̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Katharina Karcher

Opinion: Angela Merkel to run again: why she's the antithesis of Donald Trump in a post-truth world

ljm67 — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 10:33:56 +0000

Angela Merkel has finally confirmed that she will run for reappointment as German chancellor in the country’s 2017 parliamentary elections. Many have hoped for this moment, despite the setbacks of the past few years. There is a strong sense that the world needs Merkel now more than ever. She has made some unpopular decisions in her 11 years as chancellor but she is, to many, the antithesis of Donald Trump.

Tough times

Chancellorship has been no walk in the park for Merkel of late. In 2015, she upset many supporters of her party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), by opening German borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees. To curb the influx, Merkel had to commit to a dirty deal with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, offering generous EU visa terms for his citizens in exchange for stopping millions of refugees from entering Europe.

̽��ֱ��pressure intensified in 2016, when a spate of sexual assaults, apparently committed by migrants, stirred up a significant backlash against the new arrivals.

Merkel’s CDU went on to suffer bitter setbacks in federal elections. And an Islamic State-inspired axe attack by a young man from Afghanistan in Bavaria in July 2016 was seen as evidence that Merkel’s open door refugee policy had failed.

In September 2016, Merkel’s popularity reached a five-year low. No more than 45% of German people were satisfied with her performance. During a public speech on German Unity Day in Dresden, angry protesters drew on Nazi language and called Merkel a “traitor of the people” and demanded her resignation.

On the international stage, the Brexit vote was a huge blow to Merkel and her pro-European course. She now needs to negotiate an exit for Britain without also triggering the demise of the entire EU project.

And as if all of this wasn’t enough, Merkel will have to deal with Donald Trump as president of the United States. After Trump’s election victory, Merkel gave a remarkable speech, offering him close collaboration on the basis that the new American president would respect freedom, democracy and the dignity and worth of all people.

While most other world leaders gave bland statements of half-hearted hope that the president-elect would not see through on his more controversial promises, the German leader was sending a strong signal – and even a challenge.

After the open sexism and racism that characterised Trump’s campaign, it looks like close collaboration is an extremely unlikely scenario. Merkel was effectively saying that standing up to such prejudice was more important to her than relations with the US – although whether she remains true to her principles should she be re-elected is another question.

A sense of responsibility

Given the overwhelming number of problems facing whoever wins in 2017, the easiest decision would have been to let someone else do the job of chancellor. But Merkel isn’t one for easy solutions.

There was little enthusiasm or excitement in her voice as she announced her candidacy, and she openly admitted that standing had been a difficult decision. Although Merkel didn’t mention any names, it was obvious that she wanted to send a message to Trump and right-wing populists in Europe. She emphasised that political decisions need to be based on the fundamental values of freedom, democracy, respect for the law, and the dignity of every human being.

Merkel responds to Trump’s victory.

Following her announcement, Merkel appeared on a talk show and left no doubt that she expected difficult times and an “exhausting and challenging” election campaign. Yet, she added that she felt confident that she could defend these values that hold our society together.

Merkel openly challenges Trump because there is a lot more at stake than Anglo-German relations. Fears grow that in 2017 the right-wing populist Marine Le Pen could become the next French president, and that Europe’s far right will grow further. Against this background, Merkel sees an urgent need to oppose the populism, racism and gender ideology of the extreme right, and this feeling is shared by many Germans.

Can she win?

Merkel’s statement was a manifestation of everything that people love and hate about her. She carefully assesses situations before taking decisions, she is stubbornly committed to Christian values and the European project, she seeks consensus rather than victory, and she displays a striking lack of charisma.

̽��ֱ��New York Times has called Merkel “the liberal west’s last defender” and while she is too smart to get excited about such headlines, she knows that her approach and personality traits have become a rare commodity in the post-truth era of global politics.

Merkel has described herself as a “chancellor for turbulent times” and there is good reason to believe that she could act as an important counterbalance to the charismatic, impulsive, erratic, and polemical President Trump.

