Wolfgang Munchau: Germany is in trouble
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 19 มิ.ย. 2024
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UnHerd's Freddie Sayers meets Wolfgang Munchau.
For decades, Germany was a beacon of centrist political stability. During her 16-year leadership, Angela Merkel led a succession of grand coalitions which neutralised the political extremes, and piloted her country through an era of steady economic growth.
Today, that political settlement has dissolved. Germany’s reliance on Russian gas has devastated its industrial economy, while the surface tranquillity of the Merkel era is a distant memory. Alternative für Deutschland, a far-Right populist party, has been the beneficiary of this chaos, surging in the polls to become the second-most popular party in Germany.
To understand this sudden reversal of fortunes and what it means for Europe and the world, Freddie Sayers spoke to Wolfgang Munchau, former co-editor of FT Deutschland, and founder and co-director of the Eurointelligence blog.
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// TIMECODES //
00:00 - 01:18 - Introduction
01:18 - 04:22 - The rise of the AfD in Germany
04:22 - 08:20 - How immigration and economics fuelled the AfD
08:20 - 11:42 - Why did Germany shut down their nuclear power stations?
11:42 - 12:53 - It’s not a Left vs Right issue
12:53 - 14:45 - Why the German car industry is in trouble
14:45 - 16:59 - Who is to blame for Germany’s woes?
16:59 - 18:30 - The AfD’s rise is down to the incompetence of the German elites
18:30 - 19:40 - What happens next?
19:40 - 21:44 - What do Germans think about the Ukraine War?
21:44 - 27:11 - What kind of populist German political agenda would get support?
27:11 - 31:12 - What happens to Europe if Germany continues to decline?
31:12 - 35:05 - Could Brexit Britain escape the decline of Europe?
35:05 - 36:10 - Concluding thoughts
#UnHerd #WolfgangMunchau #AFD
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The new fascists are Green
Narcissistic fascists who paint their opposition in their own image.
Absolutely true…but that’s not new.
Hitler was very green as well.. vegetarian etc.
@@stan3028but was correct on most other things...
Did not Nostradamus say that the red and black would turn to green, or similar?
I can't take anyone who calls a right-of-centre party far-right seriously...
There is only left and Far Right!
It is all about getting the views and clicks.
He never defines what far right is. I guess anyone who wants to leave the EU and Nato?
Precisely. Munchau is only out for bylines.
💯!
Even Freddie's description of 'colourful characters' found on the far right *obviously* requires acknowledgement that 'colourful' is nowhere near adequate to describe the current far left characters pushing gender ideology, censorship, open borders, climate catastrophe narrative etc.
German here. So a friend works on helping building infrastructure for our railway system:
1. the railway system project is ordered and to be paid by the state = by the people.
2. an animal is found which has its home there, so the project is postponed because of environmental concerns. The government pays environmental organisations to prevent our railways to be built. So we are paying for building them and for prevention of building them. Both are unfathomably expensive.
3. germany with its already massive beaurocratic overhead has another beaurocratic overhead now, called the EU. EU says the railway has to be done until X or we have to pay fines. Who pays these? Of course, germany = the people.
So every german is being robbed by beaurocratic stupidity. We could be a rich country, but we put stones in our own way and then we put ourselves in prison for placing stones there. The german soul is VERY concerned with doing everything CORRECTLY. Because of what happened 80yrs ago i believe. Imagine we'd do smth wrong and had to be ashamed of ourselves in the eyes of everyone.
Könnte dieses Tier nicht umziehen ? , ein neues Haus gefunden ?
replace every time you say "German people" by "large corporate taxes", and maybe your logic will get less angry.
the people don't pay, the ones who make profit do. more profits, more contribution.
Someday Germans will realize that socialism and planned economy are simply a means to control the people and for the state organs to feed on them like a parasite. One would have hoped that the Germans would have figured out that socialism is a path to ruin after their dalliance with national socialism. That doesn’t change when you replace one set of values with another.
@@lazypops3117the people always pay. It’s a shell game. Corporations don’t pay taxes. The consumer does.
You found the psycho- op base for the operating principle how to educate and how to steer them. (The Germans, their government, their Corporation, their cultural sector- basically all!)
And don't you think into this on a deeper level, then you've got the method to tame and to exploit them..and to rule them as a vasall state, like in the Roman Empire. The stroke against the NS2 Pipeline, the plot against Ukr-Rus (as it was and is never in favor for neither-nor..) The stroke against France in westafrican suppliers of Uranium for french cheap electricity (now endangered also as cheap second source for German industry) all that is a silent war of the US against it's own allies- if not for selfish economic reasons, then for V.Nuland''s (Lunatic Luland would be better) chauvinistic ideological (fascist) reasons! There is a war going on, just ask yourself for whom and in which favor? Then you've got the answer!
The German delegation laughed audibly at Trump in UN general assembly 2018. Who’s laughing now?
He lost me when challenged about the "far right" label he went to the anti-EU position. Since when does "far right" mean "opposed to globalist domination"? Why does the term "far", which directly implies an extreme position, apply to this view? There are so many perspectives that are currently being labeled "far right" that simply represent a critical stance on recent historical developments that have gone way too far and have had negative consequences for the majority of the population.
When he used that term, I realized he's mentally trapped in establishment-think.
Absolutely agree.
If anything it's a more 'democratic' position to take to what greater representation for the people instead of transnational organizations.
Could't say it better. It also shows how the intellectual establishment seeks to put the AfD in an anti constitutional corner. Because it's becoming the party of the "common" people. They will try to forbid it!
I agree. This guy is a product of the very issues he himself is trying to fathom. Most Germans cannot see the ´forest for the trees.´ They know something is seriously wrong but think the „forest is still healthy´ even though many ´trees are dying.´ Try and say something about it and they hate you even more for being in their country.
Far right=nationalism=anti internationalism, makes completely sense to me.
"Far right" means wanting to not be in the EU?
That was striking to me as well. But it's indicative of how far to the left the general European mentality has evolved in recent decades, that any desire for being able to control your own economy, and distance yourself from an obviously ineffectual, bureaucratic miasma, is now considered "far right."
"Far right" is the opposite of "Far wrong". So, yes, it therefore does mean wanting to not be in the EU.
Far right means common sense and a pinch of Christian conservatism. In the far left EU anything might look like optically as extreme right: The pendulum is too tilted to the left.
Not only. It means racism and nazi-talk. It means AFD.
Yes leaving the EU that is a horror for all the EU/ Globalists
The interviewer asked for examples of why they are far right, he gave as examples; wanting to leave the EU, wanting the EU to disband (he just asserted they'd do it by force) and that a small handful of members are anti Semitic. Then when he was called out on not painting the whole party by a few individuals he agreed that wasn't fair and then reasserted they are far right... based on???? Certainly not the examples he just admitted shouldn't be used.
A me questo sembra un altro esperto del niente!
These days, as soon as "far-right" is mentioned, I smell a woke-activist posing as an impartial expert..."far-right" may well mean common sense, Christianity, Conservatism, eating meat, using a plastic straw, drinking (actual) milk...
Im disappointed in this interview, for someone who does not want to be in eu as far right is ridiculous
I thought that was rather odd as well.
According to our beloved western, or in casu , european media , any party or individual is now a fascist if it thinks: 1 there are two genders 2 europeans deserve a home continent where they have lived for thousands of years and now forms a small white minority in the world 3 if you think there should be restrictions to mass immigration or to new woke crazy elitists in universities and media
So yes , it's not just germany that is in trouble, it's the entire western culture . And our media are the biggest enemies at this point , unfortunately
Germany made itself dependant on Russian gas! Yes but it’s Germanys allies that blew up that gas supply, not Russia turning it off.
Norway
"Dependent on Russian gas" is a very roundabout way of saying "Germany used cheap Russian energy to maintain competitiveness in the global market despite a heavy regulatory regime and high wages, resulting in a tremendous amount of economic growth and prosperity".
