European voters keep turning out, but old party loyalties are weakening. Germany’s election and OECD trust evidence reveal the gap between being heard and being represented. Continue reading Europe Still Holds Elections. Why Do So Many Voters Feel Nobody Is Listening?
A joint AfD–BSW Ukraine vote in Saxony-Anhalt tests Germany’s political firewall. How can the AfD gain parliamentary influence without governing? Continue reading Germany’s Political Firewall Faces a New Test: How the AfD Can Gain Influence Without Governing
Germany’s economy is recovering, but confidence in Friedrich Merz’s government remains exceptionally low. New polling shows why voters consider the reforms unfair and how the AfD benefits. Continue reading Germany’s Reform Crisis: Why Merz Is Losing Voters to the AfD
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
The author reflects on the lessons learned from Pakistan’s political history regarding the credibility of intelligence claims. Drawing parallels with Germany’s accusations against Russia, the piece emphasizes the necessity for independent scrutiny of intelligence evidence to maintain public trust. Blind faith in secretive institutions can be dangerous and misleading. Continue reading Germany Says “Trust Our Intelligence.” Pakistan Taught Me to Ask for Evidence
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
From Karachi, I have grown used to seeing Germany’s political map divided by a border that officially disappeared in 1990. Election night brings it back. Television maps turn parts of the former East blue for the Alternative für Deutschland, while much of the old West looks different enough to sustain a comforting explanation: AfD belongs mainly to Germany’s unfinished reunification story. Then I looked again at Baden-Württemberg. The AfD received 18.8 percent there in March 2026, almost double its 9.7 percent result five years earlier, and it captured the Mannheim I constituency. It did not win the state, but a … Continue reading Germany Thought the AfD Was an Eastern Problem. Then the West Started Moving
In Berlin’s political corridors, a controversial relic of the 1990s is making a comeback. The CDU/CSU coalition, led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz, is floating a proposal to reinstate the “Karenztag”—effectively making the first day of sick leave unpaid for employees. … Continue reading The “Unpaid Monday” Debate: Is Germany Cutting Your Sick Pay?
