BERLIN (own report) The AfD has put forward a new European strategy paper. The far-right party now adopts key demands of the German business community, while pushing for a German-dominated European Union as a resurgent global power. The AfD wants the EU to focus on measures designed to steel itself for engaging in global power struggles. Crucially, the party is distancing itself from its once defining policy of Dexit. Exiting the EU is no longer on the agenda. Rather, the AfD is making an explicit commitment to the European single market. After all, the internal market accounts for a very large proportion of German exports. As for the euro, the AfD now wants to retain the currency, but insists on the strict enforcement of the Maastricht criteria, ruling out financial transfers to other Eurozone countries in crisis. This would mean an even harsher austerity policy within the Eurozone. The AfD likes the idea of a united EU approach to the development of advanced technologies, such as AI, especially in the armaments field. In these areas a German-dominated EU could, the party thinks, achieve independence from both China and the US and have the tools to act as a global power. The AfD also seeks alignment with other far-right forces in pushing for a major transfer of powers from Brussels back to the national capitals. The paper makes an identitarian appeal to right-wing conservatives and, in some respects, to ethno-nationalists, to provide an ideological bond. Read more

BERLIN/ESPOO/KYIV (our own report) – For the first time, a commercial satellite with direct links to Germany is at risk of becoming embroiled in an armed conflict in space. The satellite in question, ICEYE-X36, is a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite operated by Iceye, a Finnish start-up. It supplies data to clients, including battlefield intelligence to the Ukrainian armed forces. The company, which partners in joint ventures with Rheinmetall, Germany’s huge defence conglomerate, has been supplying Ukraine with satellite-derived reconnaissance data for several years. Reports indicate that Ukrainian armed forces have been able to destroy thousands of Russian military vehicles with the help of this data. Last week, a Russian satellite came within a few kilometres of ICEYE-X36. Experts speculate that the Russian satellite could damage or even destroy it at any moment it. Moscow has already issued several warnings that it will not for long tolerate the direct involvement in the war of Western satellites, including private commercial platforms. In Europe, Iceye is regarded as a particularly promising start-up. Not having to rely on US technology, it is a global leader in its special field. Iceye has agreed a joint venture with Rheinmetall to make reconnaissance satellites for the Bundeswehr. While collaboration on production has just begun, Iceye is already supplying reconnaissance data to the Germany army’s Lithuanian Brigade. Read more

BERLIN/PARIS/WASHINGTON (our own report) – The Bundeswehr is currently an active participant in NATO’s annual nuclear war exercise and will also be joining a major nuclear weapons exercise this year organised by French forces. As part of NATO exercise ‘Steadfast Noon’, which began on Tuesday, the Bundeswehr has deployed three Tornado fighter jets to Italy. Soldiers from seventeen NATO countries are training there in various operational roles, including flights that culminate in the simulated dropping of nuclear bombs. Five European states have so far been involved in what is known as ‘nuclear sharing’. And other countries, namely Finland and Lithuania, are now creating the legal framework for stationing nuclear weapons on their territory. At the same time, France is pushing ahead with the integration of European states into its new ‘forward deterrence’ (‘dissuasion avancée’) concept. It is in this context that Germany’s Bundeswehr is taking part for the first time this year in the French nuclear war exercise, ominously called Operation Poker, which last took place at the end of September. On top of all this nuclear warfare preparation, an influential German foreign policy expert has revived speculation as to the feasibility of a uniquely German nuclear bomb. He has also taken note of considerations regarding a jointly developed ‘European’ nuclear weapon capability in collaboration with Scandinavian countries and others. Read more

THE HAGUE/WASHINGTON/BERLIN (our own report) – The EU has voiced its opposition to Washington’s plan to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. The Trump administration openly declares it intention to “dismantle” the ICC. The EU has responded with a statement issued on Friday saying it will resolutely defend the Court against such punitive measures and do everything in its power to ensure that the legal body “can continue to operate effectively”. The ICC has so far been used, particularly by Germany and the EU, to remove unwelcome officials from office, especially on the African continent. Brussels wants to shield the Court by applying its ‘blocking statute’, which can prohibit European compliance with foreign law interventions. The Trump administration has put forward its plan to ‘collapse’ the ICC ability to operate financially, starting with sanctions from 7 April 2027. The US has long expressed its hostility to the Court, starting in 2020 when the ICC riled Washington by launching an investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan. And when, in 2024, it began investigating genocidal war crimes committed by Israeli officials, twelve US senators, including Marco Rubio, sent the Court a threatening letter: “If you target Israel, we will target you.” US Secretary of State Rubio has now reaffirmed that the Trump administration will not accept ICC rulings. In his words, the US is set on “the unapologetic pursuit of national power”. Read more

BERLIN/WARSAW/BEIJING (our own report) – With exports to China and the United States declining, German companies look to Central and Eastern Europe as crucial markets. German exports to the world’s two largest economies have recently seen significant falls, but rising sales to Central and Eastern Europe have more than offset the lost business. Trade is growing particularly strongly with the Visegrád Group economies. In the first half of 2026, German exports to Poland rose by 9.2 per cent, and to Czechia by 14 per cent. Over the same period, they fell in value by 12.4 per cent to China and by 6.5 per cent to the US. In fact, Germany now exports almost 50 per cent more goods to Poland than it does to China. Germany’s business-promoting association for Eastern, Central and Southeastern Europe, the ‘Ost-Ausschuss der Deutschen Wirtschaft (OA)’ says this is a “key region for German exports” and argues for the EU single market being expanded eastwards and south-eastwards by bringing more states into the European Union. At the same time, China’s economic influence is also growing in Eastern Europe. In fact, Chinese companies are not merely operating as competitors to German companies but are increasingly being integrated into European production chains. Read more