No is Poetin
The US destroyed the pipeline. The US said they would, they benefit from the destruction: it cripples Germany but prevents the Germans from being close to the Russians.
@@liengamier3290If only you ignore the history of action by Russia regarding pipelines since the early 2000's. Fill the pipe leave the agreement on the table fulfill contracts but not much more and ask if they want a deal.
somehow avoided the most important issue: immigration
'The Strange Death of Europe' by Douglas Murray
@@jasminealixandranorth Absolutely! The West is falling while the East is rising.
Who is rising in the East?@@marysmik9812
What do you think they should to tackle their population/societal collapse then? Nothing? No more than 10 year temporary work green cards/visas/etc.? Just sit back and let it/watch it decay? Give up? or what
@@user-xp5id1kh4r Unfortunately accepting unskilled illegal economic border crossers is now called 'immigration'. It is not immigration; it is charity. You can promote actual, skilled immigration without inviting 2 million refugees who, according to the stats, after 10 years in Germany only 38% of them have a job. That is 10 years on free German classes, housing, free healthcare, free allowance. These were sold as 'future doctors, engineers'. With much less money Germany could have vetted and accepted skilled and aspiring migrants from places like Nigeria, India and so on. Nobody has ever complained about too many French people migrating to Germany or the UK. Because 'immigration' is not the problem. The problem is letting in unqualified individuals and marketing it as a success. Sweden now has the highest proportion of uneducated, illiterate economic migrants; 20% of its population became foreign born overnight. This is not going to 'tackle their population/ societal collapse', as you phrase it. IT IS GOING TO MAKE IT WORSE.
Yet another country labelling moderate parties as 'far right', the Guardian would be proud
Nonsense, a party that wants to abolish the existing parliamentary democracy is an extreme right-wing party. Period.
@@harrydehnhardt5092 By the parliamentary democracy I presume you mean abandoning some of the current policies? I suspect you are typical extreme left wing who oppose anything they think incorrect to their thinking. Research the word Democracy, you will not be happy, but you will be enlightened, the will of the people prevail.
I guess if de Gaulle would run for office today he would be labeled as such.
@@harrydehnhardt5092 existing parliamentary "democracy" Ha!! Good one! I needed a good laugh today.
@@harrydehnhardt5092periods are always bad , for discussions and women
Remember President Trump’s speech at the U.N. General Assembly where world leaders' laughter, caught on camera and shared in viral videos.
One of them captured the amused reactions of the German delegation as Trump said: “Germany will become totally dependent on Russian energy if it does not immediately change course. Here in the Western Hemisphere, we are committed to maintaining our independence from the encroachment of expansionist foreign powers.”
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas could be seen smirking alongside his colleagues.
It wasn’t the first time Trump had lashed out at Germany over its gas imports from Russia.
During a NATO summit in July, he took aim at the Germans for the same reason, specifically singling out a planned 800-mile pipeline beneath the Baltic Sea called Nord Stream 2. “Germany, as far as I’m concerned, is captive to Russia because it’s getting so much of its energy from Russia,” Trump told NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, also speaking on camera at the time. “We have to talk about the billions and billions of dollars that’s being paid to the country we’re supposed to be protecting you against.
Trump was right, nobody is laughing now.
What are you trying to say? Who blew up the Nordstream pipeline? The US. Why? Because they wanted Germany to depend less on Russian cheap energy? Give us a break,please?
The Germans laughed because President Trump said the truth and they were caught. They make deals that make them wealthy and hurt their citizens. That's, "globalism." Germany is a cancer. Their Marxism, socialism is a theft playbook. Look at the Europeans working for decades toward this. Theft and destruction. Our Founders were worried about the poisonous influence of crumbling, rotting Europe and their predicted attempts to undermine the US. Look at all the psychopathic crooks in Europe with their schemes to take over and destroy. For over 150 years they have been working to destroy the US and their own countries. Destroy for their own benefit.
President Trump was 10 moves ahead of these career poli-trickcians.
@@leones87And was Trump's administration responsible? Learn how to make relevant comments in future.
Facts
The AFD is "far right" but he can't even explain what far right is.
Want's to get rid of all immigrants, encourages & uses xenophobia and, just for fun, insists that climage change isn't happening and all those glaciers plus a few small islandsare just committing suicide or something.
There ya go.
He explained. You didn't understand it
Also it's not the left/communists fault that their extremists policies don't work.
@@bitter_truth8646 amazing that wanting to leave the EU is far right!.
@@operator6471 no, it's not amazing. It's common sense. The EU is dead.
when you go so far left that the center looks far-right, you should probably adjust your policies.
They didn’t really for far-left, they went state + us oligarchic collusion under the banner for the ‘greater good’ (by changing the constitution and stopping individual rights). This is the new fascism. As far right as you can possibly go.
@@ThomasVWormAbsolutely. The EU has drifted far to the right since the 1970s. But still we have (English insurprisingly) morons talking about leftwing drift. They are so clueless about the reality of Europe, is it any wonder the comical fiasco that is hard brexit happened.
@@ThomasVWorm Strauß had far more right leaning positions than the current milquetoast AfD has, you are delusional
@@ThomasVWormAh, yes. The mass importation of foreigners under the auspices of "diversity", as well as the rampant promotion of cultural marxism, is very right-wing of the German State.
Left, right, that's how they are controlling us. Take politics out of it and we would all get on just fine.
Then there are those who don't want to get off their asses in the morning, from the left and the right. That is the problem.
"Pipeline is not working anymore" That's an understatement. You could say the Americans blew it up.
It wasn’t Russia. Mr. trump said so.
@@fredfrond6148 Cui bono?
@@fredfrond6148yeah I’m sure Russia got fed up of selling their gas through their co-owned pipeline
@@fredfrond6148no he didn’t he said the exact opposite
They avoided the most interesting fact
No wonder I have given up on Radio 4 and the BBC in general, when you have uninterrupted discussions such as this. Thank you for arming me with such wonderful information.
I swear, even as an Indian this was fascinating through out. Mainstream media is completely dead to me
Their agenda is clear for all to see.(BBC/chn.4). Rejected these a decade ago. The TV is just a propaganda outlet. I'm always looking for discussions such as these. The Ukraine war depicts it perfectly, Yanks on a regime change mission, and fight a war on European soil. Truly, peace be unto you.
Bbc is too busy virtue signalling about diversity, inclusion and sustainability while totally censoring people with diversity of opinions.
In Germany by now we have this saying: Wird der Bürger unbequem, ist er plötzlich rechtsextrem. Roughly translated: When the citizen gets inconvenient, he is far right wing all of a sudden. And Munchau repeating the CO2 bs, I wonder what role he plays. ^^
In Australia everyone ( even lifelong lefties) who disagrees in the smallest measure with the prevailing woke narrative is 'far right'.
You'd think Dutch and Belgian citizens would have more leeway because we dont have the troubled past of WW2 acts , but it's the same here
Anyone that is against europe turning into a dystopian woke urban version of a northern african , colder , spinoff with mosques and transgenders holding hands is now a right winger
Policy makers in the Hague and Brussels couldnt care less about actual Dutch or belgian citizens , farmers , policemen, nurses , who all quit in droves
Teachers are no longer to be found for all the urban schools
The mass media all suck up to the corporate state now and most people are hard of thinking.
We are not in trouble. We are screwed. Completely screwed. And as a German I need to add, no. Not all of us agree with what our politics are currently doing.
Best of luck. Last time I was in Germany all the young people would tell me about how they dreamed of moving to America and it's easy to see why these days..
@@soapbar88 All the Americans I work with in Germany think it is a paradise and have no intention of going back to the US. I don't blame them.
@@paulwalker797the grass is always greener in the other side, their middle class are both screwed.
Germans are finally waking up to the Fact that their Politicians are still controlled by the US.
The Ukraine Conflict was never about Ukraine, it was about the 'Deindustrliasation' of Germany in that the
US was petrified of a German / Russian allegiance based on Energy in that it would have rendered NATO
obsolete and ended the NeoCons in the Pentagon Geo Political Aspirations going East.
