The election of an FDP politician as minister president of Thuringia made international headlines. One of the outlets that covered the events was Al Jazeera, who interviewed me on the day after the event. [contentcards url="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/02/regional-german-president-set-quit-day-election-200206181517379.html" target="_blank"]
The CDU/FDP/AfD collaboration in Thuringia created quite a stir, not just nationally but also internationally. Even CNN covered the events. I had a chat with one of their correspondents, and some of that made it into their online coverage. [contentcards url="https://edition.cnn.com/2020/02/06/europe/thuringia-germany-far-right-afd-coalition-merkel-intl-grm/index.html",target="_blank"]
Shocking insight: the rise of the Radical Right is neither inevitable nor monotonic. Setbacks are real, and so is the rise of left-libertarian parties and the mainstreaming of views that were outragesously liberal just a couple of decades ago (c.f. views on same-sex marriage etc.). It’s a good thing that journalists (they still exist) start…
The idea that there are seriously problematic political personalities is at least a 100 years old. In a recent article, colleagues Sabrina Mayer, Carl Berning and David Johann take it for a spin and look at the Two Dimensions of Narcissistic Personality and Support for the Radical Right (open access!) Over at the Duck of…
Das Handelsblatt hat mit Lothar Probst, Matthias Quent und mir über die möglichen Konsequenzen einer Beobachtung der AfD durch den Verfassungsschutz gesprochen. [contentcards url="https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/nach-austritt-aus-fraktion-rechtspopulismus-forscher-beobachtung-der-afd-ist-voraussichtlich-nicht-mehr-aufzuhalten/25485042.html" target="_blank"]
In der AfD prallen marktradikale und wohlfahrtschauvinistische Vorstellungen zur Rentenversicherung aufeinander. Das Handelsblatt berichtet, dazu gibt es ein paar Wortlaut-Zitate von mir. [contentcards url="https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/rentendebatte-hoecke-fluegel-wirft-afd-chef-meuthen-parteischaedigendes-verhalten-vor/25474312.html?ticket=ST-2193926-qoKvARA1ofygz4mAbewQ-ap2" target="_blank"]
“How rogue can Turkey go?” This is a rather depressing assessment of the frayed state of relations between Turkey and “the West”. And it does hardly delve into the whole issue of human rights abuses. Talking about depressing yet oddly fascinating stuff, there is going to be a new season of the fantastic Power Corrupts…
Yet another end-of-year post It’s that time of the year again. No, I’m not talking about mindless consumerism, pointless over-indulgence and the Great Starbucks War on Christmas. What I’m talking about is my yearly reflection on why I still solo blog in <insert year>, and which posts were the least unpopular. To which the answer…
A coalition to keep out the AfD Back in the distant past of 2016, the rise of the AfD in Germany’s eastern states and the fragmentation of the party system began to force the formation of awkward coalitions. In Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD captured about a quarter of the vote and so brought together a ‘Kenya…
In Germany, these problems have been under-estimated, under-reported, and outright downplayed for a very long time: Elite German Police Unit Was Crawling With Far-Right ‘Preppers’ Gearing Up for a Race War If you are worried about the effect of disinformation on democracy, the UK is a very scary place right now: Google bans eight different Tory…