"lol," said the Bundesrepublik. "lmao". www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

Eurobonds for Ukraine, say we. www.economist.com/leaders/2025...

With the official prognosis giving one additional seat to PVV and one to FvD compared to the ext poll, the narrative should really not be that the Netherlands/Jetten has beaten the radical right. The far right bloc remains remarkably stable.

Absurd fragmentation of Dutch electorate means everyone can legitimately do a "why the election shows my politics are right" take - perhaps excepting the trad left there's a party of nearly every flavour that did well.

One peculiarity about being a correspondent in Germany is the regularity with which you meet Germans who are completely bemused that someone might be interested enough in their country to choose to live in and write about it.

And I hear that Merz failed to win approval for his proposed pension reform in Germany at the Western Balkans summit. Looks like it was lose-lose :(

we're so back lads :)

"I never thought this man who has been shitposting for over a decade would do a LITERAL shitpost"

The @faznet.bsky.social has discerned a strain of unhappiness among German Christians over gay marriage that I confess has so far eluded me.

Important, deeply reported piece in Stern on the CDU's agonising debate over whether to maintain the anti-AfD "firewall" in its current form. Unless the AfD's rise is somehow arrested, I fear this is a dilemma without a solution. www.stern.de/politik/bran...

Sad news about D'Angelo. Never saw him live, but when I saw Maxwell my main thought was, I wish this was a D'Angelo show. www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxVN...

In both Britain and France we are witnessing the agonies of electoral systems ill-suited to political fragmentation and changing voter behaviour. In Germany, for all the grumbling and the pearl-clutching over the Brandmauer, we're not there yet.

The answer is right there: "Our European friends, many of whom are facing similar challenges to us, are thinking hard about partnering with third countries to deport illegal immigrants, and under my leadership this is a conversation the United Kingdom would be part of." Instead....this.

Will FCAS ever take off? One of the most ambitious military projects Europe has ever known is teetering on the edge, thanks to industrial bickering. With help from excellent colleagues @sophiepedder.bsky.social & @shashj.bsky.social www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

German asylum claims have halved in the last year. Nothing to do with border theatre; everything to do with developments outside the EU that hardly ever play a role in European countries' domestic migration debates. Still, take the win if it allows you to change the subject.

The AfD qualified for three mayoral run-offs in cities in North Rhine-Westphalia today, and lost all by big margins. The lesson is not that we have overdone the AfD's rise, but that we do perhaps sometimes underestimate the counter-mobilisation effects - including in east Germany, incidentally.

Spätsommer Brandenburg

"experts say" www.cnn.com/2025/08/11/b...

do Brits realise how demented their ID card debate looks from basically every other European country?

We are delighted to announce The Economist Insider. From next month subscribers will get access to a weekly show from @zannymb.economist.com, our editor-in-chief, plus shows exploring geopolitics, defence, economics and tech. They can also submit questions. Join us: www.economist.com/comingsoon

What this actually means: "The US washes its hands of the conflict altogether; Ukraine seems to be doing fine on its own and it not, it's up to Europe to help it out; no more direct aid to Ukraine; the US now regards NATO as basically European and will help it from afar but not as a member."

For the first time the AfD has nudged ahead of the Union in this national polling aggregator, perhaps Germany's most reliable. Beware cope about the AfD losing this or that mayoral election, including in NRW this coming weekend. Something important is shifting.

So far the rise of the AfD in Germany looks less like a wave across the country than a wedge driven inside it. My report after North Rhine-Westphalia's local elections. www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

I don't really have any Robert Redford takes other than to note that I went to Sundance in 2014 and it was just such a wonderful experience, far better than I'd imagined. Fantastic atmosphere, great films, lovely people.

There's no shortage of copium in the idea that the AfD, in tripling its score in NRW, somehow had a bad night. It's also true that it fell short of expectations, inspired strong resistance from centrist parties, and that some strong local candidates were able to stage effective anti-AfD campaigns.

RIP! www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsnQ...

Sometimes German headlines hit different

I don't want to know what a groyper is and you can't make me

At least we now have an answer to this.

Enjoyable article about the "epidemic-like spread" of a Berlin coffee chain that has committed the one sin that some Berliners cannot forgive: attracting lots of custom by selling a good product at a low price. www.the-berliner.com/berlin/lap-c...

And not only this - there is not a little discontent among German officials that the Fr-UK tandem is so gung-ho about placing troops on the ground to secure a meaningful US backstop. Creates a domestic headache for Merz he could do without.

This new poll suggests the state of Saxony-Anhalt (pop 2m) could deliver Germany a political earthquake at its election next year. At 39%, forming a govt without the AfD will be near-impossible. And these numbers will intensify tensions inside the state CDU over maintaining the anti-AfD firewall.

A useful test of whether pieces arguing that Merkel's immigration policy spurred the AfD's rise have anything useful to say is to check if they acknowledge the decline in AfD vote share between 2017 & 2021. On that measure, and not only that one, this falls short. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/o...

Have representatives from any other country's squabbling coalition governments performatively used trips to Kyiv to demonstrate their comity? www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/ukra...

Looks like the Xi/Putin/Modi pic all over your timeline is from a 2018 G20 meet, not today. news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d514...

Dry as dust www.wsj.com/world/uk/bri...

Top tier Bagehot this week. The polycrisis theory of Brexit economist.com/britain/2025...

Here me talk about my merrymaking at a Sauerland Schützen Sommerfest ⬇️

That's a bizarre thing to fake if I'm honest

Such a good cover this week

In London for a bit. Was braced for trouble but the only serious sign of civic decay seems to be an epidemic of middle-aged men dressed like Timmy Mallett?

Just landed in London and enjoying the best the city has to offer (a curry in an obscure postcode, and seamless digital payment for a multimodal public transport journey)

Merz has managed to convene a virtual summit with Trump, Zelensky and others on Wednesday - a small victory for German diplomacy after Merz & Trump spoke last night, but let's see what emerges.

Slightly ashamed to admit it, but boy does Manu Chao have a good ear for melody.

I've been getting into the Sommerloch spirit

Typo of the year contest is over, thanks @nytimes.com

Nuts. Given comparable dynamic for German automakers, curious to know how such considerations affect the EU's negotiating stance

It does feel as if something may be starting, belatedly, to shift in Germany. See also mini-rebellion among SPD rank and file towards govt's position. Merz's explanation for not signing the UK-organised round robin plainly makes no sense. Let's see if Macron can shift him tonight.

Last week, with some trepidation, I wrote this column on how Germany's regard for its own past has warped its debate on Israel and Gaza. www.economist.com/europe/2025/...

Nothing but admiration for the precision with which Berlin's hay fever season yields to its wasp season.