100 posts
Eat the poor – Germany’s austerity package
Today the German government passed key measures in its austerity package first announced back in June. The stated aim is to ensure compliance with the bizarre new constitutional clause – the so-called debt-brake – requiring a balanced (st...
The Three I’s-Complex hits Germany
And finally it came to Germany, the all-disrupting debate about the Three I’s-Complex – Immigration, Integration and Islam -, a debate which threatens to turn all established politics, as we know it upside down. Germany has been contaminated...
Merkel eyes an extra decade of nuclear power
Chancellor Angela Merkel has weighed in on Germany's ongoing nuclear energy debate, saying the country needs to run its nuclear energy plants for at least 10 more years to keep energy costs down and ensure demand is met. READ MORE...
Germany Grants 47 Million Euros to Mozambique for Education Sector
The Mozambican and German governments signed in Maputo on Friday an agreement under which the German Development Bank (KFW) will disburse 47 million euros to support the Common Fund which co-finances the implementation of Mozambique's Strategic Plan...
Angela Merkel: The World’s ‘Most Valuable Leader’
Forget Barack Obama. Forget the Hu Jintao/Wen Jiaboa duo, or David Cameron or Vladimir Putin. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel is the world’s most important leader. The latest report showing Germany’s economy growing at a blistering annual ra...
Part of Nazi Camp Majdanek Goes Up in Flames
A wooden barrack at the former German Nazi concentration camp Majdanek in present-day eastern Poland was nearly completely destroyed by fire on Tuesday. The building was full of shoes of the victims of the forced labor camp.
Merkel’s Little Ray of Sunshine
Remember the sunshine option? You might think it was getting some traction. Berthold Huber, the leader of IG Metall, has set some goals ahead of this year’s payround, which opens on the 27th and covers the steel industry. IG Metall is the Germa...
Are the Rand times here?
In 2006, the German architectural practice Gerkan, Marg & Partners (GMP) took a client to court. The client was the German national rail company, Deutsche Bahn. The architects argued that their design for the new central station in Berlin had be...
Germany more Deutschland, less Europe?
Germany is becoming more Deutschland and less Europe again, it seems. Angela Merkel is facing all kinds of criticism in her quest to keep the European family together and solvent. The Chancellor faces a tough agenda: tackle the financial crisis, p...
Europa ist führungslos cries Helmut Schmidt. He’s right. But why?
It seems it’s the season for high level German politicians of yesteryear to have a go at the EU. Former Bundeskanzler Schmidt is quoted by Euractiv.de (Google translation here) as saying: Es ist im Augenblick keine Führungsperson da. Das...
Joschka Fischer, die Krise der EU und das Problem aus Karlsruhe
Interessante Rede von Joschka Fischer zur Lage der EU und der Rolle Deutschlands. Kurz zusammengefasst ist seine These: “Jeder ist sich selbst der Nächste” – vor allem in der Krise und das gilt auch fur Deutschland: Bedauerlicherwe...
"Support Our Troops" - The German Edition
What is common in the United States, is rather rare in Germany: Expressing support of our soldiers in Afghanistan. While most US critics of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan make extra efforts to distinguish between criticism of the strategy/purpose o...
If the Germans spend more, who will benefit, the rest of the Eurozone or China and other WTO economies?
So the savers must become spenders, the spenders savers, the exporters importers and the importers exporters? If the German consumers spend more while the EU is in the WTO, most of the benefit will go to: 1) The Chinese and other non-EU (in WTO) "sup...
National Soccer Teams and Integration: Minorities are Cheered, as Long as They Are Winners
The 2010 German World Cup team was a force to be reckoned with – a physically strong, methodical, and dangerous team whose leading goal scorer, Polish-born Miroslav Klose, fell just one goal short of tying the all-time record of individual Worl...
Wolfgang Schäuble attends French Cabinet
OK, so the cartoon is in pretty bad taste, but it is extraordinary that the German Finance Minister is taking part in a full Cabinet of the French Government, and hasn't happened for a few generations.He is there to demand greater compliance with the...
Trade a key issue in Merkel's visit to Kazakhstan
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has met with President Nursultan Nasarbeyev of Kazakhstan to discuss trade and investment. The visit draws her five-day tour of Asia to a close. READ MORE...
Interview with psychic Paul, the German octopus
A slew of tanned, ageing football commentators aside, he was the only one to correctly predict Spain's glory and Germany's shock defeat at the 2010 world cup. He's also an octopus, hatched in 2008, who lives at the Oberhausen aquarium in a North Rhin...
The logic of Merkelomics
Last year, in defiance of all macroeconomic reasoning, Germany’s ‘grand coalition’ government (CDU/SDP) enshrined a budget balancing law in the Federal Constitution requiring the Federal budget to balance annually from 2016. Angela Merkel, curr...
Germany puts European parliament first
Christian Wulff, Germany’s new federal president, has not been idle. He had barely wiped his feet on the doormat in Schloss Bellevue, his splendid new Berlin residence, before setting off on a foreign trip. While his job is without power, it ca...
Two Gitmo Guys Go to Germany
The German government agreed to resettle a Syrian and a Palestinian Guantanamo detainee. AP quotes a State Department spokesman saying: "We greatly appreciate Germany's decision to resettle these two detainees." I think it is too little too...
