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Hundreds of Palestinian women held a demonstration in the West Bank on Monday to demand an investigation into the death of a 21-year-old woman who many suspect was the victim of a so-called honor killing. Israa Ghrayeb, a makeup artist from a village …
September 2, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg) — Follow @Brexit, sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, and tell us your Brexit story. The pound fell to the lowest level in three weeks as a showdown between U.K. lawmakers over Brexit loomed large.Sterling was the worst performer among its Gro…
September 2, 2019Read More
It would be entirely unreasonable for British lawmakers to try to bind the hands of Prime Minister Boris Johnson as he seeks a new Brexit deal with the European Union, his spokesman said on Monday. Opposition parties and rebel Conservative lawmakers a…
September 2, 2019Read More
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will call an election for October 14 if MPs vote against his Brexit strategy, a top official said Monday on the eve of a parliamentary showdown. MPs from Johnson’s own Conservative Party are preparing to join oppos…
September 2, 2019Read More
It’s the first day of fall semester in Hong Kong, but many students are not in classes — they’re on strike, calling on Hong Kong’s chief executive to listen to their demands.
September 2, 2019Read More
Iran said Monday its views have been converging with those of France on ways to save a nuclear deal at risk of unravelling since the US withdrew last year. Government spokesman Ali Rabiei also suggested President Hassan Rouhani could meet US counterpa…
September 2, 2019Read More
Appeals judges on Monday ordered the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor to reconsider again her refusal to open a formal investigation into the 2010 storming by Israeli forces of an aid flotilla heading to the Gaza strip. Presiding Judge Solomy…
September 2, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg Opinion) — There are two ways to look at the results of Sunday’s elections in two eastern German states. One is to focus with alarm on the success of the nationalist, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which came second in both Saxony and Brandenburg. The other is to point out that the governing centrist parties came first in both states. I’m with the optimists: The centrists’ victory is both a tactical and a strategic success on which they can build.These ex-Communist states are an important battleground. The Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democrats, the two major parties that have ruled Germany since reunification 29 years ago, have failed to eliminate the east-west prosperity gap. When Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks of the whole country doing well after unification, she strikes only a discordant note with left-behind voters in the east. For them, the AfD’s election slogan, “The East Rises Up,” sounds more relevant.In previous years, the eastern protest vote went to Die Linke, the radical left political force with roots in East Germany’s ruling Socialist Unity party. Now, it has clearly switched to the AfD — but on Sunday the party failed to reach Die Linke’s earlier highs in Brandenburg.In the traditionally more nationalist Saxony, the AfD did better than Die Linke had ever done – in part at the expense of the leftist party. That’s a sign some voters were switching radical flanks simply to express their discontent with the complacency of the establishment.Despite the strong protest vote, now largely consolidated by the AfD, the parties that have governed the two states for almost three decades have eked out narrow wins.For Brandenburg Minister President Dietmar Woidtke, who leads the SPD in the state, this is a major success: The party has been rudderless as a national force for months, bereft of strong leadership and locked into a joyless governing coalition with Merkel’s CDU. Polls indicated he easily could have lost to the AfD. But Woidtke fought the election like a wrestling match, launching an unusual personal attack on the AfD’s lead candidate. That showed the center-left party can still compete if it runs on its strong record in government and doesn’t shy away from fighting rhetoric.CDU Minister President Michael Kretschmer’s relatively narrow victory in Saxony was expected, but it’s a decent result both for him and for the party leader, Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. Had the CDU won less than 30% of the vote, her leadership would have been in question. As it is, she looks to be holding on to the support of the party’s conservative base, which Kretschmer represents, but the CDU is still bleeding support to the AfD and, on its liberal flank, to the Greens. Both Woidtke and Kretschmer will probably have to broaden the governing coalitions in their states, likely adding the Greens, which have never performed well in the east but are riding a nationwide wave of increased support. That, however, isn’t necessarily a reflection of the center’s weakness but rather of German voters’ growing environmental awareness.Strategically, the SPD and CDU victories mean the country’s governing coalition will likely survive. That gives both parties time to rebuild their strength before the 2021 election. In the remaining two years, they will be able to help their cause by showing greater generosity to voters: Almost certainly, there will be more spending and investment to overcome the economic slowdown triggered by President Donald Trump’s trade wars. In the east in particular, tens of billions of euros have been earmarked to aid the transition from coal to greener energy sources.At the same time, both the CDU and the SPD need to do more to win the support of younger voters. Exit polls in Brandenburg and Saxony on Sunday showed that voters over the age of 60 were key to their victories. The AfD’s protest electorate comes from younger age groups, and if the establishment parties fail to woo them more effectively, they will face a greater threat down the road.It’s obvious from the exit polls that continuing problems with the integration of the 1.5 million mostly Muslim immigrants who entered Germany during the refugee crisis of 2015 and 2016 are feeding the AfD’s popularity. Voters consider it more competent than the government parties in immigration policy. Many migrants are still struggling with the German language, and the government has failed to provide them with a clear path to the job market. At the same time, the support they get from the state is unpopular with east Germans, who feel they are getting less attention than the newcomers.The government’s failure to speed up the migrants’ inclusion in society is a long-term drag on the centrist parties’ popularity; the two need to realize that a bigger investment in training, coupled with more political will to expel those who fail to integrate, are important to their political destiny.Both the CDU and the SPD have enough intellectual resources and political savvy to build on their narrow victories, now that it’s clear they can no longer take their place at the top for granted, in the east or elsewhere. The Merkel era has exhausted the center’s capacity for business as usual, and the Brandenburg and Saxony votes are more evidence of that.To contact the author of this story: Leonid Bershidsky at [email protected] contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Evans at [email protected] column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Leonid Bershidsky is Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
September 2, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg) — Follow @Brexit, sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, and tell us your Brexit story. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan to take Britain out of the European Union with or without a deal on Oct. 31 will be tested in a crunch battle in Parliamen…
September 2, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg) — A day after only a narrow victory in state elections, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition realized once again that it needs to do far more to effectively stem the rise of populism in Germany.Yes, the Christian Democrats and their junior…
September 2, 2019Read More
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has warned that politicians face a critical juncture in history as they prepare to consider legislation meant to prevent the country from leaving the European Union without a deal. Blair’s comments come as the …
September 2, 2019Read More
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