Germany’s Bundestag remembered the 8,000 people who were murdered in the Srebrenica massacre that started on July 11, 1995.

The sombre session was disrupted by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) with two of its members causing uproar with comments to the Bundestag.

One questioned the definition of the massacre as a genocidal act. Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul gave an impromptu speech to clarify that the German government recognizes the massacre as a genocide.

Plus, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is set to make his first official visit to London on Thursday next week, with the two countries expected to sign a German-British treaty of friendship.

Below, you’ll find a roundup of news, analysis and background from Germany on Friday, July 11.

Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul gave an impromptu speech to reject claims by the far-right AfD about the massacre Katharina Kausche/dpa/picture alliance

Germany’s Bundestag remembered the 8,000 people who were murdered in the Srebrenica massacre that started on July 11, 1995.

The sombre session was disrupted by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) with two of its members causing uproar with comments to the Bundestag.

One questioned the definition of the massacre as a genocidal act. Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul gave an impromptu speech to clarify that the German government recognizes the massacre as a genocide.

Plus, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is set to make his first official visit to London on Thursday next week, with the two countries expected to sign a German-British treaty of friendship.

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Below, you’ll find a roundup of news, analysis and background from Germany on Friday, July 11.

Merz set to make first official visit to London next week

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will make his first official visit to London on Thursday, with a German-British treaty of friendship expected to be signed.

Government spokesman Steffen Meyer said in Berlin on Friday that the visit aims to deepen close ties between the two countries. Merz will be received by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has sought to repair relations with the EU after Brexit.

The draft treaty is set to be approved by the German Cabinet on Wednesday. It will focus on cooperation in foreign and defense policy, economic growth, and more direct contact between citizens.

Once signed, the agreement will go to the Bundestag for approval. An action plan with specific joint projects will also be presented to strengthen bilateral ties.

Germany denies report it plans to buy more F-35 jets

Germany does not plan to procure more F-35 fighter jets beyond the 35 already ordered, the defense ministry has said, rejecting a Politico report that claimed Berlin aimed to expand its fleet to 50.

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Germany has so far ordered 35 US-made jets to replace a total of 85 ageing Tornado aircraft.

“The defense ministry currently has no plans to procure additional F-35s beyond the 35 F-35s already contractually agreed,” a ministry spokesperson said at a regular news conference.

A military source told the Reuters news agency that the 15 additional jets had been part of earlier considerations.

However, NATO’s new targets for weapons and troop numbers mean that the number may need adjusting. The source did not confirm if more jets will ultimately be ordered.

The report by Politico comes amid tensions between Germany and France over their joint FCAS fighter jet project. An industry source told Reuters that France now wants an 80% workshare, which could scrap the agreed split and block the project’s next phase.

Volkswagen shuttering Nanjing factory

A joint car plant in the Chinese city of Nanjing, run by German car company Volkswagen and its local partner SAIC, will be closed in the coming months.

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“Volkswagen Group and its joint venture partners are accelerating the transformation towards electric, intelligent, connected vehicles,” a spokesperson for Volkswagen told AFP news agency.

“Many SAIC Volkswagen sites are currently being converted or have already been converted for electric vehicle production,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesman also confirmed the news first reported by German newspaper, Handelsblatt, about production having already come to a halt there.

One reason for the closure of the plant, which is set to be closed over the second half of the year, was because of its urban location, making the expansion of electric vehicle production difficult.

The plant, which has a capacity to produce 360,000 vehicles per year, first opened in 2008. It made models like Volkswagen Passat and Skoda Superb.

Bankruptcies on the rise in Germany

The number of companies that went bankrupt in Germany significantly rose again in April, according to finalized data from the German Federal Statistical Office (Destatis).

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The number of 2,125 companies going bust in April 2025 marks a rise of 11.5% more than in the same month last year.

Volker Treier, the head analyst of the German Industry and Commerce Chamber, warned that “Whoever wants to ensure competitiveness, cannot further postpone relief.”

According to preliminary data from Destatis, the number of businesses filing for bankruptcy in June 2025 is expected to rise by 2.4% in comparison to June 2024.

Far-right German politicians cause uproar with Srebrenica speeches

A Bundestag debate marking the 30th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide on Friday ended with recriminations and outrage when members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party suggested that what happened in Bosnia in 1995 was not in fact genocide.

AfD politician Alexander Wolf caused uproar by questioning whether the events in Srebrenica were worthy of the label of “genocide,” arguing that Bosnian Serbs had only shot men, and had spared women and children.

