Germany

In 2023, Germany’s Federal Foreign Office and its Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development published guidelines for a feminist foreign and development policy. Political headwinds, however, are jeopardising the implementation of the concepts.

This explanatory brief places Germany's Strategy on Climate Foreign Policy in its domestic context. As Germany re-calibrates its strategic positioning, the analysis dives into central issue areas to provide insights on German positions and potential opportunities.

Germany’s mainstream political parties and their candidates led a remarkably civilized campaign in the digital age, avoiding U.S.-style political polarization. Even so, hate speech and disinformation on social media played a role in diverting public attention away from policy issues to personal attacks in an election that should been about shaping a path for Germany’s future.

Germany has voted. The SPD, Greens and FDP come out of the elections as the winners, but take a very different view of the results – depending on their expectations and the pressure they feel upon them to act. By and large, the trend towards a party system in which no single party dominates continues. Constituency seats played a very particular role in these elections. This brief analysis provides an overview of the initial results, with a more comprehensive, empirical analysis to follow in the next few days.

Germany has voted. The SPD, Greens and FDP come out of the elections as the winners, but take a very different view of the results – depending on their expectations and the pressure they feel upon them to act. By and large, the trend towards a party system in which no single party dominates continues. Constituency seats played a very particular role in these elections. This brief analysis provides an overview of the initial results, with a more comprehensive, empirical analysis to follow in the next few days.

In the run-up to the German federal election of 26 September 2021 (BTW21), we take a look at the nuts and bolts of the German political and electoral system.

This short sentence is all you need to understand why the German government committed an error of judgment concerning Afghanistan. An error of judgment that kills people every day – and democracy throughout the world as well, by the way.

Since the 2017 federal elections, Alliance 90/The Greens (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) have increased the number of their governmental participations in the Länder on a high level. In Hesse, Bremen, Thuringia and Hamburg they were able to continue four coalitions in identical or slightly adjusted constellations.

Questions of environmental and climate policy remain relevant even during a pandemic, as the protests and debates about the stimulus package to fight the crisis show.  The German states have taken on a deciding roll regarding questions of implementation – which started already during the negotiations for the climate package. The Greens contributed the most to the climate package's increased substance.