21 March 2016 Elections in three of Germany’s 16 federal states on March 13 have given rise to a polarised political scene. In all three electoral campaigns, issues of migration took centre stage, trumping more local and regional themes. The right-wing and anti-Islam Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party made large-scale gains in all states, above…
March 11, 2016 France has asked UK border guards to make weekly tours of the main Calais refugee camp to tell people there that Britain plans to make it much harder for asylum seekers to live or work in the country. The demand is part of a drive by French regional politicians to bring about…
March 11, 2016 What wouldn’t we do to please a future Saudi king? Contrary to the official version, the awarding of the Légion d’Honneur to the Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Nayef was made “at his request,” concerned as he is – as a future king of Saudi Arabia – to “strengthen his international stature”. Therefore,…
05 March 2016 In 2006 and 2007, Wolfgang Schäuble (at the time Minister of the Interior) and then-German President Christian Wulff both asserted that ‘Islam is part of Germany’. These statements led to acrimonious public debates about German national identity and about whether the fact that Muslims lived in Germany also meant that Islam was…
01 March 2016 The Christian Democratic Party in Germany’s northernmost state, Schleswig-Holstein, has petitioned the Social Democrat-led state government to push for the inclusion of more pork dishes in the region’s public canteens. According to the leader of the CDU faction in the state parliament, Daniel Günther, “more and more cafeterias, nurseries and schools are…
