Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday rebuffed comments by her interior minister claiming Islam did not belong to Germany, saying the religion of four million of its citizens was part of the country just like Christianity and Judaism. Speaking at a joint news conference with Swedish Premier Stefan Lofven in Berlin, Merkel underlined the significance of…
A rise in right wing nationalism across the European Union has resulted in increased hardship for many Syrian refugees. Seven years after fleeing war in Syria many struggle to build their lives in a hostile anti-Muslim environment. March 15 marks seven years since the beginning of the Syrian war. Few words can convey the atrocities…
Far-right AfD is winning working-class votes and SPD is becoming less relevant among young and middle-class voters. Andrea Nahles (L) and Olaf Scholz of Social Democratic party (SPD) give a press statement in Berlin. Photograph: Hannibal Hanschke/Reuters When Dietmar Nietan, treasurer of the German Social Democrats, takes the stage at the party’s Berlin headquarters at…
GERMANY’S anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) has overtaken the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) for the first time in a national poll to become the second-strongest party, an Insa survey. Chancellor Angela Merkel‘s Christian Democrats (CDU) gained 2.5 percentage points to reach 32 percent and the AfD was up one percentage point to 16 percent, the weekly…
BERLIN (Reuters) – Angela Merkel is heading into her final term as German chancellor, a close ally conceded on Monday, intensifying the jockeying over the succession to Europe’s most powerful leader.Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader and German Chancellor Angela Merkel gives a statement together with Christian Social Union (CSU) leader Horst Seehofer and Social Democratic…
BERLIN: Coalition talks between Germany’s centre-left and conservative parties were still going on Wednesday morning, as Chancellor Angela Merkel negotiated through the night to break four months of paralysis in Berlin. Merkel and Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Martin Schulz sat down Tuesday morning for what was supposed to be the final day of haggling…
All European cities somehow look familiar and identical to me. Berlin is no exception. Like any other great old European metropolis, the German capital is a heady blend of the old and new, with tradition and modernity living in harmony with each other. It is incredibly instructive and fascinating to see the lengths to which…
German Chancellor Angela Merkel casts her vote in the family reunification motion | Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images Vote marks progress on particularly contentious issue in ongoing German coalition talks. BERLIN — The German Bundestag voted Thursday in favor of a family reunification deal for war refugees that entails accepting 1,000 family members of refugees…
BERLIN (Reuters) – German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the Social Democrats (SPD) are close to overcoming a major stumbling block in their talks to form a new coalition government, a senior SPD negotiator said on Monday. The parties are trying to thrash out an agreement on the vexed issue of family reunions for asylum…
German Chancellor Angela Merkel lays a wreath at the former Dachau concentration camp in 2015. Paul Hockenos is the author of “Berlin Calling: A Story of Anarchy, Music, the Wall and the Birth of the New Berlin.” The opinion in this article belong to the author. (CNN)The facts jar and perplex ordinary Germans: Seventy years…