that, in this new geopolitical era, great power politics operates "according to its own rules." "It is fast, hard, unpredictable, unpredictable. The fight for the spheres of influence, the dependencies and the alignment happens to occupy a central place. The first materials, the technologies and the supply chains are converted into instruments of power in the attempt to add zero to the big ones. It is a joc perillos, first for the little ones, but more endavant probably also for the larger ones", the canceller has considered.

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A racist comment by a Hungarian minister about Roma people, suggesting they should "clean the filthy toilets" on trains, could backfire on Fidesz, the party of ultranationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, ahead of the April 12 parliamentary elections. "The reserve of this country is the Hungarian people, not immigrants. The decision to close the border means that everyone must be given a chance in Hungary. We will not allow anyone who is not Hungarian into the country. If there are no immigrants and someone has to clean the toilets on intercity trains because Hungarian voters are unwilling, then the internal reserve must be called upon." "And the internal reserve is Hungary's Roma population," declared Transport and Construction Minister János Lázár at a rally with supporters outside Budapest.

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The Donald Trump's threats against Greenland And the trade blackmail in countries that have opposed his expansionist plans has led to a distancing of the far right and European populists from the US president. Alternative for Germany (AfD), Marine Le Pen's National Rally, and Britain's Nigel Farage are among those who have demonstrated that Trump's attitude toward Europe is affecting the unity that the international far right had previously displayed.

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Ahead of the regional elections in March, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a conservative, is searching for the best way to combat the far right, which he has long considered a "tough rival" and probably his party's "biggest political rival." The leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has categorically rejected any cooperation between his party and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the main opposition party, although some conservative voices have raised the possibility in recent months of opening up to some form of cooperation with the far right.

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One in four Germans feels nostalgic for former Chancellor Angela Merkel, even though many of her compatriots question her legacy, even within her own party. Four years after he left office, 25% of Germans long for the old days when the Christian Democrat was Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.

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