Oliver Nachtwey

Este archivo solo abarca los artículos del autor incorporados a este sitio a partir del 1 de diciembre de 2006. Para fechas anteriores realice una búsqueda entrecomillando su nombre.

Election campaign billboards showing Annalena Baerbock, Olaf Scholz and Armin Laschet, ahead of Germany’s parliamentary elections on Sunday. Credit Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s 16 years in charge of Germany are coming to a close. Just not quite yet.

On Sunday, voters cast their ballots — and the results were profoundly equivocal. No party took more than 26 percent of the vote, the gap between the two biggest parties was minimal and no one made a major advance. The next government is some way off: Weeks, possibly months of coalition negotiations beckon. In the interim, Ms. Merkel will continue to lead the country.

In many ways, it’s a surprising result. For large stretches of the campaign, the Green Party and the Christian Democratic Union were the front-runners.…  Seguir leyendo »

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany visiting the Hamburg Messe building this month. Credit John Macdougall/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Talk of succession is in the air. After 18 years, Angela Merkel is stepping down as chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union, Germany’s main ruling party since 2005. The party’s conference meets this week in Hamburg to decide her replacement. But whoever follows Ms. Merkel — for many, Europe’s de facto leader — will inherit a fractious party and, if Ms. Merkel is unwilling or unable to see out her chancellorship through to 2021, a fragmented country.

The stability (and even monotony) associated with German politics under Ms. Merkel appears to be coming to an end. Her looming retirement marks a deepening crisis of the German political system that threatens not just the future of the country, but of the European Union.…  Seguir leyendo »