Europe

So that situation is horrible.

But I am not happy with the title here [thank you for editing!]:

Germany is on its way to fa[s]cism

That's not a good way to put it imo, because it presages a future that might not and hopefully won't happen.

What's true is that "conservatives" (CDU/CSU) and "libertarians" (FDP) almost unanimously voted for a populist, useless, unhelpful, racist act that goes both against the German constitution and against EU rules. They're their repeating historic mistakes, building their majority on the votes of right-wing extremists (Afd). And they're planning to do it again on Friday.

And it was completely unnecessary too. There's no rational power reasoning for the act. Besides the content being worse than useless, enacting it this way is hurting rather than helping CDU's chances, as it drives people either further right ("the Afd were right all along!!") or further left/center ("I don't want to vote for a party working with nazis/hurting the constitution").

Tl;dr: We are fucked.

No, we are not yet h*cked. Afd was polling at 22% in the beginning of 2024, and they lost 8 percentage points in a matter of months, because people took to the streets to form some of the largest protests Germany has seen. Yes, they've gained again but there's at least a chance that the party is banned [in the near future].

If you're German - go out and protest this week! https://demokrateam.org/ has a list.

FDP = ECONOMYCALLY liberal

They want companies to do whatever they wish. They are the party of the rich. That's it.

for the sake of precision, what was voted isn't a law, it's a decision compelling the government to act on its migration policy.

But since the Democrat/Green government is on its way out and the current trend would place the conservative and the radical right at the top of the ballots, it might as well be interpreted as such.

Translation of the text in the picture:

Would the request be binding?

No. Requests are not laws. They have little legal force. The Bundestag is merely calling on the Federal Government to take action on the issue of migration. Whether it does so is up to it.

To add: today there is the debate and iirc. decision in the parliament, whether to call the constitutional court to investigate whether or not to forbid the fascist party AfD.

There has been back and forth debates about whether or not to do this, despite strong indications that the AfD is an enemy to the constitution and the rights granted therein.

Only the federal parliament, the state assembly or the federal government can task the constitutional court to start an investigation. The federal government has so far not done anything to this regard. Also more right wing politicians among the less right wing parties are undermining the effort in the parliament, wanting to block or delay the tasking. The procedure at the court would likely take 3-5 years, which means that a failure now to pass the decision would likely grant the AfD at least one additional federal election after the upcoming election in three weeks.

If the motion fails, it will be a complete failure of the "democratic" parties, who are basically rolling out the carpet for the fascists at this point.

I'm in the US and I know I don't really have a stance on the matter, but I'd hoped we serve as an example to the rest of the world how absolutely fucked it can get. The fact that this kind of stuff can even happen is getting extremely concerning. I'm starting to think that the world we live in where there are no real world consequences for doing awful things as long you're the one in charge is seriously going to fuck over everyone, regardless of country.

As is tradition

If Germans once again vote like sheeple, I'm not sure how the rest of Europe will react this time. Maybe it'll be the same mistake of "nah, they surely won't be that crazy" until tanks roll into Warsaw and Paris. Who knows.

But the German population has the chance to stop this at the next elections. They just have to decide that they want to. If not, well, they make their own beds.

Here we go again. Same playbook as last time.

But with the current global political situation, I doubt there will be any liberation by outside forces.

Just get in a train in Poland and drive across the border... They can't stop you at the border without stopping the trains, which won't happen...

Everyone knows, this is regarding the election...

Let's see how the election turns out. That'll verify the level of fucked-ness. Whatever it is. I certainly hope this is going to make some sane conservatives re-think if it's a good choice to vote for Friedrich Merz. (Who is an asshole anyways, in my opinion. Every time I saw his face on television during the last 10 years or so, he said something bad about migrants, women, economics, energy transition... I don't think he's a 100% fascist though. Just an asshole who is fine siding with fascists, as long as it suits him, personally.)

Here is one by the guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/29/german-immigration-motion-passes-breaking-taboo-on-cooperation-with-afd

I'm still in shock

How's the BSW voting on this? I know they're sort of hopping on the immigrants bashing bandwagon but hope they have the sense not to align with the fascists.

Hey, I've Seen This One

My theory is that Merz is looking to poach AfD voters, by "aligning" with their biggest point of immigration to strengthen his chancellor candidacy. But I'm also not THAT informed on the current events.

I wonder why they chose to do it right before the elections