This week’s Pegida-style AfD march in Erfurt was a bit underwhelming, but Björn Höcke had a much bigger stage when he appeared in a popular talk show. It was probably the first time that a national audience was exposed to the more radical streams within the AfD. It was also the first time that Frauke…
A year after the “Pegida” marches in Dresden began, German politicians have come full circle. After first ignoring the (then tiny and distinctly local) group, they either branded them as neo-Nazis (Greens, most of the Left, most of the SPD), tried to engage in listening exercises (some of the CDU and SPD), tried to co-opt…
RT @internetofshit: And that’s when our smart devices learned to blackmail us Don’t forget blueprint for this building was stolen, too Unafraid of #Greek / #German national stereotypes? Try this hilariously stupid video: V is for #Varoufakis Exactly MT @BioDataGanache: Sometimes peer review goes wrong… dreadfully wrong. RT @SLdeLange: Charming new poster from UDC/SVP youth…
In Dresden, the style of political conflict has plunged to a new low yesterday night when Pegida marchers carried gallows “reserved for Merkel and [vice chancellor and SPD leader] Gabriel” – a classic extreme right prop that nicely complements the usual rallying cries of “lying press” and “traitors of the people”. At first I was…
In the last couple of weeks, much has been said and written about the turning tide in German public opinion on refugees, the growing rift between Merkel and the CSU, the potential of a back-bench rebellion against the chancellor and party leader etc. But one of the most interesting (in my book) details is buried…
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="500"] Photo by Metropolico.org [/caption] Yesterday, the AfD has filed legal complaints against the chancellor with the public prosecutor, arguing that suspending the Dublin agreement violates the section of the penal code which bans human trafficking. As political PR stunts go, this is not a bad one: It cost the party exactly…
Handelsblatt’s global (i.e. English language) edition has an informative piece on “Merkel’s Moment of Truth”: her bid to sell her U-turn on refugees in a prime-time talk-show and a number of other venues. The article is garnished with some choice quotes by colleague Gero Neugebauer over at the FU and yours truly. Paywalled, but accessible if you…
Just how badly biased is your pre-election survey? Once the election results are in, our scalar measures B and B_w provide convenient, single number summaries. Our surveybias add-on for Stata will calculate these and other measures from either raw data or from published margins. Its latest iteration (version 1.4) has just appeared on SSC. Surveybias…
One major asset of the pre-Petry AfD was its disconnect from the Extreme Right. But the AfD in Thuringia has always been a funny bunch, and Lucke tried (without success) to remove its leader Björn Höcke from the party. [caption id="" align="alignright" width="500"] Photo by Tekniska museet [/caption] With Lucke gone and asylum applications at…
Artikel im Handelsblatt zum aktuellen Zuwachs der AfD auf Facebook mit einigen kritischen Anmerkungen von mir. Photo by pshab