debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
As the economic slump across the European Union deepens and social distress grows, a terrible sense of political impotence grips those desperate to see recovery. There is a blunt reality to be faced: if progressives cannot respond to the crisis in the Euro-area with an effective alternative, there is a growing danger not only that the [...]
German economic policy doesn’t exactly have a glowing reputation on the European Centre-Left. Deservedly so. Obsession with micromanaging inflation. Stupid fiscal rules. A belief that everything will be fine as long as everyone runs export surpluses. All these are often portrayed,with some justification, as products with Made in Germany stamped on them. Particularly in recent [...]
Angela Merkel’s European policy has so far not succeeded in solving the Eurozone crisis and has been widely criticised across Europe. If you become the next German Chancellor, what would you change in the German European policy approach? Would you change the current austerity policy that is widely viewed as the main reason for Europe’s [...]
Yesterday saw the first clash in the German parliament between Chancellor Merkel and the newly designated “chancellor candidate” of the SPD, Peer Steinbrück. The occasion was a debate about the euro crisis. The new Merkel was on display. Solidarity was writ large. Greece, so her fervent wish, should stay in the euro area. The currency [...]
In 2009 Jon Cruddas and Andrea Nahles published a short pamphlet, Building the Good Society and with the support of Compass and the Friedrich Ebert Foundation it has been debated across Europe. A study by Goettingen University cites this Good Society debate as the most influential current in European Social Democracy. Three years later we [...]
It is unbelievable that after all these months German policymakers continue to make the same mistakes, over and over. And its media are making things even worse. The economics minister Philip Roesler gave a weekend interview in which he opined that he was sceptical that Greece could meet its reform requirements, that no further money [...]
It’s an awkward question but one that must be raised repeatedly. Does Germany really want the euro to survive? Was the beloved DM sacrificed for unification? The German public—like their counterparts around the world—appear to be unduly influenced by their jingoistic press, one which tends to see Germans as the much-maligned victims of a Eurozone [...]
While everyone looks for signals from the French president François Hollande and from the German chancellor Angela Merkel about how a compromise on the fiscal compact might look like, another important negotiation on the future of Europe is largely ignored: The negotiation between Ms Merkel and the German opposition on the fiscal compact. Little known [...]
The economic and social consequences of lopsided policies focussed on lowering expenditure are fatal. Europe is threatening to fall apart as a result. Instead of the European crisis easing, it has worsened over the past two years and the credit risks which Germany is shouldering have not shrunk, but have grown significantly. The crisis from which [...]
The recent elections in North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW) have produced a great result for the German Social Democratic party (SPD) and a crushing defeat for Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU). After a dozen years, and with a vote share of 39.1%, the SPD has re-emerged as the strongest party in Germany’s most populous state. The CDU, on the other hand, [...]
European Industry in the Global Competition Europe risks falling behind The financial crisis, the sovereign debt crisis, macroeconomic imbalances, and intra-European tensions are leaving their mark. Europe is in danger of falling behind in the global competition. International rivals in Southeast Asia and North America are revealing Europe’s weaknesses. While countries around the world are [...]
The basic demands of the French Revolution – Liberty, Egality and Fraternity – are also the basic values of German Social Democracy: Freedom, Justice and Solidarity. “Freedom” here is not used in the narrower liberal sense of formal freedom under the law or the free-for-all of economic markets, but rather means the concrete legal, social, [...]
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