The statement does not square with the fact that, beyond the killings of about 8,000 men and boys during the massacre, there have been thousands of reported cases of sexual abuse against Bosniak women and girls.

Verdicts by both the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have already determined the genocidal character of the massacre.

Politicians from the coalition SPD and CDU/CSU accused Wolf of spouting revisionist history that denies genocide and sides the perpetrators of war crimes.

Still, the AfD was not done, with Martin Sichert calling Srebrenica a glaring example of the threat posed by multiculturalism, claiming that Germany was running headlong into a similar fate.

It was then that parliamentarians demonstratively turned their backs, with Klöckner reprimanding Sichert and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul unexpectedly taking to the speaker’s pulpit to apologize to Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Ambassador to Germany Damir Arnaut for having to listen to Sichert’s words.

Bundestag remembers the Srebrenica massacre

On Friday, the German parliament held a special session in memory of the Srebrenica massacre, which took place 30 years ago.

About 8,000 Muslims were murdered by Bosnian Serbs in an act, recognized by several international courts as a genocide, that started on July 11, 1995.

Julia Klöckner, president of the Bundestag, said that “Srebrenica was the worst war crime on European soil since World War II.”

She said that the massacre was the result of UN peacekeeping forces doing nothing to protect those seeking refuge.

“With brutal violence, the attackers separated families and deported women, children and the elderly,” she stated. “They kept men and boys behind in order to systematically murder them in the days that followed.”

Australia: Missing German backpacker found alive

A German backpacker who went missing in western Australia almost two weeks ago has been found alive, Australian media reported on Friday.

Australian police must first confirm the 26-year-old Carolina Wilga’s identity, Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald reported.

A passerby ran into Wilga on a path in the bush, Australian media reported.

Her reappearance follows a large-scale search that dragged on for days.

Read more on when Wilga went missing and how she was found here.

Vote on all three Federal Constitutional Court judges postponed

The Bundestag vote for appointing three new Federal Constitutional Court judges has been postponed.

This comes after the conservative bloc, made from Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union (CSU), requested to postpone the vote on the appointment of Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf due to plagiarism suspicions.

The Union’s move to postpone the vote on one candidate triggered outrage from the Greens and SPD who said it undermined the court’s legitimacy.

As a result, the Green party asked for the vote on all three judges to be postponed.

Read the full story on the chaos surrounding the vote on the three constitutional judges here.

Greens call for suspension of judges vote

The Green party has called for the vote on the appointment of three new Federal Constitutional Court judges to be postponed after the conservative ruling bloc moved to delay the vote on one candidate put forward by the Social Democrats (SPD).

Green party heads Britta Hasselmann and Katharina Dröge said it is unacceptable and disrespectful that the vote for Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf alone will be postponed.

The conservative bloc called for the postponement of the vote on Brosius-Gersdorf, who many conservatives considered controversial for her liberal stance on abortion, with plagiarism suspicions against her.

“That a nominees can be openly defamed and dragged through the mud like this is shameful,” Hasselmann said. “It’s about the integrity of our highest court.”

Wine makers in Germany fear negative effect from US tariffs

German winemakers predict major negative consequences should the US decide to apply tariffs, led by President Donald Trump.

“If the threatened US punitive tariffs come into full effect after the end of the moratorium, it would cause disruptions in international wine markets,” the German Wine Institute (DWI) said.

According to DWI spokesperson Ernst Büscher, the 25% tariffs that were introduced during Trump’s first, resulted in losses of more than 20% in revenue for German wine makers.

With 11% of the total volume of Germany’s wine exports (equivalent to 118 million liters), the US is the most important export market for German wines, with exporters using the period of reduced tariffs to ship as much wine as possible to the other side of the Atlantic.

While German vineyards are exploring alternative markets, Büscher said it can take several years to establish relationships with importers, retailers or restaurants.

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Banning the AfD triggers conflict in Germany’s coalition

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has said he rejects the idea of banning the far-right, populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

In an interview with German outlet Welt, Dobrindt — of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Union list — labeled banning the party as “the fundamentally wrong way.”

He said such a process could take years, during which time it could get even more difficult to tackle their rising support.

Dobrindt also warned that banning the party would lead to the reinforcement of the party’s victim role, saying he didn’t want to “do this favor for the AfD.”

Several members of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the second party in Germany’s coalition, have expressed support for a ban.

Most recently, Matthias Miersch, head of the SPD in the Bundestag, spoke out in favor of a ban.

Bundestag to vote on new Constitutional Court judges

The Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament, is expected to decide on the appointment of three new judges to the Federal Constitutional Court.