It was the US that had Imran Khan removed in Pakistani. Why ? he was Neutral on Ukraine.
Go read the Rand Corporation Report [US Think tank] from 2019 which is the Playbook
by which the US has dismantled the German Industrial Complex, over the last 18 months.
Germany does not have the 23% of total Gas required for Winter 2023 like it did in 2022
and so the with US LNG at double the price of the previous Russian Gas and Energy Commodities having almost
tripled at Wholesale base rates, then Germany is about to understand exactly what
the Ukraine Conflict is really all about and why the US demands that the European Puppet
leaders keep supplying expensive oxygen, all paid for by their respective Tax Payers,
to keep the Conflict going.
Does not bode well for Federal Europe either as its Leading power house GDP is in massive decline.
France not far behind, so where the Euro printing by the ECB has already started again meaning
Inflation will stay high for years.
If the Ukraine Conflict stopped today it will take at least 10 years plus for
Germany to 'reset' and in that timeframe much of its core market place will have
gone elsewhere.
I have good friends in Germany and they are in totally disbelief how the German Citizens
have just allowed all this to happen.
Germany is not screwed at all it will bounce back, the green energy program will get your economy back into focus
An interesting interview, but, although I wouldn't say Germany will do exactly what the US will tell it (it may be an artifact of present situations and the stupid government in Germany), it is weird to talk for half an hour and never mention Nordstream, for example..
Germany is in trouble... and anyone who dares seeking an alternative to the current path is a "far-right" dangerous person!!!
Makes sense... 🤔
I moved to Germany from Ireland 3 years ago. It was hands down the worst decision me and my wife ever made. Literally everything here is a problem.
As an American, please elaborate why it was a bad decision to relocate to Germany.
move back, maybe?
Go to Switzerland or maybe Denmark. You will not believe your eyes
@@jefftaschgo for an adventure holiday 😉😂
@@antonprokopyev6450 They do everything better. It’s absolutely insane. I believe Germany was maybe comparable to Switzerland in the 70s, but Jesus, as someone coming from Germany but now living in Switzerland, it’s not even comparable to Germany. Germany feels like a 2nd world country compared to Switzerland.
There is no opposition in Germany except the AFD. Anyone who is against the Green/SPD/FDP policy has only the AFD as an option to vote for. The CDU, which used to be center-right, conservative, has slipped far too much to the left.
We Germans often refer to the CDU as using the turn signal for right and then taking a left turn ...
There are quite a few despicable politicians and a lot despicable voters in the AFD. But it's the only party that isn't doing the opposite of what is most important to solve our problems...
@@Sensorama2000 NTV: "Nord Stream saboteurs fled to Ukraine" I wonder if this will finally break the back of the German "government"?
It’s the same in the U.K., all existing political parties support Net Zero and the policies that fall out of that impacting industry, farming, housing, car ownership that are now starting to hit the public. We will see new parties start gaining ground in the U.K. as well. It’s started with new media outlets that call-out the current hypocrisy and corruption and new parties are starting to offer alternative policies. Like the Brexit Party in the U.K., AfD in Germany and the farmers party in Holland things can change very quickly.
More of the same in the Netherlands😢
@@stephenpotts832 yes so I heard. That's why everyone with a brain start voting more and more right!
afd are ok if I am german I would vote for them..
💙
Me too!
This interview is funny. It shows exactly why Germany is lost and beyond help.
Germany suppressed wages to create a competitive advantage and then used the single currency (subsidised by Mediterranean countries) to boost export, while at the same time prevented other EU countries from having the same cost advantage as they are in single currency block.
In addition, the German Chamber of Commerce, the major trade unions, and the former government (Social Democrats under Gerhard Schröder) colluded to effectively fix wages in return against low layoffs, and made the middle class subsidise the working class with sky-high taxes and social security contributions. Effectively German industry got California level productivity at Romania level wage.
Decades of economic growth have not trickled down, 60% of industrial ownership are family owned and therefore outside the capital market. Germany has the 14th lowest Gini coefficient in the world (despite the second highest tax burden). But the system has been carefully designed to prevent French-style protests and strikes, because the mouthy working class is well fed. But 90% of the population clustered just above subsistence level creating an impression of overall equality, although they are forever running on a hamster wheel, with median wealth ownership worse than Slovenia and Malta.
Certainly an "efficient" system. But like all over-engineered, over-efficient systems, doesn't have any fail-safe mechanisms. Just one slight disturbance and all goes to hell.
@@pedrob3953 Well fed but hand-to-mouth slaves perpetually running on hamster wheel, makes a very "efficient" system. They are well fed, hence captable to run, and hand-to-mouth, hence motivated to run.
Only thing more efficient would be real slaves. Worth trying, innit?
@@pedrob3953 Wouldn't Covid have been a "slight" disturbance or the Russo-Ukrainian War? Lots of fail-safes have prevented most average people from being negatively affected in fact. Sooo....you don't know what you are talking about
Could you explain how these Mediterranean countries, which have sky-high debt to GDP ratios, low growth and would have interest rates on their debt so high they couldn't possibly service it if not for Germany's guarantee, are "subsidising" the euro?
@val-schaeffer1117 - good post, it has always been obvious that the only German beneficiaries of what you describe have been the elites, shareholders and the tax collector, and a mystery to many in the UK as to why the German taxpayer stands for it
Perhaps Merkel's economic miracle based on perpetual cheap RF energy and perpetual Chinese growth combined with Scholtz's economic miracle of swapping cheap RF energy for expensive US energy just as the Chinese growth stops will encourage your overtaxed citizens to change things, presumably via the EfD
The median wealth of the average German, (which must be largely down to historic low home ownership) is quite shocking and must have seemed ironic to "wealthy" German taxpayers who had less actual wealth than the impoverished Greeks they were told to bail out, (actually told to bail the German banks out), in the last euro crisis
Not sure how the mouthy workers are both well fed and more or less just above subsistence but it sounds as if something is either going to change or blow up, do they realise it is the german taxpayer on the target 2 trillion euros hook if it all goes south?
Seems if politicians would simply listen to their constituents, then meaningfully act in their interests we would not be having any of these issues.
The problem is that the vast majority of politicians and government bureaucrats are ideological activists first and last and worst, they know that more than half of the electorate are more than willing to sell their rights, country, history,culture and people so they can be called enlightened and educated and these politicians are counting on winning their votes.
these two arseholes are pouring out shite ....Do you smell it...
We Germans often refer to the CDU as using the turn signal for right and then taking a left turn ...
There are quite a few despicable politicians and a lot despicable voters in the AFD. But it's the only party that isn't doing the opposite of what is most important to solve our problems...
Our minister for economy declared that, in the wake of a bad economy because of covid, no company would go bankrupt just brcause they would stop selling for a few months...
Energy is expensive as never before but only large companies get special help/deals from the government. Small to medium sized businesses like bakeries have to double the prices...
Politicians are bending us over and raping us!
I can foresee a very dark future for Europe. Cold and hungry people are likely to lynch the politicians that made them so.
@@Sensorama2000 … it’s part and parcel of the globalist plan to completely eradicate the middle class - everywhere. There will only be an oligarchic billionaire class living their neofeudalism and a controlled class of dumbed down serfs, eating zee bugs.
The AfD is basically what the CDU used to be 20 or 30 years ago. The Merkel-CDU moved so far to the left as to leave the whole right flank completely open to the AfD.
Wolfgang Munchau is wrong about the Euro, though. While the soft Euro is helping German exports. The export dependency has risen dramatically as a result. However, the Euro is too soft for Germany, meaning that companies no longer feel the need to maintain competitiveness through innovation and quality improvements. In a sense, the Euro is like a poisoned present, helping to increase export demand on the one hand, while eroding competitiveness on the other.
Globalisation has destroyed the old Left v Right paradigm
I remember when Merkel took the German flag from someone and threw it aside in her push for multi culturalism.
