Loren Balhorn

4 weeks ago | jacobin.com | Loren Balhorn

After being passed over for a ministerial post in Germany’s new grand-coalition government, it was clear that Saskia Esken’s time as a leading face of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) was approaching its end. Indeed, even her own state chapter declined to renominate her for the party executive several weeks before.

1 month ago | jacobin.com | Loren Balhorn

“No inviting Russian and Belarusian representatives to commemorations” — thus reads a nonbinding directive issued to German government officials by the Foreign Office, with regard to the eightieth anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. Should the situation escalate, the circular continues, states and municipalities should consider calling the police to have Russian and Belarusian diplomats removed from the premises.

Mar 7, 2025 | znetwork.org | Loren Balhorn |William Shoki

Germany’s recent elections marked a turning point in the country’s political landscape. While the center-right CDU has reclaimed power, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has achieved its strongest result yet, consolidating its influence, particularly in former East Germany. The left, long in decline, has shown signs of revival, but faces an uphill battle in a political landscape increasingly defined by economic stagnation, right-wing populism, and geopolitical uncertainty.

Mar 7, 2025 | newleftreview.org | Loren Balhorn

With a couple of weeks of hindsight, the biggest surprise in the German federal elections was that the political mainstream ended up doing as well as it did. Granted, the traditional parties of the centre-right and -left faced historically low returns, with the Social Democrats (SPD) scraping together some 16.4%, their lowest result since 1887, and their Christian Democratic (CDU) counterparts 28.5% – not quite as bad as last time around, but still their second-worst result in history.

Mar 6, 2025 | africasacountry.com | Loren Balhorn |William Shoki |Tom Menger |Caitlin L Chandler

WS The February 23 election produced some interesting results. The CDU has returned to power, while the far-right AfD secured its best-ever election result. How should we interpret this shift? Is it part of a broader rightward turn in European politics, or are domestic factors driving this change? LB Well, there’s definitely a European context to this shift. That much is obvious.