The Transformation of German Politics
The state election results in eastern Germany this month mark a tectonic shift in Germany’s political configuration. The surge in support for the rightwing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the even more striking rise from nowhere of the leftwing Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) reflect deepening public dissatisfaction with levels of immigration, support for Ukraine, and the state of the economy. According to polls across Germany, support for the parties of the existing governing coalition is sinking fast. If this pattern is sustained, next year’s national elections will lead to radical changes in key German policies.
To discuss the election results, the Quincy Institute held a conversation featuring Molly O’Neal, non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute and former U.S. Foreign Service Officer, Wolfgang Streeck, Emeritus Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne & Thomas Fasbender, German journalist. Anatol Lieven, director of the Eurasia program at the Quincy Institute, moderated.
Program
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Panelists
Molly O'Neal
Dr. Molly O’Neal is a QI non-resident fellow and former U.S. Foreign Service Officer whose career, from 1989 onward, was devoted to U.S. relations with Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, and Eurasia. She has conducted research, lectured in the US and in Europe, and published on politics in Russia, Poland, and Germany.
Wolfgang Streeck
Professor Wolfgang Streeck is Director Emeritus of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne. He is a member of the British Academy, of the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, and of the Academia Europaea. He is the author of several leading books on international political economy, including Critical Encounters. Capitalism, Democracy, Ideas (Verso Books, London 2020). His next book, "Taking Back Control? States and State Systems after Globalism", will be published in November by Verso. He writes frequently for the New Left Review, the London Review of Books and other publications.
Thomas Fasbender
Dr. Thomas Fasbender is a German journalist who worked in Moscow from 1992 to 2015. He holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of Hamburg, Since 2023 he has been head of geopolitics at the Berliner Zeitung, a German daily newspaper. He is author of several books, including a biography of Vladimir Putin (2022). His latest book Der Eurasienkomplex: Warum und wie dem Westen die Zukunft entgleitet ("The Eurasia Complex. Why and how the future slipped away from the West") was published this month.
Anatol Lieven
Dr. Anatol Lieven directs the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. He was formerly a professor at Georgetown University in Qatar and in the War Studies Department of King’s College London. From 1985 to 1998, Lieven worked as a journalist in South Asia, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and covered the wars in Afghanistan, Chechnya and the southern Caucasus. His latest book is "Climate Change and the Nation State" (2021).