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Austria’s Kurz backs Merkel rejection of far right

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Friday said it was "right" for German leader Angela Merkel to rule out working with the far right, even after he did the opposite in his previous government.

Austria's Kurz backs Merkel rejection of far right
Photo: DPA

There are “differences” between Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and Austria's FPOe Freedom Party, Kurz told the Munich Security Conference, describing the AfD party as more radical.

“That's why I think the path chosen” by Chancellor Merkel's conservative CDU party “is right and sensible”. “I think it's justified that the party has clearly decided not to cooperate with the AfD.”

Merkel's conservatives have been plunged into crisis after regional CDU lawmakers in Thuringia state went rogue last week and voted in the same camp as the AfD to oust a far-left state premier.

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The vote broke a political taboo in Germany and exposed the struggles of mainstream parties to maintain their firewall against the anti-Islam, anti-immigrant AfD, now one of the country's biggest parties. 

The outrage that followed the Thuringia debacle prompted Merkel's preferred successor, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, to step down as CDU leader and drop her bid to become the party's chancellor candidate when Merkel bows out in 2021.

Looking ahead to Germany's next general election, Kurz predicted that the centre-right CDU could well end up in a coalition with the surging Greens, similar to his own new conservative-Green government.

The latest surveys put Merkel's conservatives in first place with around 27 percent support, followed by the Greens at around 22 percent.

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LITHUANIA

New army scandal: Germany vows to punish soldiers caught singing anti-Semitic songs

Germany's Defence Minister on Tuesday vowed to severely punish soldiers stationed in Lithuania who were accused of singing racist and anti-Semitic songs, if the allegations turned out to be true.

New army scandal: Germany vows to punish soldiers caught singing anti-Semitic songs
German soldiers training in Saxony-Anhalt in May. credit: dpa-Zentralbild | Klaus-Dietmar Gabbert

“Whatever happened is in no way acceptable,” said Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.

Those implicated would be “vigorously prosecuted and punished”, she added.

The Spiegel Online news site had on Monday reported that German soldiers in Lithuania sang racist and anti-Semitic songs during a party at a hotel in April.

One had also sought to sexually assault another soldier while he was asleep, a scene which was caught on film, said Spiegel.

According to Spiegel Online, the scenes took place at a party at which soldiers consumed large quantities of alcohol. They are also alleged to have arranged a “birthday table” for Adolf Hitler on April 20th and to have sung songs for him.

It is unclear to what extent more senior ranked soldiers were aware of the incidents.

Three soldiers have been removed from the contingent stationed in the Baltic country and an investigation is ongoing to identify other suspects, said the report.

The German armed forces have been repeatedly rocked by allegations of right-wing extremism within their ranks.

Kramp-Karrenbauer last year ordered the partial dissolution of the KSK commando force after revelations that some of its members harboured neo-Nazi sympathies.

SEE ALSO: Germany to compensate gay soldiers who faced discrimination

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