Expanding the Legacy
Tag: Germany
13 Posts
Germany’s Smoke and Mirrors on Immigration
To placate its critics, the German government has temporarily reasserted control over the country’s borders. The measure is meant to stem the flow of immigrants entering the country to submit unfounded asylum claims. As of tomorrow, checks will take place on incoming traffic by roving border patrols.
Far Left and Far Right Seduce East German Voters
Political life in Germany was thrown into disarray after the ruling coalition of Chancellor Olaf Scholz was dealt a crushing defeat by voters in Thuringia and Saxony. In the former, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) cruised to victory and in the latter it’s down to a toss-up between the nationalist party and the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Officially designated an extremist party, the AfD will find it difficult to monetise its stunning victory. Securing 32.8%of the vote in Thuringia, the party needs a coalition party to in order to form a government. However, no other party is willing to engage or cooperate with the AfD. Local observers point out that, based on yesterday’s vote, assembling a majority in the state legislature seems impossible without breaching the cordon sanitaire that seeks to deny the AfD a path to power.
Germany Prefers Coal over Nuclear
At about the same time Germany shuttered its last three nuclear power plants, five lignite-burning ones were recommissioned. In another disconcerting sign of times past, earlier this year in North-Rhine Westphalia, energy producer RWE Power began dismantling a wind farm to make way for the expansion of an open-pit lignite...
After Fiscal Prudence, A Reckoning
In Germany, trains no longer run on time. This is a big issue for a country that derives its national identity from punctuality, order, and ‘Gründlichkeit’ – a thoroughness usually applied in a ruthless fashion. The neighbouring Swiss now refuse to grant late-running German trains access to their network for...
The Taciturn German to Watch
Germany and the Germans struggle to get comfortable donning the mantle of leadership circumstance has thrust upon the country. The nation and its leaders are visibly shocked by the rapid demise of the old world order and the unfolding ‘Zeitenwende’: the epochal tectonic shift that began with a global geopolitical rebasing and reached a disconcerting apex with Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
President Putin Turns the Screw
This is perhaps not the time to tell the Germans ‘told you so’ as the nation deals with the fallout of the now disproved premises of its unfortunate energy policy. Not only has Germany’s dependency on Russian natural gas turned out to be a geopolitical miscalculation of almost epic proportions, its much touted and hastily executed ‘Energiewende’ compounds the present-day challenges to the point of intractability.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz Courted
In a diplomatic tour de force, the US government managed to impress on its partners and allies in NATO and the European Union the clear and present danger of a Russian spring offensive against Ukraine. All duly expressed grave concern regarding the recent deployment of Russian troops and hardware in...
Pragmatic, Experienced, and Slightly Awkward
Credited with reviving the politically moribund SPD (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands), and boasting a CV brimming with public administration experience, Olaf Scholz was, until quite recently, considered somewhat of an oddball by the social democrat rank and file for his robot-like body language and speech. It earned him the nickname ‘scholz-o-mat’....
Lessons on Longevity from Iron Mum
Almost two months to the day after the September 26 federal election Germany, a three-party coalition was unveiled, tasked with ushering in the post-Merkel era with social democrat Olaf Scholz (63) at the helm as chancellor. With the SPD (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands) at its core, the coalition rests on a...
Mercedes-AMG: The Need for Speed
Visions of the autobahn – the surrounding countryside reduced to a fast forward flash, propelled along by the drone-like beat of Kraftwerk (‘Weiser Streifen, Grüner Rand’) – whilst marvelling at the absence of speed limits. Germany, land of free drivers and petrolheads on steroids, is of course also home to...
