Germany – Page 3 – Dr Oliver Hartwich

Emmanuel Macron (President of France) and Olaf Scholz (Chancellor of Germany) - photo by NATO, licensed under Creative Commons

Scholz promised stability, but Germany got chaos instead

21/02/2025

Merkel’s 16 years of drift and Scholz’s three years of mismanagement have left Germany’s problems too deep for quick fixes – that is the price for too many years of politics without leadership.

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Inside the dome of the Reichstag in Berlin

Merkel’s legacy still haunts German politics

04/02/2025

Published in Newsroom.co.nz (Wellington), 4 February 2025 If you believe last week’s hysterical headlines from Germany, you might think the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is about to take power in Europe’s largest economy. The reality is more complicated. Last Wednesday, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Friedrich Merz allowed a parliamentary statement on migration controls […]

President Barack Obama talks with German

Angela Merkel’s grim legacy casts long shadow across Europe

10/12/2024

From my native Germany to my adopted home of New Zealand, I have observed a curious phenomenon in modern politics: political leaders who enjoy far greater esteem internationally than they do closer to home.

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Merkel’s 16 years of tactical drift

26/11/2024

Angela Merkel is “fundamentally an optimist”, she tells Der Spiegel magazine in her first major interview since leaving office. One wonders why.

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My strange German addictions

15/11/2024

One really ought to seek professional help for following German politics from Wellington.

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Germany’s traffic light coalition gets stuck on red

12/11/2024

It all began with a selfie. Four beaming politicians captured their own optimism in the late German autumn of 2021. Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck of the Greens, Christian Lindner and Volker Wissing from the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) projected unity and hope for Germany’s first three-party coalition since the 1950s.

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German solution for New Zealand’s local government woes

25/10/2024

Wellington City Council’s recent turmoil highlights a widespread misunderstanding of New Zealand’s local governance. Most Kiwis believe mayors wield significant power over councils. In reality, the mayoral title is largely ceremonial.

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Shades of 1933 in German state elections

03/09/2024

On Sunday, Germany experienced a political earthquake. For the first time since 1933, a far-right party, the Alternative for Germany (AfD), became the largest party in a state election.

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Voter anger threatens to bury Germany’s traditional party-political system

20/08/2024

German state elections rarely warrant a column in New Zealand. But when an election threatens to end Germany’s post-war political order, an exception is justified.

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Dictators conspire: Oil, assassins, exploitation

06/08/2024

Last week’s prisoner exchange between Russia, Belarus and several Western nations offered a stark glimpse into the workings of modern autocracies.

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