BERLIN/WASHINGTON (our own report) – The German government is releasing a part of Germany’s emergency diesel reserves - unnecessarily. This coordinated move by Europeans to ease market tensions will boost US President Donald Trump’s flagging campaign for the American mid-term elections. Trump is keen to avoid a painful fuel crisis shortly before the elections because significant sections of his voter base are threatening to defect. US farmers, for example, are facing record-high diesel prices and are threatened with economic ruin. The chief cause of an unprecedented hike in diesel prices is the US-Israeli war on Iran. While 19 per cent of all global diesel exports came from the Middle East last year, the Iranian response to being attacked means that a large proportion of this supply source is missing. At the same time, Ukraine’s drone attacks on Russian refineries are damaging Russian diesel production. Although German politicians regard these hits with schadenfreude, it is bad news for the global economy. Moscow has now moved to halt exports. As the world’s second-largest diesel exporter, Russia is making the diesel market even tighter. Trump reacted last week by forcing Europe’s G7 economies, including Germany, to release part of their emergency reserves under the threat of the US cutting of all future American diesel supplies to Europe. Europe’s, and especially Germany’s, dependence on the US is also acute when it comes to crude oil and liquefied natural gas imports. The US share of European LNG imports has risen to around 60 per cent. Read more

TEL AVIV/BERLIN (our own report) – Israel’s far-right government is stepping up its cooperation with radical right-wing parties in Europe. The AfD, too, has become a potential ally. Following systematic efforts to build ties with parties affiliated to the Patriots for Europe (PfE) group in the EU – including France’s Rassemblement National (RN) and Belgium’s Vlaams Belang (VB) – Israeli ministers are now also reaching out to the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). Israel’s Minister for the Diaspora, Amichai Chikli (Likud), for instance, has described a speech by FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl, in which Kickl declared his party to be the “new protectors of Jewish interests” as an “historic turning point” in relations “between the FPÖ” and “the State of Israel”. Shortly after Germany’s last federal election, in February 2025, Chikli was talking up possibilities for cooperation with Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), provided it could distance itself from certain figures who have glorified Nazism. The deepening of relations with Europe’s far right accompanies Israel’s use of systematic violence to strengthen its power. Berlin, for its part, hopes to gain greater influence in the Middle East by supporting Tel Aviv. Those in Germany who speak out against their government’s involvement find themselves subjected to an unrestrained smear campaign in the public sphere. Read more

TEL AVIV/BERLIN (our own report) – Germany is systematically stepping up military, police and cybersecurity cooperation with Israel. The agreements formally concluded at the start of the year are now being implemented. The ‘Cyber and Security Pact’, signed in January, provides for closer cooperation between the respective police agencies and the establishment of a ‘Cyberdome’ in Germany. Berlin hopes its security cooperation with Israel will offer “practice-based know-how from a country with a high frequency of military operations.” Another agreement, concluded in February, enables greatly intensified military cooperation designed to make the Bundeswehr “war-ready” in practice. The idea is for Israeli ground forces to pass on to the German army the capabilities and experience gained in Israel’s past and current wars. With their “unrivalled expertise in the field of ground operations”, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) are helping the Bundeswehr “adapt to an increasingly volatile global environment”. These steps to strengthen security collaboration with Israel are taking place against the backdrop of the ongoing wars for dominance in the Middle East. Read more

BERLIN/TEL AVIV (our own report) – Israeli defence contractors are increasingly moving into Germany, setting up a rapidly growing number of arms factories. Rafael, for example, plans to manufacture components for its air defence systems at what was Volkswagen’s automobile plant in Osnabruck. Meanwhile Elbit has announced the establishment of “up to eight” new production sites in Germany, which are expected to employ “well over a thousand” people. On the one hand, the new arms factories will contribute to the rapid rearmament of Germany’s Bundeswehr. On the other, they enable Israeli companies to manufacture the weapons needed by the Israeli armed forces at a safe distance. This strategy secures Israel’s arms supplies should the conflict in the Middle East escalate still further. It offers additional backing in the event, for example, of another war of aggression against Iran. The new forms of German-Israeli arms cooperation build on a longstanding partnership between the two countries’ arms sectors, which goes back as far as the mid-1950s. The Federal Republic can benefit, not least, from access to some of the high-end, high-tech capabilities of Israel’s powerful and battle-tested defence industry. Read more

WOLFSBURG (our own report) – The troubled Volkswagen Group is pushing ahead with the biggest corporate restructuring in its history. The radical shake-up of the automotive giant, bringing huge job losses, has been greenlighted by the Lower Saxony state government and the company’s main trade union, IG Metall. The group’s supervisory board unanimously agreed in early September to move forward with tough cost-cutting measures. Prior to this understanding on restructuring there had been public speculation about the Porsche and Piëch owner families entering into a power struggle with the state of Lower Saxony and workforce representatives. Group CEO Oliver Blume wants to slash the global range of models, reduce production capacities by around one million vehicles, and shed up to 100,000 jobs worldwide. The aim is to secure an operating profit margin of nine per cent, a figure that stood at just 3.8 per cent in the first half of 2026. The target now is to make savings of around 30.9 billion euros by 2030. However, inside the VW Group, management is already modelling an even tougher scenario that could require savings of more than 40 billion euros. The future of several German plants remains uncertain. The defence industry has now emerged as a potential alternative to automobile production. In Osnabruck, for example, VW is set on a future of producing arms in partnership with the Israeli defence firm Rafael. Hoping to rescue jobs, the IG Metall trade union welcomes the plans. Read more