2025 Looks Bleak For Germany…Energy the Most Expensive In Europe …Growing Speech Tyranny

From the NoTricksZone

By P Gosselin

2025 in Germany will be a year more energy inflation and loss a free speech rights

Effective today, Germany’s CO2 surcharge will rise from 45 euros a tonne to 55 euros, which will further fan inflation and social discontent.

Already Germany’s electricity prices are among the highest in the world, and the most expensive in Europe:

Chart: strom-report.com/ 

Germany clamps down on dissenters, free speech

But 2025 will not be an easy year for dissenters and critics of the government, as this is increasingly being criminalized in Germany thanks to recently passed laws and acts that aim to suppress free speech.

The former head Germany’s Constitution Protection Authority (Bundesverfassungsschutz), Thomas Haldenwang (CDU Party), suggested last February when presenting measures to fight right-wing extremism, that human thoughts and speech patterns need to be under surveillance and become the business of the government: “It’s also about shifting verbal and mental boundaries. We have to be careful that thought and language patterns don’t become embedded in our language.”

In a nutshell, the German government aims to regulate human thoughts.

Mocking the state now verboten

Haldenwang’s boss, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD Party), wants to treat vocal conservative protesters in the same way as organized crime groups: “Those who mock the state must deal with a strong state,” she said.

Even legal speech to become suspect

“We want to take account of the fact that hate on the internet also occurs below the threshold of criminal liability,”said Federal Minister for Family Affairs Lisa Paus (Greens) at her press conference on February 13 on the topic of ‘Hate on the Internet’.“Many enemies of democracy know exactly what falls under freedom of expression on social media platforms,”

Meant by “enemies of democracy” here are opposition forces, even when democratically elected.

Unwanted election results may be annulled

In response to comments in favor of the conservative made by Elon Musk, German President Frank Walter Steinmeier hinted he would annul the results of the upcoming February 23 national elections if he doesn’t like the results.

So in Germany, it’s watch what you say and, if the old parties don’t like the election results, then they might just well annul them. Germany is slipping back quickly to darker times.

Happy New Year to the rest of you!

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January 4, 2025 2:07 am

“Sieg heil”

Reply to  Steve Case
January 4, 2025 2:14 am

GDR 2.0, more subtle as 1.0 ever was

TBeholder
Reply to  Krishna Gans
January 4, 2025 9:11 am

Oh please. GDR may have been a somewhat dull place, sure… but it was a home to some amazing brands. And even the knock-offs (like their LEGO) were of good quality. And by all accounts they weren’t exactly living in poverty while doing that. Which all went to the crapper about the next morning after hangover from celebrating their happy reunification settled in, give or take a year.
What this nonsense covers is more like “Morgenthau 2.0 for slowpokes”.

Erik Magnuson
Reply to  TBeholder
January 4, 2025 12:49 pm

I wonder how many readers will understand the “Morgenthau 2.0” reference. The world was lucky that FDR died when he did as I think Truman did a better job of establishing peace that FDR would have.

On a somewhat related note, I also wonder how many people picked up references to the US during WW1 in Orwell’s 1984.

Reply to  TBeholder
January 4, 2025 3:48 pm

Lego wasn’t a GDR brand, it’s from Danmark, so what are you telling ?
And cancel culture was a speciality of the so called Stasi.

gezza1298
Reply to  TBeholder
January 8, 2025 4:26 am

East German goods were decades behind the West so when reunification came all the VEB factories slowly closed down as western goods were now available. Who would buy a Trabant or Wartburg over a BMW, Mercedes, Audi etc. The MZ and Simson motorcycles continued for a while as they had a following in the West and were a cheap simple form of transport. We even have an MZ racing class in the UK.

January 4, 2025 2:20 am

Alle is verboten!

Germans like to be told what to do and how to behave.

Editor
Reply to  Leo Smith
January 4, 2025 2:38 am

A long time ago it was said that in the UK anything not prohibited by law was permitted and in Germany anything not expressly permitted by law was forbidden. The UK and Germany now seem to be competing in the suppression stakes. I wonder whether a tech company could refer each questionable item to government for a decision rather than make the decision themselves. I wonder also whether those decisions and the items they relate to could be published outside Germany – there surely must be an international legal principle that no country can control what is (il)legal in another country.

Bigus Macus
Reply to  Mike Jonas
January 4, 2025 3:13 am

I’ve wondered what happened to “Speakers Corner” in Hyde Park. I’m sure they must have shut it down.

