Following my article about the German elections yesterday I have to report that the opinion polls were right and the party of Angela Merkel, the CDU, was defeated in two of the three states, Saarland and Thuringia. Read the rest of this entry »

With just four weeks before Germany’s general elections, three German states -Saarland, Thuringia and Saxony- have been holding elections today with a rather high turnout. Opinion polls indicate that Angela Merkel’s party, the CDU, will be reelected in Saxony but in the other two states the vote for the CDU could crumble, toppled by the center-left Social democrats (SPD). Read the rest of this entry »

In early October, if the Lisbon Treaty is endorsed by Ireland in a referendum, the European Union will create the new post of President of the Union. With that in mind several candidates are already being seen as possible presidents. Read the rest of this entry »

From the Arab world to the Normandy beaches in France with a short stop over in Germany, president Obama is trying to use his travels to obtain understanding for the US among the Muslims, maybe help from his European allies for the Afghanistan war and the closing of Guantanamo. Read the rest of this entry »

This year Germany has some big events to celebrate. The main one took place this past weekend when the country marked the 60th anniversary of the founding of the democratic Federal Republic of Germany. To mark this important date, Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Horst Köhler attended an ecumenical service at the Dom in Berlin. Read the rest of this entry »

For the first time since the second world war, German troops are going to be stationed on French soil. This decision whose announcement has been received with equanimity among the French residents of Alsace and Lorraine, Read the rest of this entry »

On November 15, Germany’s Green Party held elections. The Green Party, formerly part of the coalition governments with the Social Democrats (SPD) under Gerhard Schroeder is the smallest party represented in the German Bundestag, with 51 of the body’s 612 mandates. But the Greens might nevertheless play an important coalition role after parliamentary elections next September. Read the rest of this entry »