Friedrich Merz re-elected as CDU leader

The German CDU has re-elected Friedrich Merz as leader with a huge majority.

He received around 90 percent of the vote from the roughly 1,000 delegates at the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party conference in Berlin.

The 68-year-old has been CDU chairman since January 2022. At that time, he was elected at a digital party conference (held in this way due to the Covid pandemic) with 94.6 percent of delegate votes.

He succeeded Armin Laschet, who stepped down following his defeat in the Bundestag elections in September 2021, where Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) took the most votes. 

Merz made it clear to conference delegates that the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the CSU, were ready to take over the government, at the latest after the next German federal elections in autumn 2025.

He said the party congress should send a “powerful signal of confidence”, adding: “The CDU is back.”

Polls currently put the CDU/CSU at around 30 percent, making them the strongest force in German politics. 

READ ALSO: CDU rules out collaboration with far-right Alternative for Germany

Police investigate shooting in Berlin

Police are probing the shooting of a man on a street in Berlin’s Spandau area in broad daylight.

On Monday several emergency calls were received around 3:20 pm, and officers rushed to the scene in the Falkenhagener Feld district. They found a man lying on the sidewalk and could not resuscitate him.

Police said on Tuesday that the perpetrator or perpetrators are still on the run.

Officials have kept a low profile on details, but a spokesman for the Berlin police union (GdP) made a statement calling the case a public execution and suggesting it was an act of organised crime. According to the union spokesperson, there have been increased clashes between members of hostile extended families, so-called clans, in the Spandau district in recent weeks.

Three more suspects identified over attack on German MEP 

Three further suspects have been identified in relation to an attack in Germany on a European parliament lawmaker (MEP), authorities said on Monday, after a teenager turned himself in over the assault.

Matthias Ecke, 41, from Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up European election posters in the eastern city of Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

He needed an operation for injuries sustained in the attack, which was denounced by Scholz as a threat to democracy. After the operation, Ecke posted a photo thanking well-wishers for their solidarity.

DANKE! ❤️
Ich bin überwältigt von eurer Anteilnahme und Solidarität. Das tut wirklich gut und gibt Kraft. Es geht hier aber nicht nur um mich, sondern um alle, die sich aus Leidenschaft politisch engagieren. Niemand soll in einer Demokratie fürchten müssen seine Meinung zu sagen! pic.twitter.com/nt8HHyZhh3

— Matthias Ecke 🇪🇺 🌹 (@MattEcke) May 6, 2024

On Sunday, a 17-year-old turned himself in to police in Dresden and told them he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, according to officers.

Following further investigations, three other suspects were identified on Sunday, their homes were searched and evidence seized, according to a joint statement from the police and prosecutors in Dresden.

The suspects are German men aged 17 and 18. The teen who turned himself in on Sunday is considered the main suspect in the attack, according to German daily Bild.

German government says Gaza truce talks must not be ‘jeopardised’

Germany has called on all parties to continue with negotiations towards a truce in Gaza after disagreements between Israel and Hamas appeared to intensify at weekend talks in Cairo.

Israel ordered the evacuation of Palestinians from eastern Rafah earlier on Monday, following stalled talks between Israel and Hamas in Cairo over the Islamist group’s demands to end the seven-month war.

The evacuation announcement came ahead of a long-threatened ground invasion of the southern Gaza city, which triggered widespread global alarm.

“The negotiations must not be jeopardised and all sides must make maximum efforts to ensure that the people in Gaza are supplied with humanitarian goods… and that the hostages are freed,” a foreign ministry spokeswoman told a government press briefing on Monday.

On Sunday, four Israeli soldiers were killed and others wounded, the army said, when a barrage of rockets was fired towards the Kerem Shalom border crossing between Israel and Gaza.

The armed wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas has claimed responsibility for the rocket attack, which led Israeli authorities to close the crossing, used to deliver aid into Gaza.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said the attack had shown the “true face” of Hamas.

Germany recalls Russia envoy over cyberattack

Germany has temporarily recalled its Ambassador to Russia after members of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party were targeted in what Berlin said was a state-sponsored Russian cyberattack, the foreign ministry said Monday.

A newly concluded government investigation found the cyberattack targeting members of Scholz’s Social Democratic Party had been carried out by a group known as APT28.

The group answered to Russia’s military intelligence, meaning it was “a state-sponsored Russian cyberattack on Germany,” Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock added. Russia rejected the allegations as “unsubstantiated and groundless”.

The envoy, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, “has been called back for consultations and will stay in Berlin for a week and then return to Moscow”, a ministry spokeswoman told a press briefing in Berlin Monday.

The German government takes the cyberattack “very seriously”, considering it an action “against our liberal democracy”, she said.

APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, has been accused of dozens of cyberattacks in countries around the world.

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Activists voice opposition to the TVO highway project in Berlin

Activists from the Wuhlheide Citizens’ Initiative (BI) and ROBIN WOOD will be protesting on Tuesday in front of the Senate Department for Building and Housing at Fehrbelliner Platz in Berlin.

The action is directed against the Tangential Connection East (TVO), a four-lane highway that is to be built through the Wuhlheide, a patch of forest east of Berlin’s centre.

The planning documents for the construction project are expected to be published Tuesday. Affected residents will then have four weeks to view the documents and submit objections in writing (until July 8th).

READ ALSO: Berlin techno clubs under threat from motorway expansion

With reporting by DPA.