Reply to  Bigus Macus
January 4, 2025 4:58 am

Speaker’s Corner is now entirely dominated by radical Muslims.

Reply to  Bigus Macus
January 4, 2025 5:12 am

Speakers Corner is still there. But the cops occasionally escort speakers away “for their own safety” instead of dispersing threatening protestors.

Reply to  Bigus Macus
January 4, 2025 5:30 am

You better watch what you say at “Speaker’s Corner” nowadays, I think.

alastairgray29yahoocom
Reply to  Bigus Macus
January 4, 2025 8:19 am

Still there I just saw a YouTube of a sensible Muslim taking down a fanatic. By reason

Reply to  Mike Jonas
January 4, 2025 5:25 am

“The UK and Germany now seem to be competing in the suppression stakes.”

Yes, they are. The politicians in both nations show themselves to be authoritarians working towards creating a dictatorship.

They are using the bogus Climate Crisis as a means to their political, dictatorial ends.

They can’t go back and admit they were wrong about Net Zero, so they forge ahead, and the only way to forge ahead from here is to suppress the growing opposition to the damage they are causing their economies and the basic freedoms of the average person.

It’s really a serious situation. These fools are actually harming their own national security with their insane Net Zero efforts. A seriously injured UK and Germany are not good for anyone but the world’s Bad Guys.

German and UK voters are the only hope. They have to change their governments because their current governments are not going to change, and are going to continue down the disastrous Net Zero path.

The United States would be headed down this same road except a presidential election intervened.

Story Tip:

I saw Marc Marano interviewed on Fox News this morning. He seemed to think the Red Team/Blue Team concept from Trump’s first administration is alive and well and may be implemented this time around. He said it was an ongoing aim of the first Trump administration, but some within the administration (Trump’s daughter and son-in-law) got this effort postponed until Trump’s second term, but that got derailed by the 2020 election, but Marc seems to think this is still viable in the new Trump administration.

Marano also suggested that now is the time to submit the Paris Climate Agreement to the U.S. Senate as a treaty, so it can be voted down, once and for all.

I wonder if Trump will make Dr. Happer his science advisor? He should.

I’m getting a little upset with Trump and his appointments. He’s taking good commentators off Fox News and putting them in his government! He snatched up Pete Hegspeth and now Tammy Bruce, who I think is just a brilliant woman. I can see why Trump would want both of them, but I’m going to miss watching them on Fox. I guess they are both taking a huge pay cut by taking these government jobs. They are doing it for the country. Think about that: Going from making millions of dollars a year to making a couple of hundred thousand dollars a year. We should appreciate their sacrifice, including all the “slings and arrows” they are going to have to suffer from the radical Leftists.

Reply to  Tom Abbott
January 4, 2025 9:17 am

Happer was a Senior Science Advisor in Trump’s previous term, but he didn’t last too long. Perplexity.ai gives essentially collated BS about his term (I probably didn’t ask the right question) so it’s unclear to me exactly why he resigned. I agree though – more people should be reading and using Lindzen, Happer and van Wijngaarden’s 2024 paper taking down the net-zero fraud quantitatively and mathematically. Of course, it won’t affect the thinking and actions of the net-zero fraudsters.

Tom Halla
Reply to  Mike Jonas
January 4, 2025 6:45 am

There are claims of “universal jurisdiction” with the International Criminal Court. Some peoples have no rights, in their opinion.

TBeholder
Reply to  Mike Jonas
January 4, 2025 9:14 am

What country? It’s United States of Europe. Just like Trotsky advertised. With permanent revolution, too.

Jeff Alberts
Reply to  Leo Smith
January 4, 2025 7:26 am

Pretty sure it’s “Alles ist..”

Scissor
Reply to  Jeff Alberts
January 4, 2025 8:01 am

But definitely not “vergeben.”

strativarius
January 4, 2025 2:31 am

2025 in Germany will be a year more energy inflation and loss a free speech rights

Just like your Anglo Saxon brethren…

Education Secretary faces court over shelving free speech laws

https://freespeechunion.org/education-secretary-faces-court-over-shelving-free-speech-laws/

Has Germany considered flywheels?

Dave Andrews
Reply to  strativarius
January 4, 2025 9:35 am

Yes. But the flies didn’t want to go to Germany – electricity too expensive!

MarkW
Reply to  Dave Andrews
January 4, 2025 11:05 pm

electric flies?

