Just in time for the upcoming climate conference in Marrakech, Germany’s council of economic experts, the Sachverständigenrat, is appealing to the government to change tactic towards a global climate policy. Germany’s energy transition is beyond reform.
This was not how Edward Snowden imagined the effects of his disclosures playing out. With this law, the German government is legitimising years of illegal surveillance by the federal intelligence services (Bundesnachrichtendienst, BND). And the Bundestag, with its eyes open, is passing a law that is clearly unconstitutional.
The draft of the Federal Government’s Climate Protection Plan 2050 leaves no room for balance. Instead of concentrating on the achievable, unrealistic goals are formulated. Instead of competition for the most efficient solutions, you will find lovingly detailed planned economies and high costs.
How much of Austria is hidden in Germany? The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is still far behind in approval ratings as is the FPÖ in Austria but its ideology is no less reactionary than that of the Freedom Party and thus, unfortunately, similarly seductive.
Genscher’s work is determined by its liberal, value-oriented attitude, which runs like a thread through his time in office: freedom, security and democratic self-determination were the values in which he engaged as a liberal politician and with which he identified himself as a human being.
The Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) meets on the upcoming Thursday. Despite explicit criticism especially from Germany, no one should expect higher interest rates in the medium term.
Luckily, the world community in Paris was not as unrealistic as the German Federal Government. The climate treaty expressly allows for the equalization and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Now it’s up to politicians to align national and international ambitions with the realism of social development and actual climate dynamics.
Europe has chosen to define itself as an open society. This allows for individual freedom. But it also gives enemies the opportunity to destroy open spaces, guaranteed by the state, intentionally and with the aim of causing maximum harm. However, it is not only terrorists who are putting the European model at risk.
Worldwide, people continue to strive for freedom. But the value system of liberal democracies and free markets is facing increasing pressure to legitimise itself.
Germany is thus in a strange position: it is putting pressure on other countries to cut their budgets and take actions to implement necessary reforms, but itself will do the opposite.