Recent polls suggest Merkel’s popularity scores are slowly recovering. Although it is to be expected that some CDU voters will switch to vote for the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AFD), she has a good chance of re-election. She may not win an outright majority, but her party would be able to form a coalition with various other parties, which would leave the CDU in a strong position to push through their candidate for the chancellorship.

Katharina Karcher, Sutasoma Research Fellow at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

This article was originally published on ̽��ֱ��Conversation. Read the original article.

In this article, Katharina Karcher from the Department of German and Dutch discusses the election prospects of the self-described “chancellor for turbulent times”.

European People's Party

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Opinion: German election: is this really a verdict on Merkel’s open door to refugees?

Anonymous — Tue, 15 Mar 2016 11:26:49 +0000

Three German federal states have elected new parliaments in regional votes that have seen major gains made by Alternative for Germany (AfD), a right-wing populist party that wants drastically to reduce immigration to Germany. State parliaments in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt have been reshuffled, although the AfD didn’t actually come first in any of the votes.

These elections were being framed as a verdict on Merkel’s “open-door” refugee policy. Critics of her pro-refugee stance have been eager to observe that it has isolated her in her own party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and alienated many voters. Now, they say, the electorate has punished the whole party for Merkel’s single-handed attempt to help refugees.

At first glance, it seems they were right. ̽��ֱ��CDU has lost votes in all three federal states, and more than a few former CDU voters have switched to supporting the AfD.

̽��ֱ��anti-Merkel, anti-establishment, anti-immigration rhetoric appealed particularly to voters in Saxony-Anhalt, where the AfD became the second-strongest party. It also secured good results in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, winning more than 10% of the vote.

But to suggest that Merkel’s refugee policy sent voters “flocking to the populist party” is wrong, even dangerous.

AfD voters are, for the most part, not frustrated CDU voters but people who are so frustrated by party politics that they have haven’t voted at all in past elections. Their discontent with the existing political system is not limited to Merkel’s immigration policy, even if it has become particularly visible. Many people feel that their voices and concerns are ignored by the CDU and other established parties.

Although the refugee crisis has been an important election issue, we shouldn’t fall into the rhetoric of right-wing populists and claim that it is solely responsible for the legitimacy crisis of representational politics in Germany. Rather than addressing the root causes of Germany’s social and economic problems, they blame migrants for everything that is going wrong.

In fact, a closer look at these election results shows that the people who won are, by and large, the people who support Merkel’s refugee policy.

Reading the results

Baden-Wuerttemberg is considered one of Europe’s economic powerhouses, and has the lowest unemployment rate in the German republic. For almost 60 years, it was governed by conservatives. That changed with the elections in 2011 when the Green Party’s Winfried Kretschmann became Prime Minister of the state. Kretschmann is an explicit supporter of Angela Merkel’s refugee policy. He has been re-elected in 2016, achieving an even better result for his party than in 2011.

Neighbouring state Rhineland-Palatinate has been governed by a red-green coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and Greens since 2011. This has long been an SPD stronghold, and the party again won this election – albeit narrowly. Prime Minister Malu Dreyer was re-elected in spite of (or perhaps because of) her pro-refugee stance.

Dreyer’s rival, the conservative Julia Klöckner is one of several prominent politicians in the CDU who have openly criticised Angela Merkel’s “welcome policy” – a strategy which didn’t pay off in these elections.

Saxony-Anhalt is a bit different. It struggles economically and the unemployment rate is almost three times higher than in Baden-Wuerttemberg.

CDU Prime Minister Reiner Haselhoff has been in office since 2011, and will remain there if he can build a majority government (although this might be difficult because he refuses to collaborate with the AfD, which is now the second strongest party in parliament).

