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Germany Tag

Migrant clans are 'infiltrating' the country's welfare system, a senior German police official said. The Arab gangs are increasingly exercising their influence on employment office and other public services in Germany, says Oliver Huth, the deputy chief of the Criminal Police Officers' Union (BDK) in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer warned that the country could soon be overwhelmed by a refugee wave more significant than the one in 2015. "We need to do more to help our European partners with controls at the EU's external borders. We’ve left them alone for too long," Seehofer said during a visit to Turkey. "If we don’t do this, we’ll experience a wave of refugees like in 2015 - or perhaps an even larger one."

Germany will ramp up border checks to stop illegal immigrants, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer announced. The move comes after the country's right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) made big gains in the last month's regional elections. Berlin "simply can't get a grip" on illegal immigration, German newspaper Bild claimed. "The problem has aggravated as more and more Syrian refugees cross over from Turkey into the EU," the newspaper reported on Sunday, "The situation in cramped refugees camps in Greece is dramatic. German government fears that many of the migrants could try to get to Germany."

The U.S. Ambassador to Berlin, Richard Grenell, has urged Germany to ban the Islamist terror organization Hezbollah from the country. Writing in the German newspaper Die Welt, the envoy called on Chancellor Angela Merkel's government to outlaw the Iran-backed terrorist group that has been "murdering innocent people from Lebanon to Syria, Thailand, Bulgaria, Spain and Argentina" for 37 years.

Germany's Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has surged in the regional elections, winning a quarter of the vote in the eastern states of Saxony and Brandenburg. The party made huge gains in the former communist east, emerging strong second by getting 27.5 percent in Saxony and 23.5 in Brandenburg.

Germany is heading into a recession, a report released by Chancellor Angela Merkel's office said. The economists working at the Chancellor's office see Germany technically in a recession given the country's negative growth in two successive quarters, the German weekly Der Spiegel reported. Europe's largest economy is expected to contract between July and September, as it did in the second quarter.

German authorities have investigated hundreds of internet users over comments they made on a Facebook video posted by the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The massive probe, spanning over 250 investigations, was launched in response to the live streaming of a migrant protest by the Bavarian-wing of the AfD party in 2017, German media disclosed on Saturday. Some 97 people were fined and three others were to face incitement charges in the court, the weekly Der Spiegel reported.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling Christian Democratic party (CDU) has supported plans to raise meat prices to fight climate change. The meat tax, initially proposed by the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Green Party, will sharply increase the prices of meat products by raising the tax rate from the current rate of 7 percent to 19 percent.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has proposed "enhanced controls" along the border with Switzerland after a migrant pushed a boy to his death at Frankfurt's railway station. The Eritrean refugee, who had received asylum in Switzerland, had shoved an eight-year-old boy and his mother in front of a high-speed train on Monday. The boy's mother survived and was being treated for shock, media reports said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has attacked U.S. President Donald Trump and sided with the "attacked" congresswomen in his ongoing spat with the four progressive lawmakers. "I firmly distance myself from it and feel solidarity toward the attacked women," Merkel said at a press conference on Friday, referring to President's remarks.

Germany has called for a European Union-wide 'redistribution coalition' to settle migrants who are presently entering into Europe through the Mediterranean Sea. "We need a coalition of willing for a mandatory distribution mechanism," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said. Germany will be taking a "leadership role" in accepting migrants coming from the Mediterranean route, the Foreign Minister added.