Germany!
In the wake of Germany-Argentina, I think it’s fair to say that perhaps a lot of the national soul searching about the England team is wasted. Even this initially attractive analysis. The explanation is very simple: Germany are fantastic, will...
Can This Union Be Saved?
Thomas Geoghegan, a labor lawyer in Chicago, observed this today in the New York Times: Ireland was poor and helpless until the European Union came along like a fairy godmother. The E.U., really Germany, took compassion. It gave Ireland a home in th...
Angie takes a licking, but will she keep on ticking?
Angela Merkel may be riding high on the world stage, but at home in Germany she is in trouble. Deep trouble. Already heavily battered by her decision to provide money to Greece to prevent the euro collapsing, her current efforts to make drastic auste...
German presidential election goes into third and final round of voting
The second vote for Germany's next president has again been indecisive. The coalition government's candidate has twice failed to secure an absolute majority. In the third round, a simple majority will suffice. READ MORE...
Germany admits it needs to boost domestic demand
Phillip Souta “Most of my British friends drive German cars. Stop buying them, I tell them – you’re contributing to economic imbalances in the eurozone!” Dr. Markus Kerber, the Director General of Fiscal Policy and Macroecon...
For how long can Merkel hang on?
A political crisis has been brewing in Europe's largest and possibly most important country. The governing Christian Democrat - Free Democrat coalition of Germany still has a good four years left on its term and yet things appear to be falling apart...
Merkel: A wounded leader
In the end Angela Merkel's candidate won: Christian Wulff, a party insider from the centre-right, is the new German president. But he only got it on the third and final round. It is rare in Germany's post-war history that...
Merkel dented by presidential vote
Round 2 After a second round of voting Germany still does not have a president. It is a further wound to the reputation of the Angela Merkel, the German chancellor. Her candidate Christian Wulff gained an extra 15 votes, but...
The world cup and the war
I was in rural England this past weekend, on a little road trip through the Cotswolds, and it was definitely an interesting time to be there. The Germany-UK world cup match that took place Sunday afternoon literally dominated the media the entire wee...
What's Worse? Debt or Frugality?
"Bashing Germany is the new favorite sport for policy makers and economists who want a more balanced world economy," writes The Wall Street Journal and points out: "That Germany's economy is unbalanced is clear. Household incomes and c...
Berlin plays party political games in German presidential election
Germany's presidential election has long looked like a done deal. But the opposition has found a candidate who could manage to upset the traditional structures - and cause trouble for the government in Berlin. READ MORE...
Sergey Boyarkin: Rosenergoatom can Negotiate Freely
North Germany Experiences Energy Deficit that is Still Covered by the Energy Imported from Poland. READ MORE...
When love turns to contempt
As Malcolm Gladwell pointed out, when opinion changes it changes fast. And when it comes to the EU it apperas that the Germans have indeed tipped.AFP are reporting that an Ipsos poll released this morning has some very scary reading if you are either...
Germany’s Europe Deficit
Germany used to be at the heart of European integration. Its statesmen used to assert that Germany had no independent foreign policy, only a European policy. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, its leaders realized that German reunification was possib...
German Bundestag Meets Innovation
Politicians love to preach on 'innovation'. Europe shall become the most innovative region on earth, and, of course, Germany requests to have a full share of the fruits of her orientation towards technological progress.The lower chamber of the German...
There is something splendidly 18th Century about this
Rhineland-Palatinate Minister President forecasts rise in German investments in BulgariaThough I suspect he is just being nice. I cannot imagine that there will be too much of this going on in the near future. It appears it is not just the UK that se...
Keeping the dream alive
One of the more interesting aspects of EU politics at the moment is the crumbling Franco-German axis. The frictions between Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel – which are well documented by now - defined today’s EU summit in many ways .As we outli...
That you win your battles abroad, but for what purpose?
Angela Merkle must be feeling pretty despondent. Though it seems that she is winning the battle in the EUI, outflanking the French and surely demolishing the position of Hague and cameron, this will seem thin gruel if the latest polls back home are a...
FT video: Tensions between France and Germany
As the EU prepares for its summit at the end of the week, the FT’s senior foreign affairs columnist Gideon Rachman chairs a debate with Mats Persson of Open Europe and Charles Grant of the Centre for European Economic Reform. They discuss t...
Germany's dangerous code of silence
Last week the president of Germany quit his job. Just like that. "I declare my resignation from the office of president," said Horst Koehler, "with immediate effect." And he walked away. READ MORE...
Interview: German ties with Russia on the upswing as Medvedev visits
Deutsche Welle spoke with Alexander Rahr, a Russia expert at the German Council on Foreign Relations, about the state of Russo-German relations. READ MORE...
Who lost Europe?
Financial meltdown has been averted in Europe – for now. But the future of the European Union and the fate of the eurozone still hang in the balance. If Europe doesn’t find a way to reactivate the continent’s economy soon, it will be doomed to...
EU: Stability programme Germany
For some background remarks on economic policy coordination, you can read the blog post EU: Useful stability and convergence programmes? (3 June 2010). The EU Council opinion about the stability programme of Germany has been published in the Official...