The conservative bloc, made from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and sister Bavarian party Christian Social Union (CSU), has proposed Federal Labour Court judge Günter Spinner.

The Social Democratic party (SPD), the conservatives’ coalition partner, has nominated law professors Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf and Ann-Katrin Kaufhold.

A two-thirds majority is needed for judges to be elected to the high court. The far-right AfD has said it would support Spinner, but not the SPD candidates.

The conservative may be reliant on AfD votes to get its candidate through as it has so far rejected talks with the Left Party. However, votes are secret so it will not necessarily be clear if the AfD votes are what gets Spinner across the line.

As for the SPD candidates, the CDU has expressed doubts over Brosius-Gersdorf’s appointment, citing alleged plagiarism. They had already viewed her as too liberal on the topic of abortion and her advocating for mandatory vaccination during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Germany’s conservatives would therefore like to postpone the vote on Brosius-Gersdorf’s appointment.

Based in the southern German city of Karlsruhe, the Federal Constitutional Court ensures compliance with the country’s constitution, known as Basic Law.

Tax reliefs for businesses on the upper house’s agenda

Germany’s upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, is set to vote on tax breaks running into the billions of euros as the government seeks to support companies and boost investment.

The package includes more options for businesses to account for the depreciation in the value of their machinery, a move intended to increase investment, while also promising to gradually reduce Germany’s corporate tax rate from 15% to 10% by 2032.

The tax cut could result in costs at the federal, state and local levels of up to €48 billion ($56 billion). The federal government has agreed to cover the loss in taxes for German states, some of which are heavily in debt, until 2029.

The Bundesrat is also expected to vote on extending rate controls in some residential areas until the end of 2029. The current measures, only in place in limited areas, limit rents to 10% above the local average.

Both measures being voted on on Friday were part of the coalition agreement between the center-right Union bloc and the center-left Social Democrats.

Welcome to our coverage

Good morning and thank you for joining us today as we bring you the latest news, explainers and analysis from Germany.

Several key votes are set to take place today. The German upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat, is set to vote on a corporate tax cut as well as rent control measures.

Meanwhile, the lower house, the Bundestag, is set to vote on new judges to be appointed to the constitutional court.

A split is also emerging between Germany’s ruling coalition over calls to ban the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Follow our blog for all this and more!

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Alternative for Germany (AfD) , far right-wing German political party founded in 2013. Established during the rise of Euroskepticism in the wake of the euro-zone debt crisis , the party has since adopted a platform based on German nationalism and Islamophobia .

Foundation and platform

In the 2010s some German conservatives began voicing dissatisfaction that under Angela Merkel’s chancellorship, the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) had become too moderate. Indeed, Merkel’s reputation for pragmatic compromise was the stuff of legend within the upper echelons of German politics, and three of her four governments would be grand coalitions with the left-leaning Social Democratic Party (SPD). In the spring of 2013 several members of Merkel’s bloc were among the founders of AfD. Intended to give voice to Euroskeptics who advocated for disengagement from the European Union (EU)—in stark contrast to Merkel’s championing of greater European integration—AfD protested the euro as the EU’s sole currency and rejected bailouts of EU member countries in the wake of the euro-zone debt crisis. When Merkel proposed supporting a bailout for Greece in 2015, 60 of her fellow conservatives voted against her.

In 2015 AfD’s priorities shifted. Even as a record number of migrants—more than one million—entered Germany, Merkel maintained that the country’s borders would remain open in cases of humanitarian emergency, welcoming refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. AfD characterized such immigration as an invasion of foreigners that it was staunchly against, allowing the party to capitalize on rising populist and xenophobic attitudes in Europe. The party’s rhetoric also became explicitly anti-Muslim, as many migrants from Syria practiced Islam. In 2016 AfD called for a ban on “Islamic symbols of power” in Germany, which included minarets, the public call to Islamic worship, and full-body veils. Though many criticized AfD’s stances as racist and Islamophobic, in the 2017 general elections it received enough votes to form a bloc in the federal parliament. The conservative alliance between the CDU and Christian Social Union (CSU) lost 65 seats from 2013, its worst showing in nearly seven decades.

By 2024 the AfD had begun to rival the CDU-CSU and SPD in opinion polls, but its political power remained limited due to other parties refusing to form coalitions with it. Even after the AfD finished second in the February 2025 snap general election, the mainstream parties maintained the post-World War II Brandmauer (“firewall”) that prohibited cooperation with parties deemed to be extremist. Support for the AfD remained overwhelmingly concentrated in the states of the former East Germany, and in that area, it won more than one-third of the vote.

AfD’s anti-immigration platform consists of the following: