A non-partisan research post - London
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No German military, NATO troops on Ukrainian soil, says chancellor
The poster's desperation is tangible.
However what is today is no guarantee of tomorrow.
An unforeseen change of wind and the desperate reinforcements echoes of Neville Chamberlain 'peace in our time' is assigned to history; a reality of yesterdays papers.
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Snapshot -
One tractor parked near the Victory Column had a portable toilet strapped to its rear, with a placard stating: “Foreign policy is shit. Asylum policy is shit. Environmental policy is shit. Health policy is shit.”
Under Merkel, with the U.S. guaranteeing Germany’s defense, the country managed to remain secure without being called upon to sacrifice. Cheap energy from Russia and unencumbered global trade helped keep German industry competitive; and despite the birth of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in 2013 — then as an anti-euro party — the notion it could grow so popular as to challenge for power seemed far-fetched.
Germans are now experiencing a rude awakening.
The country’s leaders fear a second Trump term could leave Europe without American protection and leave Germany as Ukraine’s biggest military backer.
Germany’s export-oriented economy, battered by high energy prices since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and myriad global trade disruptions, was the world’s worst-performing major economy last year, and with no rebound in sight looks destined for its first two-year recession since the early 2000s.
Two middle-aged men stood among the tractors and trucks, warming their hands over a fire pit they’d built on the side of the road. It wasn’t their first protest against the government, they said: They’d been to protests against Covid measures and against arms deliveries to Ukraine. Tax hikes on farmers and truckers, they said, were just the latest affront.
“The coalition government must go,” added one of the men, Martin Zühlke, who said he heads an association of biogas plant owners from the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. “When we look at the government’s policies, we see a lot of arrogance, ignorance and stupidity packed with ideology and still more stupidity.”
His companion, Thomas Strahl, who said he worked in a municipal office, delivered a far more extreme assessment — and one that went well beyond diesel — saying he’d been disturbed by the government’s arms shipments to Ukraine and by what he called its “Russophobia.”
Germany’s rude political awakening
Germany’s rude political awakening
The country’s domestic politics are becoming dysfunctional just when Berlin’s leadership on the world stage may be needed most.
Germany went from envy of the world to the worst-performing major developed economy. What happened?
How Germany lost its reputation as the economic envy of the world
The loss of cheap gas from Russia played a part, but decisions in the boom years are now being questioned.
www.euronews.com
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