@@kitcat4512 doesn't that have more to do with taboo of nationalism in Germany?
Yep
The West in in a lot of trouble right now. Germany is broken, the UK is a basket case, France has serious cultural and economic problems, the US is breaking apart, etc.
This is an interesting interview, but I’m not sure Wolfgang understands the term right wing very well. Calling right of centre ‘extreme right wing’ is not helpful.
New subscriber. I loved this interview, calm, informed and realistic. I only wish we had politicians with half a much clarity in their thinking!
You're mad mate, you're the only one here who thinks this 😂
Destroying the nuclear plants resulted in huge carbon emissions, it was an ecological catastrophe.
Shutting down their nuke plants betrays their lack of seriousness.
Particularly when they continue to import French and Czech nuclear energy. @@patrickh9937
Seriously one of the biggest, most-nonsensical blunders I've seen in a long time. This is what happens when you let ideologues with no clue make decisions.
Now we have toxic lithium-ion-cobalt EVs, that's awesome!
elg: It is indeed a catastrophe but it is not environmental for reasons you believe.
The US getting the EU to impose sanctions on itself was a masterstroke on their behalf.
😅 couldn't agree more! it's like shooting yourself in the feet.
No but EU leaders are stupid traitors.
US empire is crumbling, this move killed the petrodollar. Which is a good thing.
It's like pissing your pants to get warm, it seams to work now by in the long run it will be their downfall.
Kissinger decía: "ser enemigo de eeuu es malo, pero ser amigo muchísimo peor".-
I think the word pragmatic really hits home in this discussion. In western Europe we've been in a ideological mindset regarding climate, immigration and geopolitics. Our politics are looking outside and are judging others while fully ignoring the situation in our own countries.
100%
Choose 2: Cheap, Reliable, or Clean! (Can't remember who said it)
You are quite right!!! Thanks for the brief clear description
I even see climate change as a huge problem, but that doesn't matter if , culturally, we see Europe dissapeared in real time before our eyes . Euro liberals have destroyed the foundations of western culture, US coasts and canada are obviously lost as woke nightmares as well
Well these western clown politicians treat 'their' citizens exactly the same as they treat non-western nations. They are clowns and tools... and they ruin everything, they are radicals and toxic.
Germany's problem is that they believed America
You got that right
I was born and raised in Germany (west!), and I am not an AfD fanboy. Honestly, when I was young I voted for the Greens. Yes, am not proud of that! According to Wolfgang, the AfD is "far right", but he never says what exactly is meant by "right" and "far". Being against the NATO is far right? This is a statement on the verge of ridiculousness. But it really gets worse! Why is the party so popular in the eastern part of Germany? Wolfgang's explanation is quite preposterous: Because they are poor, stupid! Well, Wolfgang, has it ever occured to you that our friends in the former GDR might appreciate that the AfD was (and still is) the only party that did not support the Covid madness? And by the way, it's the only party that does not want Germany being a part of the war in the Ukraine. It's the only sane voice when it comes to the "green deal" insanity. To make a long story short: It's the only party that seems to care for the german people. But who cares for ordinary peole theses days? Wolfgang Munchau is not one of them!
I agree. I couldn't listen to him after about 3 minutes. Just went to the comment section.
Thanks, you are completely right. The other parties are so insane that I can not vote for them. Last time, I voted for the liberals (FDP) because I thought they have the best plan for Germany and as always, they forgot everything when they got into power.
… and this Canadian, who grew up many years in Germany, strongly agrees with your comment, too !
Danke.
The AfD is the reason why we do not have a vaccination mandate.
I am 31 years old and I left Germany 4 years ago… This country has no future. If I could make a list of all the things not to do, Germany is doing them all.
It pains me to see my country go down so quick…
Only becose Germany is still ocupated by usa and British forces, they establish political sistem 1945, they control, media, they chose polititian, germans need to be free and make own design. Simple to say, becose they owns all media, military, police, justice...
I say total ocupation. Same thing in italy, japan, South Corea... Vasal countries.
…Seems like Germany wants go back to the glory days of the Weimar Republic specially between 1921-33 where everyone walked with a set of spoons 🥄 forks 🍴 in their back pockets wondering where the next meal 🥘 will be..
warum haben wir keine Zukunft hier ?du kannst auf englisch oder deutsch antworten mir egal .bin 33 jähre alt übrigens also nur 2 älter als du aber wenn du die läge für so hoffnungslos haelts würde ich gerne wissen warum .
@@ashley-fk6dpYour energy system, relying on “renewables “ is impractical for industrial production. Your native Germans are retiring and the immigrants do not have the education to take over in technological jobs. The auto industry is not keeping up with next generation of EVs.
Where do you live for the last 4 years?
All German journalist are basically "left" leaning and in line with the present Ample Government, thus, also the statement of this journalist about the AfD.
Great interview . His views on Brexit are interesting to me . He seems to have totally ignored the fact that many British people just did not want to be subject to the insane dim-witted policies that come out of Europe and have resulted in the basket case that Europe has become . WRT Britain not moving on - that is hard to do when 90% of the establishment are mourning Brexit and slow walking any significant changes - Europe are also acting like a jilted school girl and don't want to cooperate anymore . Too many bureaucrats not enough people doing positive work .
Why wouldn't Europe act that way? I think in this case it is entirely justified. You leave the union and wanna be dealt with the same way as everyone else?. Doesn't really make sense to me. You live with the consequences of your actions.
Bollocks, Brexiteers simply didn't think beyond passions and prejudices, but people like this tend to believe that they are cerebral, because they can't do efficient critical reasoning and always externalis blame, without legitimate evidence and avoid any personal responsibility. However, some (have average Intellect, but a base instinctive cunning, and are unfortunately good at Polemics and demagoguery(Mogg andFarage), aimed at the lowest common do nominator, Becomes which is enough when there was a low turnout, because the deluded Ultra elderly, Under nationalist becomes and the racists, virtually always vote, even in low turnout.The Brits are actually pro-European in the majority,Especially those below 55, but their apathy wasn't enough and Only 50.5% results, From the referendum, wanting to leave, from a low turnout, was enough to railroad things for years
*Anyway, let's just play a game, which pretends that you are right.In that case, they were Wanted to be subject to exponentially moree dimwitted policies, and expected that an ultra right wing party, would simply replicate rights and services domestically, which have been implemented through the EU in the last several decades(which the Tories became even before they kicked the more moderate, and reasonable conservatives out of the party e.g. , Sarah Wollaston, who are truly legitimately cared about the country as a whole's performance, other than being Minions and sycophants of the top 1% )
Which insane, dim-witted policies that come out of Europe, as you describe them, are you referring to?
Leaving aside the question of whether those policies are in fact as you say, how/why do you know 1) that Munchau ignored it and 2) that British (English, more accurately) people did and do not want to be subject to them and that those policies played a role in their pro-Brexit voting?
Sadly it is NOT about individual countries anymore, Europe MUST become a global superpower or WILL be absorbed by other global powers, there are no ifs or buts, just the reality.
Which dim witted policies :)? Tell us some of them...
Why is leaving NATO a far right policy? This has always been the policy of the far left!
We are living in a serious inversion. Demanding peace is framed as clamoring for conflict.
Everything thats anti-jewish is far right. Leaving NATO is getting away from global communist government and thats going against the jewish plans. The austrian man warned you people.
The left and right switch places sometimes.
The entire video is a complete joke. Globalists crying because their puppets are losing control.
In pre-Clinton times. The game has changed since.
He literally says they are far right and couldn't say one single reason why they are far right apart from "they want to exit the EU and NATO"
Indeed we r witnessing one more flip-flop as part of the promoted current narrative since up to 2020 exiting the EU n NATO has always been on the forefront of the left agenda n Communists in Europe,their main idelogical premise for any argument
@adedejiadasanya5397 - He managed to sound like a teutonic Emily Thornberry, so wonderfully dismissive and assuming civilised Freddie would automatically be on board, only a barbarian would want to leave the EU or Nato, thankfully he went on to make some interesting observations
The guy was introduced as having his own thoughts and takes on things and then he says that? His overlords at NATO and Brussels have taught him well.
