In front of many incredulous eyes across the world, the Russian president Vladimir Putin has deployed a full attack on Ukraine. The attack is in line with his long-maturated plan to build a Eurasian sphere of influence. According to his narrative, which takes its roots in the experience and the legends of the Russian empire, […]
Olaf Scholz
Defence was not at the centre of the new German government’s progressive agenda. Yet, with the onset of the NATO-Russia crisis, Berlin has learned that capabilities matter. By evaluating and democratically controlling the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) operations and making feminism its leitmotif, the traffic light coalition can change EU defence policy for […]
Four years have passed already since an informal gathering of European leaders in the Swedish city of Gothenburg proclaimed the “European Pillar of Social Rights”. Some, including leaders of the host country of the 2017 conference, still believe that the EU itself does not need to do much for its actual implementation. The notion that […]
The issue of foreign policy was virtually absent from the German election campaign. Once again, one might say. In the 2017 election campaign and in the light of the refugee crisis, domestic politics already played a much bigger role in politics and the media. Topics such as security policy or Europe only appeared in the […]
After a decade and a half in the political wilderness, German Social Democrats (the SPD) made a dramatic comeback in Sunday’s election and have the opportunity to define Social Democracy for the 21st century. Now the largest party in the Bundestag, they are strongly favoured by voters to form the next government. Their resurgence is […]
Germany has voted. The winners are the Social Democrats. The Christian Democrats fell to a historic low, the Greens gained fewer voters than expected, the FDP was slightly strengthened, the AfD remained relatively stable with slight losses and the left, die Linke, was halved. After the too long 16 years in government, Angela Merkel, the […]