Like Klöckner, Haselhoff is critical of Angela Merkel’s immigration policy. However, he also distances himself decisively from the right-wing populism. He has warned that there has been a shift to the right across Europe, and emphasised that the threat of right-wing populists needs to be tackled at all levels of society.

Why so popular?

Due to the strong focus on the refugee question, a number of central problems have been neglected by the mainstream parties in the run up to this year’s elections. They haven’t focused on the growing gap between the rich and the poor in Germany and across the world, economic and political insecurities within and beyond the European Union, and the fact that many people feel alienated from the people supposedly elected to represent them.

There is good reason to believe that all of these factors have contributed to the rise of the AfD, and the ways in which other politicians respond to them could decide the future of the AfD and other right-wing populist parties.

Even if it seems that migrants have become a scapegoat for everything that is going wrong in German politics, nobody can seriously claim that a clampdown on immigration would solve all of Germany’s social, political, and economic problems.

Many of Merkel’s party colleagues disagree with her pro-refugee stance, and have distanced themselves from the Chancellor. But even if she were overthrown as CDU leader, her replacement would have a hard job persuading voters that established parties can meet the challenges of our times – regardless of where they stand on immigration. From austerity to the eurozone crisis, to the global financial meltdown, migration is not the only thing voters think about when they head to the polls.

Katharina Karcher, Affiliated Lecturer in German Studies, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

This article was originally published on ̽��ֱ��Conversation. Read the original article.

̽��ֱ��opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual author(s) and do not represent the views of the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge.

̽��ֱ��author will be giving a talk at this year's Hay Festival http://www.cam.ac.uk/public-engagement/hay-festival-2016

Katharina Karcher (Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages) discusses Germany's regional elections, which saw major gains made by the right-wing populist party.

Thomas Dämmrich

Merkel took a hit at the polls but so have most other European leaders.

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Politics debates at the heart of the Cambridge Festival of Ideas

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Sep 2015 10:49:58 +0000

Speakers include the writer Bidisha, Alan Sked, founder and now fiercest critic of UKIP, journalist Peter Hitchens, Professor David Runciman, Professor Paul Cartledge, John Macnicol, one of Europe’s leading academic analysts of old age and ageing, and Russian historian Professor Dominic Lieven.

Bidisha and award-winning journalist Emily Dugan will be in conversation about their new books which focus on the experiences of immigrants and refugees in the UK. Bidisha’s book, Asylum and Exile: the Hidden Voices of London, is the result of a writing residency with refugees and asylum seekers in London. Through their own words and writing, it tells the stories of people who have fled war, violent persecution, poverty or civil unrest in a range of countries, from Syria to the Congo and their experiences in the UK. It shows that though many used to be accountants, teachers, criminologists and composers in their own countries, they are often forced to work illegally in the UK in underpaid, unstable jobs, surviving on a few pounds a day.

Emily Dugan’s book, Finding Home: Real Stories of Migrant Britain, is described as “an honest, unflinching portrait of ordinary people, all immigrants to the United Kingdom, struggling with extraordinary obstacles to find somewhere called home”.

̽��ֱ��Festival will also feature a debate on the rise of the extreme right in Europe. A screening of Andres Veiel’s award-winning film Der Kick [ ̽��ֱ��Kick, 2006] on the murder of a teenager by three neo-Nazi teenagers in East Germany will be followed by a panel discussion on the rise of right-wing violence in Europe. Taking part are Dr Emmanuel Karagiannis, Senior Lecturer of the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London, who specialises in the area of radicalisation and terrorism in Europe and ethnic conflicts in the Caucasus and Central Asia; and from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Dr Helen Roche, who specialises in Germany history and Dr Katharina Karcher, whose research interests include protest movements in the former West Germany, political violence and European women’s movements.

