News from Berlin
Söder backs extremism clause to stop funding far-left states
Bavaria’s Minister-President Marcus Söder (CSU) and Germany’s Internal Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) have both supported the idea of adding a so-called extremism clause to the Länderfinanzausgleich, which sees richer German states financially support those states with less debt. Bavaria pays the largest share, and poorer states in Germany as well as the country’s capital often receive the lion’s share, making it an often controversial issue. Now, Söder and Dobrindt are looking to stop their state from having to pay to support both the AfD in Sachsen-Anhald and Die Linke in Berlin. Dobrindts called a potential “ultraleft-coalition” a “security risk not just for Berlin, but of course for all of Germany.” Source: nd
Verdi plans 2027 BVG talks
Verdi has announced that it will begin a new round of negotiations with the BVG in the beginning of 2027. Serat Canyurt, the union leader for BVG employees with Verdi, has said that key topics include the number of weekly working hours and how pay increases are handled. Canyurt also points to increasing road works meaning that buses and trams often run late, reduced breaks between journeys are raising stress for drivers. The union is currently in the process of gathering feedback from its members on what their demands are and what they’re willing to do in order to achieve them. While Canyurt insists strikes are a last resort, early this year Verdi carried out several day-long warning strikes. Source: Berliner Zeitung
Die Linke barred from Neukölln mayorship
While Die Linke clearly won the mayoral race in Neukölln, they failed to secure an absolute majority. Now, the SPD and Grüne are refusing to support them, meaning Die Linke candidate Ahmed Abed cannot be elected as Neukölln’s Bürgermeister. Abed has previously been accused of antisemitism for calling a Likud politican Völkermörder [genocidaire], however, the reasons given by SPD and Grüne after the election are the claim that Die Linke would rather take to the streets instead of govern. Considering these are the same parties that Elif Eralp hopes to form a Berlin government with, the conflict in Neukölln may have city-wide repercussions. Source: Berliner Kurier
News from Germany
Protests at airport deportation centers
Demonstrators have gathered at airports in cities across Germany, including Berlin, to protest against the building of deportation centers. Between 2022 and 2025, the number of people being deported from Germany doubled to 23,000 per year. Demonstrators also gathered in Leipzig, Halle, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt am Main and Munich. New Rückführungsterminal [literally: sending back terminals] are under construction at these airports. The demonstrations were organised by the groups We’ll Come United, Seebrücke and Widersetzen. Source: Taz
CSU’s Aigner rumored as next German president candidate
Rumours are spreading that Ilse Aigner (CSU), currently the President of the Bavarian Parliament, might be up for promotion. In three months, Frank-Walter Steinmeier will come to the end of his time as German President, a role he has held since 2017. Aigner has already begun to gather support from Saxony’s Minister-President (CDU) and Bremen’s Mayor (SPD). Friedrich Merz has not commented on the suggestion, and it is unclear how the CDU feels about a candidate coming from its smaller sister-party. Ilse would be the first woman to take the role. Source: Der Spiegel
42,000 leaked AfD emails
Hackers have uploaded around 42,000 emails from internal AfD communications sent between 2014 and 2026, including emails from party leader Alice Weidel. While thoroughly looking through the materials is expected to take months, there have already been reports of ‘enemy lists’ collecting the names of anti-fascist activists. Other controversies include evidence Weidel was aware of legally problematic donations earlier than she has claimed, and that in 2015 and 2017 she warned against the far-right section of the party, particularly Bjorn Höcke’s racism and Wolfgang Gedeon’s antisemitism. Source: Deutschlandfunk
Audi CEO appears at Trump rally
Gernot Döllner, the chief of German car-maker Audi, has been criticised for using a Trump rally as a stage to announce billions of dollars of investment in opening a new factory in the USA shortly before the country’s midterm elections. This comes at a time when Volkswagen, Audi’s parent company, is closing factories and cutting jobs in Germany. This is in part an attempt by Audi to get around American tariffs by having the cars constructed in the USA. Source: The Guardian
Arson attack at Hitler’s alpine hut
A fire broke out and burned through the so-called Eagle’s Nest built under orders by Adolf Hitler in the late 1930s. The hut is located over 1,800 meters in the eastern Bavarian alps, and was used by Hitler as a tea house. Police have a man in custody who allegedly began the fire, and have said that he was psychologically ill; although a political motive is also being considered. Source: t-online
