The annual report of “Reporters Without Borders” shows that global press freedom is in decline, even though less journalists were killed in 2019. While Mexico and Syria remain the most deadly countries for journalists (ten murdered journalists in each country) in 2019, China, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are the countries with the highest number of… Continue reading “Personal Public (Death) Threat I: How the German Far Right tries to intimidate and silence journalists”
Unlike yesterday’s fascists, today’s radical right-wing leaders propagate neither territorial expansion nor anything close to the racial laws of the 1930s. Björn Höcke is public enemy number one in present-day Germany. At least that’s what German media suggest. Höcke is a leading exponent of the “völkisch” wing of Alternative for Germany (AfD), the country’s radical right-wing populist… Continue reading “Have We Seen the Eternal Return of Fascism?”
What makes former East Germany a fertile ground for the rise of the far right? In September, citizens of the former East German states of Brandenburg and Saxony headed to the polls to elect their new legislatures. The results were, on the one hand, a breath of fresh air for traditional parties, in particular the Social Democrats… Continue reading “Germany’s East-West Divide Fuels the Far Right”
How is public money disproportionately helping far right parties? The far right is generally more successful today than at any other point in recent history. The chart below shows the average vote-share of far-right parties in 20 ‘advanced democracies’. In the past 70 years, their share of the vote has dramatically increased. Yet even with… Continue reading “Funding the far right”
Since the May 2019 European Parliament election’s ‘Green wave’ in Germany, where the Green party increased its share of the vote by 9.8 to 20.5 per cent and came second after the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, climate-change policy has played a particularly prominent role in public debate. As one of the most outright climate-change… Continue reading “Something new under the sun? The Alternative for Germany’s recent discussion of climate change and homeland protection”
To prevent such developments, mainstream parties need to shape political discourse, instead of being shaped by it. In August 2017, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader Alexander Gauland proposed to ‘dispatch’ the then Federal Commissioner for Immigration, Refugees and Integration, Aydan Özoğuz (SPD), back to Anatolia. Some weeks later, the AfD party entered the German… Continue reading “Merkel’s dilemma: Germany’s polarising ‘Turkish issue’ returns”
Why these European elections were different: three key insights from Germany. After years of disinterest and declining turnouts, last week’s European elections were full of suspense and surprises. In Germany, the elections were an unprecedented triumph for the Greens. More than 20% voted for the party that didn’t even exist when the first EU elections… Continue reading “What Germany’s “Green Wave” Means”