The number of crises we face is rising, due to failing states, wars and armed conflicts, poverty and lack of good governance in many countries. State and society are constantly confronted with new challenges. These crises occur simultaneously and at an ever faster pace. 

The AfD - Alternative for Germany – founded in opposition to Angela Merkel’s policy line of supporting southern European countries, has quickly become part of the political family of "right-wing populism" in Europe, with whom it cultivates close ties.

The right-wing spiral of Germany’s anti-EU Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD) has brought it shoulder to shoulder with France’s National Front (NF). The two parties see eye-to-eye on a number of issues, including Russia. 

The Netherlands and France are not the only founding member states of the European Union that see extreme right party’s on the rise. The “Alternative für Deutschland” gathers 10 percent of voting intentions in Germany – especially in the East. Some of its leaders don’t hesitate to use vocabulary banished since 1945.

Germany introduced a minimum wage on January 1^st, 2015 – a first in a country that had hitherto left it to the social partners to agree on salaries. This introduction came after vivid debates between those who fought against ever deeper inequalities and those who defended the nation’s competitiveness. 

Angela Merkel loosing the elections in Germany could be one of the many electoral suprises in 2017. Surveys on voting intentions for the legislative elections in September show that her opponent Martin Schulz (social-democrat) has started overtaking her.

On Germanys second channel, ZDF, Barbara Kunz enlarges upon the French presidential election in May.

Martin Schulz will be the SPDs candidate for the general elections in 2017, facing the CDUs Angela Merkel. Could his arrival threaten the Chancellor and reinvigorate a rather dull looking SPD?