Month: October 2026 (Page 7 of 7)

The articles trace a shift in German political attitudes toward both immigration and the far right. Most striking is the growing regional cooperation between AfD and the CDU, the country’s traditional party of government. The Brandmauer (“firewall”), the principle of non-collaboration with far-right extremism, is breaking down. In efforts to make their views more palatable to a roaring German nationalist sentiment, traditional parties are making pacts with AfD.

“My party doesn’t speak the language of the people on the streets,” says Markus Töns of Gelsenkirchen’s SPD.

Töns criticises a national party out of tune with voter perceptions, but the question remains: should parties align themselves with street-level far-right sensationalism?

Back in 2025, the Courthouse News made a premonitory claim: “People are afraid of a further deepening gap in society due to polarization”.  Trends in voter intent show the divide is now palpable at the state level. The Economist argues AfD’s rise does not necessarily signal a “blue wave” but a “growing apart” of communities. To make the point, it paints a grim picture of Gelsenkirchen as a town stripped to its bare bones; in contrast with richer, graduate-heavy cities like Cologne, Bonn and Münster, the AfD underperformed. Likewise, CNN attributes the party’s strength in Eastern Germany to economic disparity and the carrying of a communist legacy. That explains why Saxony-Anhalt shows 40% voting intention for AfD, but fails to account for growing affinity in Western Germany: in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, the swings were 9% and 11%, respectively.

The Economist also calls out the growing pro-Russia sentiment. Officials in Gelsenkirchen, where AfD has secured one-third of seats, are seeing a push for discourse against Germany’s support for Ukraine. In the east, where the AfD is strongest, CDU politicians have adopted positions “friendlier to the Kremlin than their party leaders in Berlin might like”. In the Ruhr, local SPD campaigns for stricter immigration policy than the national party does.

Importantly, this deepening collaboration entrenches a division of immigrants into wanted and unwanted. The AfD’s election manifesto is explicit about who should be allowed to enter, remain and work— a warm welcome for “European skilled workers” and a points system for non-EU migrants.

The party also advocates a German Germany. Central to its programme is “Leitkultur,” or leading culture: the protection of Germany’s culture and language and their establishment as dominant, so that everyone adopts “the values and morals seen to be inherently ‘German’”. By demanding that immigrants assimilate to this dominant culture, Leitkultur echoes the National Socialist ideal of cultural and racial homogeneity. CNN reads it similarly, noting that remigration carries inherent “Nazi connotations”.

Unsurprisingly, the AfD’s language on reclaiming living spaces for German-born citizens resonates heavily with nationalist sentiment. The AfD’s aim of letting “each German citizen build their own four walls instead of living as renters” and the party’s calls for cutting ties with the EU in pro of a “sovereign Germany” and a “Europe of Fatherlands”.

For Germany, then, it seems that “To Open the Gate” is taking on a new meaning— letting the AfD in. As Anna-Lena Karl, an SPD councillor and interviewed by The Economist, puts it: letting the AfD have such an active role in city structures poses a “normalisation” effect. To answer Töns critique, to align with the AfD is to make a discourse of xenophobia normal.

I found these readings very helpful with further contextualizing the political climate in Germany, as well as evaluating how different types of journalism help portray events differently. For example, the InfoMigrants article presented the information with a more objective angle than the other articles. The writers in this piece were more clear and to the point, formatting the AfD’s policies in bullet points. They didn’t touch as much on the jarring implications that these laws would have, but rather just presented the AfD policies in a digestible way.

However, the other articles have more of an analytic nature to them, adding inputs regarding the implications of the rise of the AfD, specifically calling out the alarming correlations between the AfD and Nazis. I enjoyed the structure and writing style of The Economist’s story, particularly the lede. The details about the past booming industrial town first left me confused as to how this town related to the AfD. However, once the author made the connection, explaining how towns like these have more support for far right politics, it really gave me a better sense of the nuance of the situation. This lede and style of writing was a perfect way for the author to answer the question that many people have about the rise of the AfD – who would vote for such a party?

The answer to this question is what I find the most unsettling out of the situation. This article makes it clear that the AfD is really capitalizing on the worries and frustrations of people, and using this fear to rise to power, as well as using immigrants and refugees as a scapegoat to a plethora of issues in the country. This reality was unsettling to me because with the rise of AI and other technologies, we live in such a rapidly changing world, meaning this uncertainty and shift towards far right policies can happen anywhere at any time.

I also couldn’t help reading this article through a comparative lens of politics in Malta. I had the opportunity to speak with a journalist who emphasized that in Malta, the blaming of immigrants for problems that they are not associated with has caused racism in the country to run rampant. These parallels are a bit disheartening, as it seems as if it is unavoidably human nature to choose a group to blame for one’s own problems disproportionately. We can also see this in history, particularly with the Nazis scapegoating the Jewish community at the dawn of WWII. The parallels between the two situations are stomach churning to say the least.

Additionally, these articles were evidently effective in their objective – letting more people know about the AfD. I of course knew about the AfD before reading these articles from exposure in this class, and some outside conversations. However, I did not fully understand the gravity of the situation, or how alarming it really is until reading this collection of articles. This really underscores the importance of journalism, even with the rise of social media, as these articles convey this information in a captivating and nuanced way that an Instagram post simply cannot achieve.

Russia has changed its attacks on Ukraine from nighttime to round-the-clock bombardment. 

In a September 4 report, the Associated Press revealed Russian drone and missile attacks, which for much of the war came mainly at night, have begun to also occur during the day—disrupting daily life. As Samya Kullab of the Associated Press writes, “[the air raids have] interrupted commutes, shopping trips and children’s school, intruded on life’s biggest moments.”

For Veronika, an alumna of Princeton University from Kyiv, Ukraine who asked to be identified only by her first name because her relatives remain in the capital, her extended family have made leaving attached to a deadline. In the recent weeks, as Russian daytime strikes began, many families around them have also left, according to Veronika.

“They have decided to leave before, but this is the time they sound the most earnest to leave,” Veronika said. When asked where they might go, Veronika said her extended family has not decided. They are considering joining her family in the United States or moving to Spain. They now plan to leave within the month, she said.

About 4.41 million people had returned to their places of residence after being displaced by the war as of December 2025, including about 1.1 million who returned from abroad, according to the International Organization for Migration. The IOM also reported that nearly 4 million people remained internally displaced within Ukraine.

For Ukrainians who have remained in the country through more than four years of war, the attacks come as another winter approaches. “Combined with the cold winter around the corner, it no longer makes sense to stay. Finding basic needs like water will be an issue once more,” Veronika notes.

Ekaterina Pravilova, Professor of History and Director of the Program in Russian, European, and Eurasian Studies at Princeton University whose research focuses on the Russian Empire and its prior satellite states including Ukraine, said the winter is particularly difficult because Russia’s targeted attacks on infrastructure leave residents without electricity and heating.

Pravilova remarks that people she hears from in Kyiv describe repeatedly responding to air-raid alerts, “So it’s like constantly, all day, drones and missile attacks.”

Yet, many Ukrainians have adapted to the conditions, she said, including by buying generators and changing their routines around power outages and air raids. “The resilience of the population is just remarkable,” Pravilova said.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported that 5.9 million Ukrainians were refugees abroad at the end of 2025. UNHCR further emphasized that persistent airstrikes, damaged housing, and attacks on essential infrastructure continue to hinder sustainable returns to Ukraine by refugees.

For Veronika’s relatives, these challenges are weighed against fleeing. “My relatives plan to flee, but it is so hard for them to leave [their country] and their livelihoods, that is why they have stayed so long,” Veronika said.