Rod Evans
January 4, 2025 2:41 am

The ‘old parties’ may follow the old party Labour here in the UK. It is likely Labour will lose a large number of local Councillors at the planned elections in May this year. Their reaction to that clear and unambiguous reality was to cancel the elections. Their claim being they want to restructure the constituencies and make them bigger so that will mean no local elections in many areas this May.
Now that is how you do it, rather than just refusing to accept the result just ban the election before the results come in.
As Stalin once said when asked if he was concerned about the people’s votes being cast at a controlled election.
“The people who vote do not count, only those who count the votes, decide”

CampsieFellow
Reply to  Rod Evans
January 4, 2025 3:14 am

Out of the 2,000 plus Council seats up for election in May, only about 300 are held by Labour. These seats were won at a time when the Conservatives were about 10 points ahead of Labour in the opinion polls. So it seems unlikely that Labour stands to lose many seats to the Conservatives in May if the elections go ahead, although they might lose some to Reform.
Furthermore they have not yet cancelled the elections.
Furthermore the reason for cancelling the elections, if that is done, would be because of local government re-organisation. Nothing to do with the size of constituencies.
Furthermore, the Councils concerned (mostly controlled by the Conservatives) have been given a date in January by which they need to tell the government if they wish the elections to be postponed.
This story has certainly grown legs.

Rod Evans
Reply to  CampsieFellow
January 4, 2025 4:22 am

“Further more they have not cancelled the elections ‘yet'”
Well we are so reassured by that last word, yet……

strativarius
Reply to  Rod Evans
January 4, 2025 3:33 am

Rayner may cancel those elections

…local government minister Jim McMahon said some local elections next year may not go ahead as local authorities could be closed or merged 
https://www.gbnews.com/politics/labour-reform-uk-angela-rayner-local-elections

Richard Greene
January 4, 2025 3:12 am

Mid-2024 Industrial Electricity Prices
in US cents including taxes

Germany 17 cents per kWh
UK 35 cents
US 8.2 cents
China 9 cents

Reply to  Richard Greene
January 4, 2025 3:28 am

Aren’t we talking about the actual prices ?

strativarius
Reply to  Richard Greene
January 4, 2025 3:35 am

What taxes?

Reply to  strativarius
January 4, 2025 4:07 am

VAT f.e. in Europe, Electricity Tax (at least Germany)

Rod Evans
Reply to  Richard Greene
January 4, 2025 4:17 am

When the UK standing daily charge for connection is added on the actual price for electricity here in the UK is ~45 US cents/kWh (depending on exchange rates).The standing charge for electricity is now £0.6097/day. In other words it adds ~£0.10 ($0.125/Kwh) if you consume just 6kWh/day.

Richard Greene
Reply to  Rod Evans
January 4, 2025 4:49 am

Google claims 37 cents currently per kWh for UK industrial electricity including taxes and fees. Your 45 cents appears to be wrong.,

As of January 1, 2025, the average cost of ALL electricity in the UK, including VAT, is: 

Price per kilowatt hour (kWh): 24.86 pence per kWh (31 US cents pr kWh)

Daily standing charge: 60.97 pence per day
(76 US cents per day_

Average annual bill: £1,738 for a typical household ($2,159 US dollars)

Rod Evans
Reply to  Richard Greene
January 4, 2025 6:13 am

Well Richard I can only go by my own charges. It may appear wrong but it s real.
Like so many things these days that are very wrong but oh so real.

Dave Andrews
Reply to  Richard Greene
January 4, 2025 9:48 am

UK standing charges electricity 60.97p per day as you say and 31.65p per day for gas but the real difference is

Electricity 24.86p per kWh

Gas 6.34p per kWh

Over 22m homes are on the gas grid.

Labour and net zero want to move them all on to electricity

sturmudgeon
Reply to  Richard Greene
January 4, 2025 2:16 pm

Google???

Reply to  Richard Greene
January 4, 2025 3:51 pm

Household s don’t pay industrial prices

Mervyn Sullivan
January 4, 2025 4:27 am

Whenever a government abandons the concept of a free society, for any reason, it really is the start to going down the pathway to tyranny.

J Boles
January 4, 2025 6:55 am

Time for a German revolution, just like the ol’ French revolution.

