How could an ‘innocent’ citizens’ initiative for democracy bring about powers of government that would pose any threat to our freedom? To answer this question, we first need to remember that freedom is not only lost to boots and bayonets. We can, actually, vote away our own freedom. By giving up our rights to government, small slices at a time, we can lose control over our lives just as definitively as if it happened through open oppression.

This year, Austria’s embattled government, presently led by Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP), recorded a total of 28,288 asylum application submissions from January to the end of October, well over twice (144%) the number recorded during the same period last year.

The choice of Katalin Novák allows him to highlight the work she has done to promote family values in Hungary. They will remain the priority of Novák’s focus, in contrast to Áder for whom environmental issues were the subject of his attention. The promotion of a woman to the highest office also allows Orbán to respond to accusations that his policies are outdated. 

Placing little faith in verbal assurances, Putin called for legally binding agreements. “We know the price of such verbal assurances, words, and promises,” he asserted.

In it, von der Leyen seeks to ameliorate the EU’s relationship with the Pope after a proposed internal directive for EU officials not to use Christian language was leaked, causing outcry across Europe. The document has since been withdrawn.

The Italian birthrate, which has been well below replacement levels for over four decades, fell to a record low of 1.16 births per woman in 2020 as would-be parents grappled with socially oppressive and economically ruinous COVID-19 lockdowns.

The choice for tougher measures for unvaccinated people a few days before Christmas will have a direct impact on the presidential campaign, as it invites the candidates to take a stand on this particularly divisive issue.

The three parties (SPD, Greens, FDP) that form new Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government have long opposed the current rules, but were hampered by the center-right Union bloc of ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel, which is now in opposition.

It seems that both the architects of the Brave New World and the serfs who live in it actually fear the state of nature found in the Rousseauian paradise. In fact, we have a profound aversion to nature. Rather than acting like animals, we feel a kind of queasiness not only when we witness the more animal-side of human life, but even when we witness animals acting like animals.