Germany recruits foreign nurses, but what future can their children expect? A look at AfD proposals, citizenship law and immigrant family life. Continue reading Germany Needs Indian Nurses. But What Future Can Their Children Expect?
The AfD’s victory in Saxony-Anhalt collides with a hard labour-market fact: the state’s health system depends heavily on foreign doctors and other skilled workers. Continue reading Germany Needs Foreign Doctors. What Happens When the AfD Wins Where They Are Needed Most?
Germany’s intelligence chief says Russia is waging a shadow war below the threshold of conventional conflict. The harder question is where Germany should now draw the line between peace and war. Continue reading Germany Says Russia Is Waging a Shadow War. Where Does Peace End?
Germany calls Russia hostile and remains one of Ukraine’s key European supporters. So why did Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul sit down with Sergei Lavrov? The answer may lie not in rapprochement, but in Berlin’s attempt to rediscover direct diplomacy while the AfD competes to redefine Germany’s relationship with Moscow. Continue reading Germany Asked to Talk to Russia. Is Berlin Quietly Preparing for the Day Europe Has to Deal With Moscow Again?
Europe’s mainstream parties can keep radical-right rivals outside government, but that does not necessarily contain their political influence. Germany’s AfD surge, alongside Austria, France, Italy, Sweden and Hungary, reveals the widening gap between exclusion from office and influence over Europe’s political agenda. Continue reading Europe Built a Firewall Against the Far Right. The Politics Crossed It Anyway
After the AfD won 43.8 percent in Saxony-Anhalt, German civil-society groups began preparing for a different kind of confrontation. Recht Solidarisch is examining how migration law, education rules and constitutional protections could limit government action. Continue reading Germany’s Resistance to the Far Right Is Moving From the Streets to the Law
I watched the numbers from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with an unusual sense of recognition. From Karachi, German state politics can sometimes look remote. Not this time. The Alternative für Deutschland had just finished first in another German state election. According to the preliminary result, it won 38.2 percent of the second votes in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The governing Social Democrats finished close behind at 35.5 percent. Then came the number that caught my attention: 4.9 percent. That was the result for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU. On the preliminary result, the party failed to cross the five-percent threshold and will have no seats … Continue reading Germany Can Still Govern Around the AfD. But the Arithmetic Is Getting Harder
My grandson is learning German in a Munich Kita while Germany argues about who truly belongs. His parents are citizens with established lives, yet AfD rhetoric shows how the integration test can continue even after a family has passed every stated requirement. Continue reading My Grandson Is Learning German in Munich. Why Does the AfD Keep Moving the Integration Test?
Updated September 2026: This article has been substantially revised to reflect the correct April 2026 polling date, Germany’s July 2026 welfare reforms, and the different legal rules governing migrant access to work and social benefits. A number on my screen … Continue reading Work Before Welfare: Germany’s 66% Migrant-Benefits Poll Hides a Much Harder Question
My daughter lives in Munich with her husband and child. They are German citizens, highly educated professionals building an ordinary family life in a country that is now their own. From Karachi, I have never felt a need to put an asterisk beside the word German when I think about them. Then I saw the AfD win nearly 44 percent of the vote in Saxony-Anhalt. My daughter does not depend on a German visa, nor does her family need an employer to preserve its right to remain in the country. She is German, and so are her husband and child. … Continue reading My Daughter Is German. The AfD’s Rise Makes Me Ask What “German” Now Means