Let's not forget that the greatest invention Germany ever made was by Nicolaus Otto when he build the first gas engine in 1861.
No other engine has come close to it in terms of efficiency. And it started the industrial revolution replacing the British steam engine.
Now the geniuses in Germany are talking about generating electricity by turning windmills.
Is Europe toothless and ineffective right now? Great discussion. Thank you.
The closing of their nuclear power industry was insane!
Ms Merkel was afraid of earthquake in Germany.:-)) Fukushima was a huge chance for an excuse.
It seems contradictory i agree. But there is a huge conflict in the transition towards renewable energy and nuclear fission energy. Since nuclear plants are not flexible in power regulation they did congest the grid and windmills had to be switched off loads of times. RE is also far cheaper than nuclear, but he real costs for insurance, waste disposal, eternuty costs, etc. were not reflected in the price. But they were there and were covered by tax money. If you calculate all the cost towards 1KW/h you would have a price of 34€ cents. That is more than twice as much as PV or Wind power. Half of the budget or 1 billion € annually of the encironmental agency are nuclear costs and will stay for a very long time. Neither the national nor the municipal energy companies have any interest in nuclear power at all, because of this.
While relying on nuclear power plants of their neigbours!! All are adding nuclear plants while the German 'save the world climate' apostles are ruining that country.
@@headofmyself5663 You may be correct, but nuclear power costs are very largely a political decision. All sorts of costs are piled onto the nuclear power price to make it unattractive.
One case in point is disposal of nuclear spent fuel. In the true scheme of things these costs are trivial, one reason being the small quantities involved.
I live in Ontario Canada and we get about 60% of our electric power from CANDU nuclear plants. It is the cheapest producer of electricity available but, because previous governments have saddled us with the costs of uneconomic wind and photovoltaics, we now have among the highest cost of electric power in North America.
Supposedly educated people such as Germans and Canadians swallow any sort of rubbish when it has the word "green" in it.
Further, no one yet has talked about the disposal of all those composite fibre windmill blades, which will be a real problem I think.
yes .. a loss of about ~1m euros per HOUR .. including making the country much more dependant on energy imports or gas/oil/coal import
One of the most shocking developments is Germany's seeming desire to deindustrialise due to wrongheaded ideas about energy.
Excellent observations, probably the two most important points of the interview. NO Nuclear, NO more inexpensive Natural Gas, NO Oil,. Solar doesn't work, Wind doesn't work. Lets use brown coal , firewood and communal warming houses. Then we can walk or ride a bike to school to learn coding. With out affordable energy and a robust industrial base you are on the road to failure.
You mean allowing America to blow up Nordstream?
Why are you knocking Germany's ingenious plan? Sure, it's making industry expensive or even impossible there, just as you say, but haven't you heard? Germany can control the weather now, just like a thermostat, by adjusting its carbon output. The work is 85% complete on Germany's end, and all that's needed now is for the rest of the entire world to sacrifice and work in harmony together as has happened so many other times before, and for the natural weather of the world to stay stable and predictable, as has been the case throughout the recent ice age and the rest of geologic time as well.
@@polarvortex3294Nice troll :D
the plan is to make you poor so you cannot resist them.
People outside Germany are not much aware of the social and political dynamics of the most important country in the EU. Thanks for divulging tham.
As dire as this sounds, I don't believe you even mentioned Germany's demographic problem. France is most likely to emerge as the continent's next most stable economy as its demographics are better than most and it has the resources it needs to grow its economy; it has a strong military also. Of course, it depends on leadership. That is the main crisis everywhere now: leadership. We are in a very populist era with great skepticism of institutions and "establishment" positions, despite many of these positions being tried and true. So, in otherwords, as rough as the neare future is going to be as a matter of course, leadership will likely make matters worse, and Germany is one of the prime examples with its idealistic left that has just doomed them to an energy crisis by shutting down the nuclear program. When you are so idealist that you make the good the enemy of the perfect, then you will deserve what you get. Unfortunately, hard econmic times make the likelihood of extreme politicis - right wing nationalism or left socialism - almost inevitable - if history is our guide.
France is in deep trouble if the niger/Gabon situation continues as it will completely have to rely on the US and Russia for uranium and energy
Demographically all of Western Europe is facing a contraction of their indigenous IQ 100 population and a strong increase of clannish IQ 80 population with very rigid beliefs. Very very negative outlook
@@mattiasdahlstrom2024 Yes. As Douglas Murray considers in The Death of Europe.
I am as clueless as a stone when it comes monitory economics however what Germany did to itself is blowing my mind.
Stockholm syndrom propelled by competing nations. Its a late revenge of the holocaust.
And people here in Germany not only acted cluelessly but also cheered for such policy and discredited any critical person against this policy although it has been obvious for a decade or so that it doesn’t work anymore. As a German it showed me why Germany‘s history always had these ideology driven events which lead to disasters.
@@davinnicode germany has ALWAYS been led by ideology
@@davidm8394Welches Land war das nicht…?
What did we do?
I think two reasons make people vote AfD: a) they want to protest the woke/green policies of the sitting government. b) they like many of the AfD's policy proposals as they are very similar to the CDU policies of about a decade ago. This is so for some time, but nowadays the nazi label is worn out.
You are wrong. The CDU never wanted to destroy the EU and get out of NATO. Apart from this, it is *officially* (by court) allowed to call leading Afd politician Björn Höcke a "fascist". Google it.
@@stefanhetzel Maybe reading is difficult: I say "many"(meaning not all) and "very similar" (meaning not exactly the same).
And of course I don't speak about Höcke, I'm speaking about the average AfD voter.
So, you think that AfD will make coalition with the new left? This is a recipe for disaster. Two parties supporting Russia in Ukraine invasion but ideologically in oposition to each other and you can't see it, that somebody is messing with Germany.
@@stefanhetzel German courts have imprisoned 90+ year old women because the refused to believe the official narrative and spoke out about it. That court labelled Hoecke a fascist? Imagine that.
@@stefanhetzelyou obviously have a reading impairment or are just suffering from AfD derangement syndrome causing you to write absolute nonsense while you are frothing at the mouth because someone dare question the efficacy of your very undemocratic EU. Btw, they want to reform the EU, not abolish it.
germany is not in trouble...it is finished
Germany is well and truly skrewed .Thanks to Merkel and the new government 😢😢.
We always underestimated the extent to which Germany remains an occupied country.
E-X-A-C-T-L-Y.
Do you mean by USA?
Are you supporting NATO? Have you ever been to Ukraine? You sound like you don't know what you are talking about! German, UK, US taxpayers fully support Ukrainian neo Nazis in Ukraine. Do you have any kind of knowledge or education?
Bravo! Golden thoughts:)
We probably still underestimate the extent that US occupation was a very good thing for a very long time post-1945
Wolfgang Munchau is very keen on supporting the overall media and government narrative (rather call it propaganda) and framing the AfD as far right. Actually a significant number of the members of the AfD come from the CDU, the former conservative party that under Angela Merkel moved far left and still maintains that course under their current leader, Friedrich Merz, who by the way is a (former) Black Rock man. So if you want to call a party that is rather right of all the other parties (who are gathering on the far left edge) "far right", so be it! But keep in mind, that fascism may not only come from the far right, it may as well be from the far left.
Both fascism and Nazism are rooted in Marxist philosophy, but we must never mention it.
This is not only the German case you describe. Very similar to VOX in Spain; it is an offspring of the traditional PP (Popular Party), because their party had abandoned traditional right values (family, patriotism, oppose social/cultural replacement, more assertive foreign policy ...) to embrace "leftiest" and "globalist" values undistinguishable, and in some cases have implemented in some of the Communities (=Regions/Land) they govern even more extreme gender policies than the left. They respect the Constitution, believe in law, and it want it to be applied ... however they are labelled as "Far Right" by the media feeded with government subventions, a government that has blurred the separation of powers, controls and converted the Constitutional Court as an instrument to drive their goals meriting the popular nickname of "prostitutional Court" and has as allies "real" far left communist and nationalist parties with (ex) terrorist members. The sad issue is that the "moderate" right has bought their framing instead of rejecting it.
