The thing about Europe: it’s the actual land of the free now
The thing about Europe: it’s the actual land of the free now
Paywall? https://archive.is/Tq3KD
Stares at chat control, anti-end to end encryption stuff and crackdowns on pro-Palestinian protesters I think Europe has a bit of a way to go before claiming that title.
No detention centres await foreign students who hold the wrong views on Gaza; news outfits are not sued for interviewing opposition politicians.
Immigrants are getting deported for those wrong views, though, so... yeah.
Immigrants are getting deported for those wrong views, though, so… yeah.
Ah, good old Germany and their good old ways...
Those 4 people which are very loud in the media right now are being deported for being part in a violent occupation of a university where staff was threatened with axes and crowbars, property damage of 100.000€, and trying to liberate people arrested by the police.
They always forget to say this, in their news stories.
The only thing criticworthy about this, is that the authorities didn't waited for the legal proceedings to finish. Otherwise if found guilty, that will get you a prison sentence and/or deported in most countries as a foreigner.
Those 4 people which are very loud in the media right now are being deported for being part in a violent occupation of a university where staff was threatened with axes and crowbars, property damage of 100.000€, and trying to liberate people arrested by the police.
Yeah that's not a crime unless they did these things themselves, which isn't the case; they were just peacefully taking part in the protest where these things happened, but they're not even accused of taking part in these actions. Here's the same event by the Intercept.
None of the protesters are accused of any particular acts of vandalism or the de-arrest at the university. Instead, the deportation order cites the suspicion that they took part in a coordinated group action.
And from the (machine translated version of the) article you linked:
These only contain brief descriptions of the crime and with regard to what happened at the FU, the contributions to the crime are not individually assigned to the people affected.
To repeat: These students are not even accused of committing the crime for which they're being deported.
To repeat: These students are not even accused of committing the crime for which they're being deported.
That's wrong. Right would be "They aren't accused by the Public Prosecutors yet".
In my linked LTO-Article you can see that the LKA accused them of being part in the crimes and send their evidence and investigation documents to the Berlin State Prosecution Service which then decides if they will prosecute them. That this hasn't happened yet, is just a result of Berlin State Prosecution Service being chronically underfunded and overworked. The same with the courts and other parts of Berlin Public Service
The LKA's descriptions in the expulsion notices read less brutal, but still threatening. They speak of 20 people who had gained access to the building, graffitied the walls and destroyed the technical equipment. They are said to have carried crowbars or “cow feet” with them. They are said to have used these to try to break down a door to a room in which a very frightened FU employee had barricaded himself. Axes, saws and clubs are not mentioned. Following the occupation, arrests were made. Ten suspects - including the four activists - are said to have tried to prevent this.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
And here the part with the Prosecution Service
However, the case is now with the Berlin public prosecutor's office, a spokesperson confirmed in response to an inquiry from LTO.** However, the investigation is still ongoing**. “It is not yet possible to predict when these will be completed and what the conclusion will look like.”
So they're trying to deport them before/without any semblance of due process. That's... fucking ridiculous, to say the least, and speaks to the extent of either anti-Palestinian crackdowns or the lack of respect for the rule of law in general in Germany. Neither is exactly a good thing.
Well, the Irish Citizen filed an injunction and got a temporary relief, until the lawsuit from them against the Berlin Migration Department is finished.
But according to German Law, they don't need to wait for a conviction in the court proceedings related to the alleged violent behaviour. (I'm not a fan of this, but didn't knew this before. I agree it would be better, if a conviction would be necessary).
But they would have needed to conduct at least their own investigation into this matter, which they apparently didn't sufficiently.
The barrier of deportation for EU Citizens is also higher, than for the one accused US Citizen
There's no need for a criminal conviction because "threat to public safety", which is what's necessary to deport a EU citizen, does not require a crime to be committed the first place. You can be, say, homeless, which is not a crime, and get deported over that, "go apply for welfare in your home country". On the flipside, you can be convicted of a crime but still not be considered a threat to public safety, say, fare evasion.
There is a word for that. It is called despotism. The separation of power mandates that a legislative makes laws, a judiciary interprets the laws and the executive enforces them based on the interpretation of the judiciary. Bypassing the judiciary is despotism and it is certainly beyond the capacity of the executive to interpret if someone is a "threat to public safety".
And in particular in this case the branch of the executive that was obliged to make the deportation notice has objected as these deportations are unlawful. For which the interior ministry of the state of Berlin replied with what amounts to "I dont give a fuck, deport them!" if translating into normal words. The more literal translation of the mail was "It is unusual that an order by the head of house is disagreed with in such a way. I interpret your E-Mail as a remonstration, which i repel. I don't share the legal of opinion of
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."https://fragdenstaat.de/artikel/exklusiv/2025/04/proteste-berlin-ausweisung/
There's no bypassing the judiciary any action or non-action of the administration can be challenged before court. And the affected people here did exactly that, and have been given preliminary protection. Courts will decide how this is going to end. Administrative courts, because it's not a criminal matter.
Not all laws that exist are criminal in nature. Not all courts deal with criminal matters. The minister who overrode the opinion of the lower-ranking staff is not a separate branch, they are that branch. Their opinion is the opinion of that branch.
You won't see me defend the Berlin administration in any way, they're a failed state after all, have been since the Weimar Republic at least, but what they did here did not break any law and the affected people still can resort to the courts to overrule the administration.
You, standing here, saying "Germany is a despotic regime" is echoing Nazi talking points. Think about what you're doing.
I said that acting in such a way is despotism and given the development of Germany over the past years, especially looking at the plans of the new government coalition likely to be, dismantling civil rights and giving more authority to the executive that previously required an approval by the judiciary, Germany is making more and more steps towards making despotism a prevalent way of the government to act. In particular in Berlin in regards to activities being critical of Israels actions or in support of Palestinian rights there have been many despotic decisions.
Blanket bans on protests that had to be overturned by courts, influencing a state bank to freeze the account of a jewish antizionist organization to jeopardize them organizing a discussion panel, arbitrarily revoking funding for cultural spaces because they allowed events discussing the situation of Palestinians to hold place, arbitrarily revoking entry to internationaly renowned doctors so they could not give testimony of the horrors they witnessed in Gaza, arbitrarily storming and breaking up events with police force. Countless cases of police violence, especially against women and minors. Exerting pressure on event places to cancel events last minutes. Having the far-right Axel-Springer media target Professors who demanded the observation of constitutional rights in cooperation with the federal ministry for education and research. Having the education minister demand funding to be revoked for the scientists in questions and subsequently wiggling out by firing her secretary and forbidding the secretary from speaking out about what happened...
In a larger scope the federal parliament passed two resolutions demanding an end to academic freedom and involvement of the interior intelligence in assessing which scientists are "not without a doubt not antisemitic". Despite strong criticism of Scientists these resolutions were passed without even listening to the Scientists. Of course the Fascists from the AfD were cheering as they passed these resolutions together with supposed parties of the center of politics. While these resolutions are technically non binding they are used by administrative bodies and sometimes even courts to interpret laws.
When it comes to Palestine Germany and in particular Berlin are using every dirty trick of the despotic arsenal. And the problem is that even if the decision are later overruled by courts, the damage is already done. And the responsible people in the administration and police face no repercussion.
I said that acting in such a way is despotism
And I explained to you how you're dead wrong. How the judiciary is absolutely still involved. It's the reason why the people in question are currently still in Germany, not deported. Because court ordered preliminary relief while it's figuring the issue out.
I won't even read the rest of what you wrote as it's bound to be all based on that false premise.
