The family car of Julian Reichelt, editor-in-chief of the German news outlet NIUS and former editor-in-chief of Bild, was set on fire early Friday in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin. Video of the burned out car has been spread widely on social media amid concern about rising left-wing violence.
Reichelt reported the attack on NIUS and during a NIUS Live broadcast. He said a neighbor notified him by WhatsApp and that he looked outside to see his family car in flames. “When someone wakes up like that, one is in utter shock.”
“It is completely clear that this was a targeted attack,” Reichelt said. He added that the perpetrators appeared to have scouted which vehicle belonged to him and used what he called “the classic Antifa trick” of placing accelerant on the tires. A child seat on the front seat did not deter the attackers, he said.
Reichelt vowed that NIUS would not be intimidated and would continue its reporting.
Staying with the 4th Reich, spy agencies get sweeping new powers
The controversial reform allows intelligence services to carry out sabotage, secretly enter homes, and expand surveillance.
The German parliament has passed sweeping legislation granting the country’s intelligence agencies unprecedented powers to conduct sabotage, secretly enter homes, and expand surveillance. The controversial law has prompted comparisons with the Gestapo and Stasi, the notorious secret police organizations of Nazi Germany and Communist East Germany.
The legislation, championed by Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s governing coalition, was approved on Friday by 300 votes to 190, with 71 abstentions. Only the ruling CDU/CSU bloc and Social Democrats backed the reform. The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) and The Left opposed it, while the Greens abstained.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt hailed the overhaul as a “reform of the century,” declaring a “new era” for German intelligence agencies that would put them on an “equal footing with our European partners.”