Left Party sues economy minister at top court

Peter Hegemann from Germany’s Humbolt University and Georg Nagel from the University of Würzburg have won this year’s Nobel Prize in medicine alongside their US colleague, Karl Deisseroth.

You can read more about their achievements in this article: German and US scientists win Nobel Prize in medicine

Germany is facing a growing risk of a violent confrontation with Russia as Moscow continues a campaign of hybrid warfare with other countries in Europe, the head ‌of ⁠Germany’s BND ⁠foreign intelligence service warned on Monday.

Speaking before the Bundestag at ​the ‌annual public hearing of intelligence chiefs, Martin Jäger said: “The confrontation we are facing with Russia has ​taken on a new, more dangerous dimension.”

“Germany is in danger of becoming embroiled ‌in a violent conflict with Russia — the ‌attempted ​attack in Leipzig is just one example,” he said.

“No other country currently poses such a direct, comprehensive, and concrete threat to Germany,” he added.

Jäger was referring to a drone attack at Leipzig airport in August that the German government has blamed on Russia.

Russia has repeatedly denied any intention of attacking ​NATO
countries, with President Vladimir Putin, however, saying on Thursday: “But if we are subjected to aggression, we will have no choice but to respond.”

The Justice Ministry has put forward a draft bill making it easier for domestic abuse victims to leave joint tenancy contracts and obliging perpetrators to pay for any ensuing costs.

“The path to a self-determined and safe life after domestic abuse is often still a long one,” Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig told newspapers from the Funke media group.

“We want to make it a bit easier,” she added.

She said the draft bill aimed to give domestic abuse victims clear legal rights against their abusers, including being able to demand that the latter pay any costs arising from the premature termination of the joint lease.

More protection for others in the household

The bill also envisages increased protection for children and relatives of victims.

Under current German law, family courts can impose bans on domestic abusers taking up contact with or approaching their victims but not other members of the same household.

Hubig said the draft law foresaw such protections being extended to other people dependent on the abuser without any separate application being made.

According to police statistics, nearly 266,000 people in Germany were affected by domestic abuse in 2024, 70% of them women and girls.

The Justice Ministry has said the real figure is likely to be much higher, estimating that 95% of cases go unreported.

Since May, the German government has paid out subsidies to 100,000 households wanting to procure an electric vehicle, Environment Minister Carsten Schneider told the mass-circulation Bild newspaper on Monday.

Schneider, from junior coalition partner the Social Democrats (SPD), said the program, worth €3 billion ($3.36 billion), had “far exceeded our expectations.”

He said that every additional electric vehicle protected households from high fuel prices and made the county less dependent on expensive oil imports and international conflicts.

According to the Bild article, half of households applying for the subsidy had a maximum annual income of €45,000 and three-quarters of them €60,000.

Schneider said he found it particularly important that this graduation of payments according to income functioned properly.

Preliminary assessments have shown that less than 15% of households that applied for the subsidy were looking to buy vehicles from China, contradicting expert views that Chinese automakers would profit the most.

The Left Party is taking a row about a remark made by Economy Minister Katherina Reiche to the Constitutional Court after Reiche failed to give a declaration to cease and desist on time.

Reiche had posted a remark on the official Instagram site of her ministry saying: “Antisemitism and expropriation endanger Germany and the economy.”

The comment refers first to the unproven accusation that the Left Party is antisemitic in its ideology and then to the Left Party’s plan to socialize apartments from corporate landlords in a bid to reduce skyrocketing rents in the capital.

Reiche doubled down on her criticism of the socialist party in comments she made during a visit to Ukraine over the weekend, telling the Sunday edition of the mass-circulation Bild she feared a national loss of growth if a leftist coalition took power in Berlin.

“What the Left Party represents here in Berlin and the people that it represents is dangerous not only for Berlin but for our country,” she said.

The Berlin branch of the Left Party has accused the Christian Democrats (CDU), to which Reiche and Chancellor Friedrich Merz belong, of carrying out a “large-scale campaign” against its top candidate, Elif Eralp, who won recent state elections in Berlin.

It has taken legal action over similar statements on CDU interior ministry websites in various states, criticizing the use of official government channels to denigrate another party.

The ministries in Saxony and Schleswig Holstein withdrew the statements, but those in Baden-Württemberg, Brandenburg and Hesse have so far not done so.

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The Left Party‘s victory in state elections in Berlin continues to make waves, with conservatives around the country not amused at the prospect of a socialist-led government in the capital region.

The party is fighting back against what it sees as an illegal campaign against it by the Christian Democrats (CDU) and is now taking the economy minister to a top court over remarks she made on her ministry’s website.

The environment minister, Carsten Schneider from the Social Democrats (SPD), has voiced satisfaction over the number of households taking advantage of government subsidies to procure an electric vehicle.

And the justice minister wants to help victims of domestic violence escape the proximity with their tormentors by making it easier for them to move house.

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