The upcoming fight for seats in the European Parliament will show whether authoritarian National-Populists, globally on the upswing, can extend their reign to the heart of the European Union. The 700plus members of the European Parliament (EP) are elected in each of the 28-member countries of the European Union through a system of general proportionality.…

India will soon be heading for its next general elections. Prime Minister Modi was brought into power with the general elections of May 2014. His first term, thus, comes to an end in 2019 and the country, as the world’s largest democracy, will be getting prepared to one more giant election process. Modi’s fate will…

‘Wutbuerger’, like ‘Zeitgeist’ and other Germanic expressions, has become a key word in all European languages: angry citizens, steamrolled by rapid change, often belonging to the working poor in mostly rural areas, easy seducible by political snake oil vendors and their nationalist, anti-immigrant and anti-European rants. The Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) in France are the…

The current headlines from Europe are dominated by Brexit. But that will pass. How Europe will create more security, both at its common border (Schengen) and in its ‘near-abroad’ (Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa) has been, is and will remain one of the EU’s top priorities. To get ‘lost in EU abbreviations’ is happening to…

US-President Trump’s unilateral sanctions on Iran have one useful side-effect: they shake other big players of world politics so much that their national strategies become visible to a wider audience of observers, either by way of being redefined or by way of confirmation. We look at India and China. India, which does so little to…

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas’ call for a new international payment system is but part of Europe coming out on its own. Independent of Trump’s USA. For the large majority of Europeans, the 2nd WW comes out of history books or at most from an octogenarian’s tale in the family. Yet the most relevant consequence…