Ten days or so ahead of the state elections in Saxony and Thuringia, I had a chat with Berlin-based British Deutschlandversteher Deborah Cole. Some quotes made it into this excellent explainer piece in the Guardian. Looks like Germany failed the test. https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/29/germany-state-elections-populists-afd-bsw
Wer sich schon immer diese oder ähnliche Fragen gestellt hat, kann hier ohne Paywall das Gespräch zwischen Daniel Bax und mir nachlesen. https://taz.de/Politologe-ueber-Wagenknecht-Partei/!6001761
The far right is not the driving force behind the farmers’ protests, but their style is indicative of an erosion of democratic norms in Germany
Mit Dietmar Neuerer habe ich ausführlich über den Leidensweg des Heizungsgesetzes und die Dauerkrise der Koalition gesprochen. Das Interview ist zum größeren Teil hinter einer Paywall, aber ganz zu lesen, wenn man den Link im Incognito-Modus öffnet. https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/interview-cdu-und-csu-waeren-schlecht-beraten-einen-heizungswahlkampf-zu-fuehren/v_detail_tab_comments/29244652.html
Was hat die Wärmepumpe zum politischen Symbol gemacht? Was hat die Heizung mit dem Veggie-Day zu tun? Und nützt das alles am Ende nur der AfD?
And apparently I said this: « Les théories du complot fascinent beaucoup plus de monde que l’on ne croit et participent à un processus classique de radicalisation », constate Kai Arzheimer, professeur de sciences politiques de l’université de Mayence. I couldn’t agree more with myself. And in my humble opinion, it’s quite amazing that a…
Some traditional right-wing extremist groups will march on May Day. It’s an empty, mock-left-authoritarian ritual that does not even mobilise their own constituency.
How much influence does Russia have on Germany’s AfD? And how important is the AfD for Russia? Here are some of my findings from a longer report on Russia and the populist right in Europe
Thanks to the slightly bizarre plot to overthrow the government of Germany, I got an outing on The National, Canada’s main nightly news show. Of course, most of the 20 minutes or so that we talked got edited out, but hey, here (buried in the middle of the clip) are my 15 seconds of Canadian…
Here is a new working paper about the disproportionate success of the AfD and the Left in Germany’s eastern states