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Germany Tag

Prime Minister Viktor Orban's landslide victory in Hungary's general election has rattled the European political establishment. The three-time Prime Minister secured almost half of the vote and a two-thirds majority in the national parliament. "Dear friends, there's a big battle behind us, we secured a historic victory—we got a chance, we created a chance for us to defend Hungary," Prime Minister Orban told his supporters on Sunday night.

Barely a month into her fourth term as German Chancellor, Angela Merkel is facing an open rebellion within her party. Around 100 politicians belonging to her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union (CSU) have published a list of demands urging the Merkel-led conservative alliance to return to its Christian values.

The German Interior Ministry has reported a significant rise in the number of Islamist extremists living in the country. Officially classified as Salafists, or radicalized Muslims, their number has crossed 11,000 for the first time. Five years ago the intelligence agencies had placed their number at 5,500—almost half of the present size. Those figures have been on an upward swing since German Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the country's borders to migrants in the autumn of 2015.

After a series of fatal stabbings involving migrant attackers, the German police union has called on the government to introduce tougher laws against stabbers. According to Germany's national police trade union, or DPoLG, "young Arabs" were importing the culture of carrying knife into the country.

While the German police struggle to take back control of their streets, the Merkel government has been "concerned by the situation in Gaza." The German Foreign Ministry called for "resumption of negotiations to find a solution that would be suitable to all people between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea." This week, two large-scale riots took place in Hamborn district of Duisburg, a small town some 50-minute ride from the north-western German city of Cologne.

A latest incident of school bullying has again highlighted the issue of antisemitism among Germany's Muslim youth. The case involves a second-grade Jewish girl at a Berlin elementary school who was bullied by her Muslim classmates.

Ahead of the parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen has called for 'reconciliation' with the Islamist terror militia Taliban. The German Defense Minister made those statements while visiting German troops stationed in Afghanistan over the weekend.

With Germany still struggling with the endless migrant influx, yet another German city has imposed a ban on refugee intake. Pirmasens in southwestern Germany became the latest town to block new migrants from moving in, German newspapers reported on Wednesday. German cities of Cuttbuss, Salzgitter, Delmenhorst, and Wilhelmshaven have also placed similar restrictions in the recent months.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has finally reached a coalition deal with the Social Democrats (SPD) four months after her conservative bloc failed to win a majority in German elections. The deal forced Merkel to hand over key ministries and make painful concessions to her left-wing coalition partner. The details of the final agreement triggered criticism from both the media and the conservative bloc -- made up of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).

With the Islamic State (ISIS) heading for collapse, Belgium is bracing for the return of hundreds of jihadi fighters deserting the ranks of the Islamic Caliphate in Syria and Iraq. The western European country, which pursued a liberal immigration policy in recent decades, produced the highest number of foreign ISIS fighters per capita of EU countries -- up to 700 in total.

With the oil-rich Arab states too distracted with their feuds and infighting to champion the 'Palestinian cause', and the Trump administration turning up the heat with its Jerusalem move and cuts to Palestinians aid, the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has launched a diplomatic offensive to secure the EU backing.

German authorities allowed a top Iranian cleric accused of mass murder to flee the country on Thursday. The decision came despite formal requests from leading exiled Iranian groups calling for the cleric to face justice. Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi, the 69-year-old Mullah touted as the successor to Iran's all-powerful theocratic dictator Ali Khamenei, came to Germany for treatment at the clinic of an Iranian-German neurosurgeon when exiled Iranian dissidents referred him to German prosecutors, citing his record of running Islamic courts, where he presided over the killing of thousands of Iranians. The leading German tabloid Bild Zeitung ran the headline "Death Judge In Iran, Luxury Patient In Germany,"  covering Shahroudi's stay in the country.

Three months after Germans went to the polls, Chancellor Angela Merkel is making a last ditch effort to form an alliance with the left-wing Social Democrats (SPD), a move that could secure her a fourth term in office. Last month, Merkel's traditional ally, the center-right Free Democrats (FDP), abruptly walked out of the talks, citing irreconcilable differences over refugee policy and other key issues -- leaving a so-called 'grand coalition' with the SPD her only path to power.

Unregulated migration may be responsible for the rise in violent crimes in Germany, a study commissioned by the German government claims. The researchers used the state of Lower Saxony to examine the correlation between the refugee arrivals and violent crimes between 2014 and 2016, a period during which such crimes surged by 10.4 percent. More than 90 percent of these additional crimes were attributed to the newly arrived refugees.

A week after voting against Israel at the United Nations, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel is proposing an ambitious plan to strengthen relations with the Erdogan regime in Turkey. Gabriel, who also serves as Germany's Vice Chancellor, wants an EU-wide customs union with Turkey, a move aimed at bringing the Muslim-majority country 'as close as possible to the bloc', media reports claim. The German proposal will treat Turkey, presently run by the Islamist strongman Recep Erdoğan, at par with Britain after it leaves the EU at the end of the ongoing Brexit negotiations.  President Erdogan, who took office in 2003, has assumed authoritarian powers by amending the country's constitution following a controversial referendum in April this year.  Since then, Erdogan has been busy purging the opponents of his regime from the military, judiciary and civil services.