"the former conservative party that under Angela Merkel moved far left"
That is an actual insane take and you must be far right your self when you manage to label bourgeois neo liberalism as "far left". Just because its not far right nazis did not make it "far left" and a couple of concessions to the working class doesn't make it even left in an objective view of a political scale.
But Freddie did a fabulous job asking probing questions. The answer given by Wolfgang were honest, once the initial framing was questioned with respect by Freddie
@@Stekopo When you practice open borders race replacement policy, you are indeed a far left globalist anti-nationalist party. The conservative party in Germany are in fact far left genocidal globalist traitors. 2015 speaks for itself.
You have to love Wolfgang’s lack of consistency. When a political movement is citizen focused, it is “far right”. When the movement is focused on implementing draconian energy policies that adversely and severely impact citizens while providing little or no environmental or economic benefit, that is not “far left”. Wow, that is 21st century journalism laid bare.
I love how parties are labeled “far right” when their key/major policies are to help the people of that country, or NOT get into wars, support freedom to chose what medications to to take, etc. This is insanity.
This guy is an expert apparently but thinks far right means being against the EU!
AfD economic policy is even more anti-middle class than the established policies
Herr Munchau and other globalists are clearly afraid of the change which is coming. Their only defence is to discrediting and false labelling.
Demonizing those you do not agree with is the reason why Germany (and most NATO as a whole) is in this problem. It's self-created and self-inflicted. Aside from the fact that blaming those WITHOUT power for the outcome of the decisions of those IN power is irrefutably idiotic. Yet telling.
This is very well said. Propaganda keeps people fighting each other. Politics is basically a scam when all parties are controlled by a small group of corporate interests.
Why is calling somebody rightwing is a demonisation?
Excelllent analysis! And those two guys are discussing as if there is no permanent war going on. It's a cold war (against China), It's a Hot war (against Russia and Ukraine, too!) It's an economic war against many ( US versus EU, namely Germany and France), It's an ideological war ( "freedom" against serfdom), It's a cultural war ( Feminism +LGBTt against common sense and biology) and It's a war of information and beliefs (what is right, what is lebt what is science what is fake, what is true what is lie..)
All in all - we are doomed in this! No way out!
@@weizenobstmusli8232such a stupid reply can only come from people who do not know anymore how indoctrinated "left" they are! 😅
this expert forgets to mrntion that there was a coalition formed with the AfD in Thüringen. but chancellor Merkel intervened with no constitutional power to say, and the project was abolished. not how democracy should function, shouldn't it
Bullshit. There never was a coalition with the AFD.
Connection of "Germany" and "democracy" is a mockery.
@@marysmik9812 Is there a country with democracy?
It was scandalous!
I agree with you, but there was not even a coalition in Thüringen with the AfD. The "scandal" was, that FDP and CDU received votes of the AfD for their candidate!
It is the very same EU commission deciding to abandon combustion engine cars that hit Germany’s car industry irreversibly. Thus, besides other monstrous burocracy projects to say that Germany unanimously benefited from the EU is just not true, given also the fact that Germany was always a net payer and enabled Southern countries to take credits at lower interest rates! You also missed to say that our government is actually far left and becoming more and more authoritarian by the day. With their “strategy” of degrowth, exit from nuclear power, mass influx of unqualified migrants, increasing taxation, and limitless spending on an overreaching and expanding state administration, they have paved the way to what we have become now - the sick man of Europe.
That was quite funny, he countered all his point about them being on the far-right, the guy admits his points and then just continues calling them far-right anyway, what an idiot 😀
Afd was founded as euro-critical libertarian leaning party before the migration crisis. It moved towards a more national conservative stance since then.
Because they have realized that they can capture more voters with populist slogans. And until they are in power, the right wing of the party is still holding back. But that will change quickly.
Wolfgang seems to play down the Russia /Ukraine angle, for the Problems of Germany, when it seems like that is the main reason the Country is failing and it was self inflicted.
Germany has massive problems all because of the Ukr war - recession & de-industrialization. Scholz is a turnip, looks like a turnip, acts like a turnip. A weak man. A yes man to the US. When the US blew the pipes he said nothing. Every red line is crossed. The ultra Green Baerbock is a raving mad fascist. Habeck is no better & has no understanding of economics. Germany is going down & taking the EU with it.
I agree , however from my position this was a US con game played against Germany by a group of people who are completely unaware of the shift in the world. BRICS has now presented a new model to the world.. this model is in step with the shift from the PISCEAN age to the Age of Aquarius… we are now leaving the “Roman Empire” which has been the influence upon the world, as a world people’s we have lived with and under the mentality of this Empire.
@@Pauline-bg6ud "...by a group of people who are completely unaware of the shift in the world"
They are very aware. I agree the US is f-ing Germany over, but they're doing it as a long term strategy. The US knows they can't keep up with China long term, so in their minds they already settled for second best. Because the US knows China will trade when offered and there's no one else around. So the US will not want any competitors for the goods and resources, and the EU is potentially a serious competitor. Also a strong and peaceful EU-Russia combo will likely be favored by the Chinese over the militaristic bully that is the US. That's why they bet on splitting the combo and trying to destory both seperate entities. Russia failed, but Germany (and thus the EU) is stepping right into the trap that's been set for them. Frim US perspective, the most ideal outcome would be a kinetic war between Germany and Russia, with Poland (which has also great economic potential) being an intermediate step to get there.
@@Pauline-bg6ud Totally agree with you. But Government knew , FFS I even knew they were shooting themselves in the foot over Russian Gas, and I'm no Mastermind 😂
@@Pauline-bg6ud Sorry, but everybody with a brain knew this. The war in Syria was about Russia. Assad had to go because he is friendly toward Russia. Putin put an end to that.
As I see it, Europe has been waging war on itself since 2003. Iraq wasn't in Europe's interest. Just as Ukraine. And everybody knows Ukraine is going to lose. 300-400,000 Ukrainian soldiers have already died, while 40,000 Russian soldiers have died. Russia has another million soldiers ready. There's no chance Russia's going to accept NATO on its border. The United States were willing to start WW3 during the Cuban missile crisis. Why would we expect Russia to be less willing? Especially since the Russians know NATO lied to them in 2014.
UK could make use of this opportunity, but both sides of Parliament are occupied by pumpkins..
In Germany the Green Party was born as communist. In Hamburg were I was born and live, many early Greens moved there from communist parties.
It is always the same rhetorical maneuver from establishment figures to restrict actual democracy: 1. Voters are not happy with immigration. No establishment party offers any policies to reduce immigration so people vote for the fringe parties professing to reduce or reverse immigration. 2. Establishment pundits then focus on the right-wing character of the fringe party’s platform, looking for ways to restrict it. The driver of ”right-wing” support is immigration. If the establishment is unhappy about ”right-wing” parties they could just address the problem of mass immigration.
yup
The Anglo centric empire has always wanted a neutered Germany and an occupied enslaved Russia. Just look at the last 150 years of history. The mass migration is a result of anglo empirists destruction of the middle east....who leant on Merkel to take in a million refugees? And the US occupation of Germany with 10's of thousands of troops? Really? In the 21st century they are under the US yoke. It's a little hid secret they, the US, blew up the gas pipeline. German response....oh, we'll bend over so you Anglos can kick us harder! Wake up Germans, grow up!
Exactly.
Today even poor people in poor countries become aware that living standards are incomparably better in Europe and North America. The flood of desperate immigrants will abate only when birth rates drop sharply and local living conditions improve dramatically.
@@jjackmanster I have just upvoted all 4 posts, which gives an indication of the problem
Socialism has a price.