Also on the theme of immigration and the future of Europe is the debate Can Europe Keep the Peace? ̽��ֱ��speakers will be Alan Sked, MEP Mary Honeyball, historian Professor Robert Tombs and Montserrat Guibernau, Professor of Politics at Queen Mary ̽��ֱ�� of London and author of the forthcoming book 'Solidarity and Division in the EU'. In another event on Europe, leading commentator Paul Wallace will analyse why the Euro went wrong and if reforms have been sufficient to make it perform better in the future.

Other politics events at the Festival include:

John Macnicol on the effects of neoliberalism on old age and retirement.

A special Festival edition of the respected politics podcast, Election Live! led by Professor David Runciman. It will cover the new Labour leadership, Europe and other issues of the day, reflecting on how much has changed since June and how quickly, and looking at the US elections and what the parallels might be between maverick candidates there and here. ̽��ֱ��podcast will also be taking predictions on the US elections from the panel and the audience.

Can Writers and Artists Ever Be Terrorists? - debate with Professor Anthony Glees, Turkish artist and anti-censorship campaigner Pelin Basaran, Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of Index on Censorship, and Dr Sara Silvestri who specialises in radicalisation.

Professor Dominic Lieven will be discussing his new book, Towards the Flame: Empire, War and the End of Tsarist Russia, which deals with Russia’s disastrous involvement in the First World War and the implications for Europe today.

War, Censorship and Propaganda - a debate with Professor Christopher Andrew, Official Historian of MI5, Professor David Welch, director of the Centre for the Study of Propaganda and War at the ̽��ֱ�� of Kent, Dr Peter Busch from King’s College London on the use of social media for propaganda purposes, and Caroline Wyatt, former defence correspondent at the BBC.

̽��ֱ��Lords Spiritual: Power and Resistance? - a discussion of the role of bishops in the House of Lords with the Rt Reverend Stephen Conway, Bishop of Ely.

Flamenco and the Politics of Resistance: Flashmobs and Immigration in Spain - Matthew Machin-Autenrieth will explore how flamenco has been used as a catalyst for social change, including in 'flash mobs' where dancers and singers have engaged in acts of spontaneous performance in banks and political institutions as a form of anti-capitalist protest and to celebrate issues surrounding immigration and racism.

Greek democracy: ancient and modern – Paul Cartledge, Professor of Ancient Greek History, and political journalist Maria Margaronis will discuss ancient and modern conceptions of democracy and the myths surrounding them both.
People’s power: democracy on three continents and an island - Four drastically different places and four distinct points of view will bring to the table the force of broad cross-cultural comparison to bear on the most urgent problems which haunt democracies around the globe and at home.

Established in 2008, Cambridge Festival of Ideas aims to fuel the public’s interest in arts, humanities and social sciences. ̽��ֱ��events, ranging from talks, debates and film screenings to exhibitions and comedy nights, are held in lecture halls, theatres, museums and galleries around Cambridge. Most of the over 250 events are free.

Speakers include some of the world’s leading thinkers in their fields, including the astronomer Lord Martin Rees, John Macnicol, one of Europe’s leading academic analysts of old age and ageing, philosopher Professor Rae Langton, Professor Christopher Andrew, the Official Historian of Mi5, Russian historian Professor Dominic Lieven and Classics Professor Paul Cartledge. Also speaking are writer and journalist Peter Hitchens, BBC religious affairs correspondent Caroline Wyatt, Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of Index on Censorship, and Professor Alan Sked, founder and former member of UKIP.

̽��ֱ��Festival sponsors and partners are Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� Press, St John’s College, Anglia Ruskin ̽��ֱ��, RAND Europe, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Cambridge Live, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge Museums and Botanic Garden, Arts Council England, Cambridge Junction, British Science Association, Heritage Lottery Fund, Heffers, WOW Festival, Southbank Centre, Collusion, TTP Group, Goethe Institut, Index on Censorship and BBC Cambridgeshire.

Political issues ranging from the future of Europe, the US elections, immigration and how to deal with Islamic extremists will be at the heart of this year’s Cambridge Festival of Ideas which runs from 19th October to 1st November.

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