In 2018, following electoral gains made by Democrats during the US midterms, it took commentators a while to figure out whether or not to speak of a ‘blue wave’. In Germany, following the 2019 European Parliament elections, a ‘Green wave’ was, however, quickly identified – unsurprisingly, given that the Green Party increased its share of… Continue reading “Rethinking the ‘Green wave’? Climate change, the European Parliament elections 2019 and the German-speaking radical right”
What’s the importance of radical right leadership? A discussion of Olaf Sundermeyer’s, Gauland. Die Rache des alten Mannes [Gauland – The Revenge of the Old Man], Beck: Munich (2018). Among political analysts, it has for a long time been commonsense to highlight the importance of individual leaders’ public appeal. In an extreme form, the likes of Jörg Haider… Continue reading “Understanding Gauland – how to think about radical right leadership”
The relatively new party known as the Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD) and its relationship to right-wing extremism have been the subject of a great deal of intensive discussion among political and social scientists. While one stream of research focuses primarily on the strategic aspects of the AfD, such as its populist rhetoric… Continue reading “The antisemitic turn of the “Alternative for Germany” party”
The affair might have passed relatively quickly had it not been for the success of the far-right Alternative for Germany party in the 2017 federal election. Germany’s performance in the FIFA World Cup in Russia was nothing short of a disaster. The 2014 champion came in dead last in its group, losing the final match against… Continue reading “What the Özil Affair Tells Us about Contemporary Germany”
In Germany, campaign advertisements for Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a radical right populist party that, among other things, is opposed to migration, included an image of a pregnant women, whose face is not shown apart from her smile. It carried a slogan that translates as ‘New Germans? We’ll make our own.’ Other campaign posters feature… Continue reading “Gender, Identity, and the Radical Right”
In my first post for CARR, I pointed to the ideological character of radical-right views on the (protection of the) natural environment. Indeed, nature protection is in no way a stranger to the radical right, although the particularities and implications of their ecological vision differ in many aspects from mainstream and left-wing outlooks. A crucial… Continue reading “The People’, The Climate and ‘Globalism’: The Radical Right On Climate Change”
The CSU’s position is weak – but unfortunately, not weak enough to not bring down Angela Merkel. Earlier this year, Angela Merkel finally managed to put together a grand coalition between Germany’s traditional mainstream parties: the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU); and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD). It is a coalition already living on borrowed time.… Continue reading “Endgames in Germany: bringing down Merkel”
The results of last year’s federal election were a disappointment for Angela Merkel’s CDU. In the Free State of Saxony, however, it ended in a disaster of historic proportions. This was particularly painful, given Saxony’s importance for the CDU. After all, the CDU had continuously governed the state for the past 27 years. Its first… Continue reading “What’s the Matter with Saxony?”