How is wanting the disbandment of the EU a 'Far right' position? So being anti EU is far right all of a sudden? No it isn't, that's a purely normal political opinion.
This is an excellent discussion on not just Germany but a lesson for the world. World orders are so fragile that globalization, cheap Russian Gas, German oldtech Industry etc seem so relevant at one moment and ten years later, doomed to fail. The most poignant comment, German Industry is not agile nor German politics.This is what the US does well.Not only do they shape the world order, they change fast. The real question is how this massive change in the world will impact China, that piggybacked on German success. The country that should watch carefully is Modi's India, pedaling hi-growth crony capitalism. Agility to change course quickly is what the world needs.
You've clearly never lived in the US. "Changing fast" is absolutely not what they do. They're quite literally willing to risk a nuclear exchange and a new Cold War to avoid having to change.
Please name to me any national economy that had or has done better? What was the better economic model? The US, the Italian, the Turkish, the Simbabwian 😂 ? Argentina, Brasil, Japan, Tasmania? 😅😅😅 please go ahead!
He lost my respect when he used antisemitism as a reason to characterize a party as far right. Antisemitism, and other forms of racism and tribalism, got sorted onto the right when the left right nonsense was begun, but hasn’t since been confined there. It’s all rhetoric which hasn’t stopped leftist governments from doing extremely antisemitic things at all. It just gets those people noted as exceptions.
If we look at deeds, we usually find it’s nothing to do with the more important left right differences and seems to correlate with too much government power and with identity politics (which have been leftist values in the US).
It’s well past time we gave up on the whole left right nonsense, but since we are too lazy, we should at least not use it to further known falsehoods.
A government can enforce social justice policies, bring in all sorts of spcial safety nets, introduce price controls, huge taxation to pay for enormous public projects, have enormous union programs, constantly stress social progress, cry oppression and victimhood, infiltrate every public and private organisation to enforce social progress, have a grand vision of utopia... But if they hate another group that I respect, then that's faaaar right extremism stupid! Every single point described the Nazis and what the modern left are doing and are trying to implement...
I remember the iron curtain being called "anti fascist rampart" by then Soviet East Germany. And that with our shared history of Nazi Germany. The left always played this come and it is scary that they are still getting away with it.
I think antisemitism is real and exists on both sides of the political divide. I have no reason to believe it is any more prevalent in the ranks of the AfD than in, say, die Linke.
He makes some valid points, but he lost me when he cited BRICS as an example of "waning Western power." BRICS is an absolute fantasy and will never work, largely given who the founding players are.
Virtually no one is antisemetic. Some anti Jewish. Many anti Zionist. Most anti US-Israeli-NATO neoliberal woke imperialist. All anti apartheid.
I think Freddy should coach German reporters and moderators on neutrality and unbiased reporting.
.. and correct use of English language.. 😁😁😁
Freedy should also learn that to destroy EU ADF dont need tanks, only referendum.
that’s not how state media works
Freddy let a lot past. Poor work.
@@igypop.Why did you drop the definite article? Your English sounds Russian. If I mention stones and glass houses, would you even get the English cultural reference?
Germany needs to repair or rebuild the Nordstream pipelines, and start buying gas from Russia again. That’s all.
The US will not allow Germany to do this.
Nothing to do with usa. Germany shut its own nuclear plants down then became too reliant on Russia for gas. They had to take a moral stance against putins invasion otherwise they would be morally bankrupt and this is popular in germany.
Plenty of alternative sources of energy around the world to buy and turn the nuclear plants back on.
@@user-ub3hd4sy4e Germany needs to repair or rebuild the Nordstream pipelines, and start buying gas from Russia again. That’s all there is to it.
Without low cost energy, German industrial capacity will tank, and with it will go the entire EU.
I'm a half German, mutti , American, ran into a German tourist camping , BMW mid-level desk job , we talked politics , social things , and I also talk with friends family , ...from what I gather , Germany is already over , everyone's ok too be placed on a micro homeland , and have immigrants do most things , stop eating meat and wonder where the magical energy that turns the lights comes from ....mostly , and if you say or question ....your jealous , so and it's not just me , those that did care too say something will probably just shut up
This problem of muddled thinking is not confined to Germany. If you simply look at the whole renewable energy system has not been thought through. There is no way that there are enough minerals to sustain it.
It's when ideology meets reality, but these idiots will be long gone with comfy pensions by then
The whole,e term “renewable” is a farce to begin with.
Because it is oil money thatinvest and lobby secretly for “green”..
Yes... To "think" is beyond the capacity of most people, they do not know enough, to permit thought... My dog "thinks" as well... As well, as most people... People, as a rule, are stupid-as-hell...
Decades of hypa Liberalism and open borders Globalisation has hollowed out the West.
Freddy, please interview CJ Hopkins, an American Journalist who's now being threatened by the German government with two months in prison, a large fine, (and huge legal fees) because of a book he wrote criticizing the German government for its extreme policies on covid and climate change. Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger support CJ, and I believe you and your readers will support him, too.
There is no free speech rule in Germany, though.
That merely proves how Fascist it is.@@grahamt5924
You're wrong. Please inform yourself about the case and the laws he broke again.
Matt Taibbi supports him? Then it's probably justified to sue this fuck.
@@flok462You're.
The problem with the UK and brexit is half our government have not and will not accept we have left.
As soon as I heard the word "far-right", I checked out.
Wolfgang: "...the far-right blah blah blah...."
Freddy: "....they are not really far-right, right?"
Wolfgang: "... no, I suppose not..."
Continues on: "... so the far-right...."
Well analyzed!
Exactly... Munchau completely fails to explain and define what makes the AfD "far-right" or even "anti-constitutional".
His claim that the AfD calls for "disbandment of the EU" is a blatant lie as a brief look in the party manifesto proves (they call for reform of the EU through the democratic process).
And his claim of supposed "anti-saemit$m" remains completely unsubstantiated.
And that was all he had...
Sad Freddy let him get away with that. These outlandish claims are never called out as long as they are made against the supposed "far-right"...
Hes an activist and shouldn't have even been interviewed as a "researcher\ commentator".
German politics has shifted so far left that what was the centre-right is now “far-right”.
It is unfair to view AfD only through a far right vantage point. There is certainly an unpleasant component but there is more to it. CDU made a huge mistake excluding possibility of coalition with afd in last elections. By doing so they could have much more influence afd to moderate itself. Now it will be much harder and sooner or later someone will do unthinkable and make a coalition with afd. I am also not sure that russian gas + german industry was a bad deal for Germany. German „dependency“ on Russian gas is complete BS, since Germany cannot be „dependent“ in terms of its gas consumption but can only substitute one dependency on another. If anything „dependency“ on russian gas is less damaging for Germany than dependency on the USA gas because Russia is far less an economic competitor to Germany than usa.
Germany was dependent on Russian gas in the same way as I am dependent on oxygen. Inexpensive energy from Russia is what made German industry globally competitive. Germany has high regulation and very high wages, inexpensive energy is really the only thing they had going for them. You're absolutely right that economic cooperation with Russia was a good deal for Germany, which is why it was pursued so vigorously starting with the Schroeder era. Economic cooperation (not NATO or guns) brings peace, stability and prosperity. Russia was as dependent on German chemicals and machine tools as Germany was on Russian gas and oil. Win-win. Except now not. Germany can now look forward to the US disemboweling its industry while RU overtakes DE as the largest European economy in PPP-normalised terms.
@paulie-g I am not sure if you are German or not but there is much more to German economic success over last 20 years than only cheap Russian gas. Germans are resourceful, clever and pragmatic people. There is at the moment a narrative being pushed that Germany is responsible for its current misfortune because it relied on manufacruring, she has been slow in adapting the digital economy, its gdp growth highly depends on exports and not on consumer spending while it is a relatively a low debt economy. So basically Germany did wrong in having a strong industrial basis, having its goods demanded globally, being fiscally responisble :-). But Germans didnt moan when pipeline was destroyed and despite the Seymour Hersh elaborate explanation of what happened to the pipeline German media still try to push a bullshit story abot ukrainian commandos . So German look as if they will not complain about being de-industrialised while they will accept the blaim that it is their fault that they didnt switch towards the digital economy. I however hope that Germany grow pair of balls for the sake of Europe as in economic terms Germany is Europes only hope. I actually like and respect W Munchau but UK being better than Germany in 10 years? I mean wtf, based on what.
