More than a year after the election that handed Donald Trump a decisive comeback victory, the Democratic party has still not released its postmortem analysis. But last week, an influential progressive lobby group published its own. Kamala Harris’s campaign, its authors argued, failed to connect with core constituencies because it did not focus enough on addressing basic economic anxieties. By prioritising the menace to democracy that Maga authoritarianism represented, progressives neglected the bread-and-butter issues that were uppermost in many people’s minds. As the EU braces for a tumultuous period of politics…
Tag: Germany
The Guardian view on Germany under Merz: Europe’s powerhouse is still struggling | Editorial
Last March, following angst-ridden months as Europe came to terms with Donald Trump’s return to the White House, financial markets in Paris, Milan and Berlin were gripped by a surge of optimism. The cause was a historic deal brokered by Friedrich Merz, then Germany’s chancellor-elect, which loosened constitutional spending constraints in the EU’s powerhouse nation. Here at last, it was hoped, was the fiscal kickstart required to end a prolonged period of economic stagnation, and mitigate geopolitical headwinds blowing from the US and China. Six months into Mr Merz’s premiership,…
AfD politician’s former aide convicted of spying for China
A former aide to a member of parliament for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party has been sentenced to almost five years in prison for spying on behalf of China. Jian Guo was convicted on Tuesday of acting as an agent for the Chinese intelligence service while working for Maximilian Krah, a former member of the European parliament who now sits for the AfD in Germany’s Bundestag. The case has stirred concern about the extent to which Europe is being targeted by Chinese spymasters. Guo, a German national, was found…
Germany summons Chinese envoy over laser-targeting of surveillance plane
The German foreign ministry has summoned the Chinese ambassador in Berlin after a Chinese warship used a laser to target a German aircraft taking part in an EU operation helping to protect shipping in the Red Sea. “The endangerment of German personnel and disruption of the operation are completely unacceptable,” the ministry said on X. A German defence ministry spokesperson said the aircraft involved in the incident earlier this month was a multi-sensor platform plane. Known as a “flying eye” for its wide-range surveillance capabilities over the sea, it is…
EU may as well be ‘province of China’ due to reliance on imports, says industrialist
The EU may as well “apply to be a province of China” such is its inability to wean itself off that country’s supply of critical raw materials used in everything from electric vehicles to smartphones and wind turbines, a leading German industrialist has said. As chief executive of AMG Lithium, the EU’s first factory to make the lithium hydroxide used in many car batteries, Stefan Scherer sits at the centre of what has been dubbed a new gold rush. But the chemist said China will continue to dominate battery technology…
World’s seven wealthiest countries agree to counter China’s trade practices
Top finance officials from the world’s seven wealthiest democracies set aside stark differences on US tariffs and agreed to counter global “economic imbalances”, a swipe at China’s trade practices. In a communique issued on Thursday, the Group of Seven finance ministers and central bank governors, meeting in the Canadian Rockies, left out their traditional defense of free trade and toned down their references to Russia’s war in Ukraine compared with last year. But they did agree that further sanctions on Russia could be imposed if the two countries do not…
AfD politician to run in European elections despite aide’s alleged spying for China
A far-right German politician has said he will continue to run for the upcoming European parliamentary elections despite allegations that his adviser was spying for the Chinese government. Maximilian Krah, who is the lead contender for the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party, told journalists in Berlin: “I am and will remain the main candidate” after an emergency meeting with party bosses on Wednesday morning after the allegations came to light. Krah, a jurist and Catholic, said he regretted that the affair would “overshadow terribly” the June election but said he…
AfD politician’s aide arrested on suspicion of spying for China
An aide to a German far-right politician standing in the European elections in June has been arrested on suspicion of spying for China, German prosecutors have said. The man, named only as Jian G, was accused of sharing information about negotiations at the European parliament with a Chinese intelligence service and of spying on Chinese opposition figures in Germany, federal prosecutors said. The suspect was arrested on Monday night, hours after three German nationals were arrested on suspicion of working with China’s ministry of state security to hand over technology…
Three German citizens arrested on suspicion of spying for China
Three German citizens, a married couple from Düsseldorf and a man from Bad Homburg, have been arrested on suspicion of spying on behalf of China, prosecutors have said, in the second high-profile alleged espionage case reported in the country in days. The three are accused of passing on technical military knowhow to Chinese authorities in return for money. The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said it could be “just the tip of the iceberg” of spy rings operating in Germany. In one case, prosecutors allege, the trio exported a…
German chancellor urges Xi Jinping to press Russia to end Ukraine war, saying ‘China’s word carries weight’
Germany’s chancellor, Olaf Scholz, says he has urged Xi Jinping to press Russia to end its “senseless” war in Ukraine and that the Chinese president has agreed to back a peace conference in Switzerland. Scholz said after a meeting with Xi in Beijing on Tuesday that “China’s word carries weight in Russia”. “I have therefore asked President Xi to influence Russia so that Putin finally calls off his senseless campaign, withdraw his troops and ends this terrible war,” he said on social media platform X. Scholz said Xi had agreed…