Tell Congress to stop the Biden administration from funding wars in Ukraine and Israel
(LifeSiteNews) — The far-left German government has shut down a conservative, anti-globalist magazine, raiding its offices with a large police force and seizing all of its assets.
On the morning of July 16, more than 300 policemen searched 14 buildings connected to Compact magazine, its management, and employees and confiscated the organization’s belongings.
According to WELT, the government seized electronic devices, data carriers, gold, vehicles, cash, and bank accounts. Compact’s website and social media channels, as well as its video production company, Conspect Film GmbH, were also shut down.
The home of Compact founder Jürgen Elsässer was raided by a police force accompanied by journalists from mainstream media outlets who took pictures of Elsässer in his bathrobe, a process described by some commentators as a “humiliation ritual.”
READ: German doctor sentenced to over 2 years in jail for issuing mask and COVID shot exemptions
BREAKING: Germany bans the right-wing Compact Magazine, raids home of chief magazine editor Jürgen Elsässer
Interior Minister Faeser gave the order
The magazine’s crime? “Stirring hate” pic.twitter.com/ODABm3k29M
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) July 16, 2024
The Interior Ministry said in a statement, “In its wide-reaching publications and products, ‘COMPACT-Magazin GmbH’ disseminates anti-Semitic, racist, anti-minority, historical revisionist and conspiracy theory content.”
“Today I have banned the right-wing extremist COMPACT magazine,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced.
“It is a central mouthpiece of the right-wing extremist scene,” she added. “The ban shows that we are also taking action against the intellectual arsonists who foment a climate of hatred and violence against refugees and migrants and want to overcome our democratic state,” Faeser said.
Faeser, “who claims to defend democracy,” previously wrote an article for the radically leftist publication Federation of Anti-Fascists, which was classified as left-wing extremist by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, shortly before becoming Interior Minister in December 2021, as conservative news outlet Tichys Einblicke pointed out.
Outspoken tech billionaire Elon Musk chimed in on the case, stating on his social media platform X that “Crushing freedom of speech under a jackboot is what that government is doing.”
READ: Major anti-globalist TV station debanked in Germany and Austria
Tichys Einblicke described the ban of Compact as “historically unprecedented.”
Constitutional lawyer and former Federal Minister of Defense Rupert Scholz told the outlet that the ban of Compact is unconstitutional.
“Freedom of expression enjoys such a high constitutional status that it cannot simply be undermined by an executive decision,” he said.
“At most, a medium can be banned if it represents a revolutionary position, i.e., calls for overthrowing the existing order by force. But that would then have to lead to criminal proceedings.”
However, no criminal proceedings have been publicized, and neither Compact nor Elsässer have been criminally convicted in court.
According to Scholz, the “ethnic concept of people” used by Compact – i.e., the distinction between ancestral and naturalized German citizens – is also “not unconstitutional.” For the constitutional lawyer, it is instead the case that “Faeser’s approach is clearly unconstitutional.”
READ: Germany’s vice chancellor refuses to rule out criminalizing anti-globalist AfD party
In a joint statement, the co-leaders of the anti-globalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) Party condemned the actions taken against Compact magazine:
The ban on Compact magazine is a serious blow to press freedom. We are observing these events with great concern. Banning a press organ means a denial of discourse and diversity of opinion. A ban is always the most far-reaching step. Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser is thus abusing her powers to suppress critical reporting. We call on the Minister to respect the freedom of the press.
In recent months, parts of the left-wing German government, mainstream media outlets, and public figures have been seriously pushing to ban the AfD. The reasoning behind the potential ban is similar to that used to justify the prohibition of Compact magazine.
Tell Congress to stop the Biden administration from funding wars in Ukraine and Israel