Foreign Policy (November 24)
“The pro-business Free Democratic Party is about to wield power in Berlin, thanks to the country’s youngest voters—but doesn’t yet know what it wants.” Whether the voters will ultimately “regret their choice is an open question. All of the party’s appeals to philosophical traditions and grand concepts have left more open questions than concrete approaches to governing,” but skyrocketing COVID-19 cases will increase the urgency to produce “concrete proposals for governance.”
Tags: Berlin, Concepts, Concrete approaches, COVID-19, FDP, Governing, Power, Pro-business, Questions, Regret, Skyrocketing, Traditions, Voters
Chicago Tribune (November 1)
“So the pattern established oceans away now visits America,” specifically New York, where “terror by the ton” disrupted what should have been a delightful Halloween. “We don’t know if this suspect was heeding an Islamic State call to attack trick-or-treaters on Halloween. Or if only his own twisted thinking drove him,” but we have “seen enough of these car and truck attacks—in London, Nice, Stockholm, Berlin—to know they are all but impossible to predict or prevent.”
Tags: Berlin, Halloween, London, New York, Nice, Predict, Prevent, Stockholm, Terror, Truck attacks, Twisted, U.S.
Deutsche Welle (September 25)
“Sunday’s federal election proved quite a storm for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government. Now, a day after these remarkable results, the skies over Berlin’s River Spree are cloudy, drizzly, and unpleasant. The sunny days are over.” The inclement forecast is largely due to the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which proved unexpectedly strong, landing a third place finish. The AfD won 94 of the Bundestag’s 709 seats. Their victory marks the first time for a right-wing party to be represented in the Bundestag since the Nazi defeat in 1945.
Tags: AfD, Berlin, Bundestag, Election, Government, Merkel, Nazis, Results, Right wing, Storm
Financial Times (December 13)
“France is in a similar situation to Italy. Both are attempting structural reform while fighting the threat of recession and asking the EU—which is to say Berlin—for more leeway on fiscal policy.” The reforms will help to remove “the bureaucratic sclerosis that chokes off innovation and growth.”
Tags: Berlin, Bureaucracy, EU, Fiscal policy, France, Growth, Innovation, Italy, Recession, Structural reform, Threat
