The Briefing Room
It’s February 24th, and we’re tracking the German elections—and Europe’s future. Plus: new monetary policy, auditing Fort Knox, abolishing the IRS, and making Washington a Federal City again.
As the news cycle has accelerated with a White House working at lightning speed, it’s hard to keep up with the news, let alone reflect upon it. Welcome back to the Briefing Room!—a rowdy overview of the week’s affairs from the editors of Postliberal Order.
ALL EYES ARE ON GERMANY, as the parliamentary election results have rolled in overnight. The basic question at issue is what version of Europe will put itself forward in the coming months, and the German election is a crucial waypoint in answering that question: the Germany of the last ten years, disoriented by mass migration and with its basic economic model challenged, is in a parlous political state.
In last night’s election, German voters threw out the socialist-led “stoplight” coalition (Trump rightly praised the change) and are set to deliver power back into the hands of the CDU/CSU, Germany’s long-standing center-right party. But the CDU/CSU looks poised to enter power with the outgoing Social Democrats, while refusing to partner with, or even receive support from, the populist-nationalist Alternative für Deutschland. Plus ça change . . .
While final results aren’t in, AfD looks poised to double its support. Beginning with Elon Musk’s pressure in December, mainstream Germany’s cordon sanitaire has begun to break down, and the AfD now appears in international politics and discourse. The AfD’s chairwoman, Alice Weidel, even received a visit from Vice President J. D. Vance the same week that she visited Viktor Orbán in Budapest. Though AfD won’t enter government, and although its support remains concentrated in Germany’s east, the intellectual-political dynamics have already shifted, and arguments against mass migration and in favor of resolving the war are beginning to pierce through.
What’s at stake in the reconfiguration of Germany is . . . . . .