Whether they like it or not, Germans and Brits are beginning to resemble each other. Traumas at penalty kicks, delayed trains, stodgy food – and a style of dogged political leadership that is struggling to understand the populist threat.
Only a few years ago, it looked very different. The UK was mired in Johnsonian buffoonery, an ugly, arrogant incompetence. It was no wonder that the country from which I had fled (spiritually and – for part of the time – physically) after Brexit was described as the “party island” by my new compatriots in Berlin. Set against that was a German government under Angela Merkel that was trying seriously, if not always successfully, to combat the many problems it was facing: domestically and internationally.
Now Britain is earnest again. In Keir Starmer, it has a prime minister worthy of respect, while in Olaf Scholz, Germany has a chancellor who is floundering.
Scholz has described the elections last Sunday in the eastern regions of Saxony and Thuringia as “bitter”, as well he might. The far-right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) won in Thuringia, the first time a far-right party has won a regional election since the Second World War.
Denne historien er fra September 06, 2024-utgaven av The Independent.
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Denne historien er fra September 06, 2024-utgaven av The Independent.
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