David Wojick
January 4, 2025 7:26 am

The big differences from country to country are a surprise. Are coal burners the cheap ones?

real bob boder
January 4, 2025 7:30 am

Just another reason to prolong the war in Ukraine. Anything to justify taking/giving up rights and freedoms for “safety”

1saveenergy
January 4, 2025 7:34 am

Yippee !!!
At long last, with red Ed Millibrain in charge, Britain is now leading the race to the bottom so we can attain ‘nut zero‘ (you will own nothing & you will be happy ) by 2030.

alastairgray29yahoocom
January 4, 2025 8:16 am

You Germans always had a totalitarian streak and a couple of hundred years to get used to it. Spare a thought for us Brits who are also getting shoved around by Nazi and Stasi goons. But more importantly let us unite to get the tyrants off all our backs

Editor
January 4, 2025 8:57 am

You don’t have to go to Germany to find speech being censored. I’ve been wrongly suspended from 𝕏 for asking a Muslim about his religion.

I discuss my suspension and the larger question of censorship on 𝕏 in my post below.

https://rosebyanyothernameblog.wordpress.com/2025/01/01/%f0%9d%95%8f-censorship-rides-again/

The irony, of course, is that at the same time that Elon is rightly castigating the UK press for censoring any discussion or criticism of Islam, Elon’s own media, 𝕏, is doing the exact same thing to me.

I implore anyone on 𝕏 who cares about freedom of speech to use whatever leverage they have to protest my suspension, and to link to my above post so my voice can be heard.

My best to all,

w.

Derg
Reply to  Willis Eschenbach
January 4, 2025 2:23 pm

Good luck

Reply to  Willis Eschenbach
January 5, 2025 12:10 am

That’s extremely disappointing. Even on X it seems Muslims have special privileges.

Reply to  Graemethecat
January 5, 2025 9:09 am

Yes, it’s bizarre. Muslims seem to be the last untouchable group.

Suicidal empathy …

w.

steveastrouk2017
January 4, 2025 9:07 am

Oh no, not again.

mleskovarsocalrrcom
January 4, 2025 10:02 am

Why is it that “right wing extremism” is always targeted but never “left wing”? Are all the thought police radical Left? Or is it because the media is controlled/owned by the Left? Rhetorical questions that need inspection.

MarkW
Reply to  mleskovarsocalrrcom
January 4, 2025 5:01 pm

In most of Europe the political spectrum goes something like this

Communist->Socialist->Far Right->Extreme Right

As you see, there is no such thing as Extreme Left, so there is no reason to talk about it.

Reply to  MarkW
January 4, 2025 8:16 pm

Yep, the 95% of normal people who just want to have a life, since they only have one, don’t seem to bother with promoting their centrist views although, to be fair, they did vote this time in the US.

The US politicians don’t even know what extreme left is. It’s all phony – we’re really nice, we love black and poor people so vote for us. Just a bunch of scumbags.

January 4, 2025 10:56 am

Things are not bad enough, yet.

DStayer
January 4, 2025 11:25 am

Well history keeps repeating itself, but we are in a new era and so this movement requires a new name may I suggest “CommuFascism” since it shares elements of both evil ideologies. It is the brand that the Democrat party leadership wants to implement here, hopefully with the election of President Trump they have failed for good.

sturmudgeon
Reply to  DStayer
January 4, 2025 2:19 pm

Sadly, he is not yet ‘there’.

Bob
January 4, 2025 1:51 pm

It is past time for the German people to wake up, their government is out of control and criminal.

sturmudgeon
Reply to  Bob
January 4, 2025 2:20 pm

And, the U.S. gov’t is not? Americans are not yet fully awake.

Bob
Reply to  sturmudgeon
January 4, 2025 7:30 pm

I admit my government is out of control maybe even criminal but not compared to Germany.

Reply to  sturmudgeon
January 4, 2025 8:20 pm

Fortunately, we are awake enough (with evidence, I might add), and the young people have seen through the scam.

Reply to  Bob
January 4, 2025 8:18 pm

So ?? What’s new ?? How’s their invading of Russia going this time ??

MarkW
Reply to  philincalifornia
January 4, 2025 11:09 pm

German’s are invading Russia? When did that happen?
In recent years, it’s been Russia that has been doing the invading.

John the Econ
January 5, 2025 5:44 am

“…to fight right-wing extremism, that human thoughts and speech patterns need to be under surveillance and become the business of the government: “It’s also about shifting verbal and mental boundaries. We have to be careful that thought and language patterns don’t become embedded in our language.”

Many of Germany’s problems today have been due to their lingering guilt over their fascist past. So now it seems they’ve come back full circle to fascism.