Derek Scally
Journalist at Irish Times
Irish Times Berlin correspondent and author of #1 Bestseller "The Best Catholics in the World". Order from Dubray Books here: https://t.co/Jmsrby0jmf
Articles
Germany’s incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz known for impulsive shifts and rhetorical sharpshooting
1 week ago |
irishtimes.com | Derek Scally
When ordinary Germans approach Friedrich Merz in public, it’s usually for one of two things: either they want a selfie or they hand him a beer mat to sign. On Tuesday, the lanky 69-year-old will become postwar Germany’s 10th federal chancellor. It crowns a remarkable political comeback and restarts the clock on an outstanding political promise.
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1 week ago |
irishtimes.com | Derek Scally
Germany’s acting chancellor Olaf Scholz was set to bow out of office on Friday evening with a special “grand tattoo” military ceremony and a familiar Beatles tune. After three years, four months and 23 days in power, the 66-year-old hands over power on Tuesday to Friedrich Merz, whose centre-right Christian Democratic Unionwon Germany’s federal election in February.
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1 week ago |
irishtimes.com | Derek Scally
Germany is free to step up state surveillance of Alternative for Germany (AfD) politicians after the party was classified as having “guaranteed right-wing extremist intentions” by the country’s domestic intelligence service (BfV). On Friday the BfV said it had passed on this recommendation to the federal interior ministry as part of a 1,100-page report on the party.
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2 weeks ago |
irishtimes.com | Derek Scally
Germany has cleared its final hurdle to a new coalition government after rank-and-file members of the centre-left Social Democratic Party backed joining a new government with the centre-right Christian Democratic Union. While SPD leaders were buoyed by 84.6 per cent approval for the coalition deal agreed last month, the fact that nearly half the party’s membership skipped the online vote suggests a lingering scepticism.
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2 weeks ago |
irishtimes.com | Derek Scally
True story: a Berlin priest gets a phone call one afternoon from a panicked parishioner. She’s just discovered the church was left unlocked. The priest, nonplussed, asks: “And, what happened?”“Someone,” the parishioner says, catching her breath, “lit a candle.”In Germany’s licentious capital, where fewer than one in five belong to the main Christian denominations, this is a deeply subversive – and utterly human – act.
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Seven hours late, @_FriedrichMerz is sworn in as chancellor after securing a Bundestag majority on the second attempt https://t.co/vBBzGBAabJ
Once more with feeling: @_FriedrichMerz elected German chancellor on the second attempt in the Berlin @Bundestag with 325 votes out of 630, 289 opposed and one abstention @IrishTimes @IrishTimesWorld
German @Bundestag backs giant €1-1.5 trillion security/infrastructure/climate spending package by 513 votes to 207. That's 24 votes more than the required two thirds majority with seven rebels inside the CDU/SPD/Green parties