Rather than lifting us out of our current political trench warfare, the dispute over a reference to God in the Saarland constitutional preamble merely illuminates it.
Saxony-Anhalt’s AfD seeks healthy national pride through patriotic cultural policy. The establishment calls it fascism.
In a democracy, citizens must have the right to express their frustration with those who govern them.
The effort to ‘AfD-proof’ Saxony-Anhalt is only the latest in a series of measures taken over recent months and years to weaken and marginalise the populists.
It is a telling sign of our times that a movement claiming to oppose racism relies so heavily on censorship.
Because it is the religious Right that has been the most unapologetic defender of classical Christian values, church leaders now find it difficult to articulate those values at all.
The party that was once—for better or worse—seen as a vehicle for popular representation has become an obstacle to democratic change.
The last thing Berlin needs is a day against Islamophobia—what it does need is better politicians.
Over decades, Germany’s political elites have systematically undermined the very values that might inspire citizens to feel a stake in their country’s defence.
Much of the sense of European superiority towards America has long rested on an elitist belief that America is dominated by the wrong kind of voters.
The two parties once regarded as the main rivals openly admitting they are bound to disappoint even their remaining supporters was, perhaps, the conference’s one honest moment.
The hollow claim that a quota would enhance democratic representation is glaring in light of the systematic exclusion of the right-populist AfD.