Germany’s history is always lurking.
Not many in this comment section hear or understand you. I concur with your short but impactful statement.
I'm German and have been voting for AfD since 2016. I will continue to do so in the future.
Eastern German Nazi
You have to protect what’s yours. This is nothing to do with far right. Which is about crossing borders and seizing that which is not yours. I’m Irish and wish there were an Alternativ fur Irland.
Why?
@@amels4620 Because all other parties are German hating anti-White traitors. They deliberately flood my beautiful Deutschland with racial strangers, with hateful parasites. They want to see me and my family homeless, destitute and eventually dead and they think it is funny. To hell with Merkel and all of her stooges and puppets, all of them!
Wolfgang Munchau is an arrogant sack of shit who gets high sniffing his own farts. When we win people like him will be conscripted forced laborers cleaning human feces bare handed from gutters.
Germany! Our hearts bleeds for you. All the way from South Africa. Can you remember all the sanctions on South Africa? Do you now understand what happened here? It was about all the various cultures in Africa. Now the people want their cultures back. The problem is our goverment and so is yours. The green party must go to hell. Co2 is what plants needs that give off oxygen? Oops? All the way from South Africa.
There is a reason FT Deutschland didn' take off. With brains like his.
If you make a party illegal, their members will end up in another party.
Likewise, if the center-right party doesn’t behave like the center-right party, immigration and energy policy, you render those members political homeless and they will find a home elsewhere.
Very good interview. Energy is economy. Trump warned Germany 2018 on being dependent on russian gas and was laught at. Now they deal with the consequence of being naiv. And the green engery hysteria just result in more dirty coalburning....
So a left wing party that opposes ukraine war is just left wing buuuuuuuut
A right wing party that does the same.....that makes them far right
If they use racism and nazi-talk, like the afd, what else could they be?
Are you supporting NATO? Have you ever been to Ukraine? You sound like you don't know what you are talking about! German, UK, US taxpayers fully support Ukrainian neo Nazis in Ukraine. Do you have any kind of knowledge or education?
well spotted, and isn't it always that way?
He didn't say that.
@@lucdubras exactly, it's what he DIDN'T say that tells you all you need to know!
He can't bring himself to describe the Far Left in Germany as "Far Left", only a right of centre party gets tarnished with the word "far" in his vocabulary and philosophy.
"Germany has many strengths, but it is not an agile economy."
That sums it up concisely. And the reason for that lack of agility is a ponderous, bloated bureaucracy.
He would probaby classify you as 'far right' for saying that.
... and complacency by its citizens to speak up against it, as everyone believes it's just annoying, but not seeing the real consequences it has on a societal-mental as well as economic level.
@@juliamihasastrology4427 Haha. I'm by no means "far right." But if pointing out the pitfalls of bloated bureaucracies means I have to endure that moniker, I'll probably still sleep at night. ;-)
@@annelbeab8124 Well said.
Indeed, a ponderous, bloated bureaucracy and arrogance to boot. Perhaps that should be jack-boot.
If we allow ideas like leaving the NATO or leaving the EU as radical ideas, than the word "radical "will loose its meaning.
without arguments you are better of saying nothing
@@soulripper4423 It is funny when somebody who has no argument of his own writes comment like this. Just priceless.
@@peterrezac881 my pleasure to entertain you, even though i tried to provoke a thought instead
Where on Germany can one buy a house for 20 000 Euros? And the government is paying up to half of it ... guess I'm off here, seems badly researched
I didn''t understand his explanation for why he was saying AFD was "far" right. The first example he gave was that it was against the EU project and wanted it to be disbanded. I'm not sure how that means that it is right wing, let alone "far" right. In the UK in any event, the left has been until recently, fairly anti-EU. I didn't understand his other explanations either.
Yes that didn't make much sense, declaring you want to abolish the EU is all well and good.
It's as though he feels he has to say it.
@@merocaineAccording to the German government and mainstream this is considered far right.
People who are against sending weapons to Ucraine have been called "Lumpenpazifisten" by the Spiegel and to top it all
"fallen angels from hell" by Chancellor Scholz.
Ps. I wish Freddy had invited someone else to have a conversation about the state of Germany but not this guy
There was nothing to understand as it didn't make any sense.
In addition, his claim that the AfD wants to "disband the EU" is a blatant lie, as a brief look into teh AfD's party manifesto proves. They want to reform the EU by means of the democratic process. How extrem...
As for his claims of "anti-semitism" he didn't even bother to substantiate them and conceded that statements by any individual do not characterise the party.
This part was utterly ridiculous.
The AfD is a racist, nationalist, homophobic, antisemitic party that wants to align Germany with the chaotic Russian mafia-state. That's why its ok to call it "far-right".
The AfD was founded in 2013 by a professor of economics as a conservative party. The politics of Merkel helped the far right people in the AfD. Also the media usually report about the far right members in the AfD and therefore make them stronger internally in the party. Mainstream politics in Germany is interested in an extreme opposition which makes it easier to fight them. They want "no alternative" to their politics and AfD from the beginning said "there is an alternative".
The funny thing is that the AfD's alternative is more of the same old schlock. They are not anti-establishment on many political fields. It's only immigration they do something different.
The branding of Lucke as this genius of macroeconomics is pretty strong, but it rarely is mentioned that not only has none of his big sweeping predictions, like that the EU would totally collapse within, what was it, 3 years, came anywhere close to reality, but that his populist gamble went off rails exactly the way he was being told it would be from the beginning. He was running a sensationalist populist campaign from the start and he very calculatedly caused controversies to gain media attention and to attract far right voters. It's fair to say that he never expected the far right to use him in the end. He fully intended to use them as a little boost to get off the ground and it's also fair to mention that he aborted his project the moment he saw the far right becoming a force in his party that could not be relegated to the fringe anymore. But he was told that would happen all the time and he still pushed that strategy.
Lucke, in the end, was a political grifter, who tried to sell plain old neoliberalism with a fancy new "revolutionary" branding and within less than the 3 years he gave the EU to live, his own creation turned on him.
As soon as I hear the accusation of 'far right' I start to hear an ideologue at work with an agenda. Wolfgang starts off calling Georgia Meloni 'far right', then a few minutes says she govern from the centre right. Wolfgang isn't even consistent. Giorgia and her party Brothers of Italy.
What ideologues really mean by 'far right' I think is just a pride in one's nation, strong borders, limited immigration etc. The kind of values that even the left used to have, before they went all globalist and woke. Anyone right of Stalin or Mao, who is proud of their nation, wants border control and iimted immigration, is now termed 'far right' by the ideologues.
Wolfgang, what do you consider then is 'far left'? Totalitarian, resentful and hatefilled, a tendency to gulag camps and mass death would be good description of Stalin and Pol Pot? Between the real far right, and the far left, we should fear the far left far more, based upon history!
Sorry, but you can't expect me to continue watching after someone states that Germany's problems stem from "making themselves dependent on Russian gas". Logically, their access to Russian gas was a big reason for the success of their industrial base. Their problems came when they suddenly cut themselves OFF from Russian gas.
This interview is deeply sad: the impression I am left with is that no one in Germany has believed in anything besides economic growth for so long that they have completely forgotten *how* to believe in anything as a people
Yes I agree, as a nation they have lost their way, where they were once proud they now grovel and apologise for things they should not be apologising for, man up Germany, get rid of your Greens and support the AFD.
Wolfgang's view.
Germany's Wirtschaftswunder was born out of free market enterprise unleashed.
Since Germany is largely dominated by the EU politically and ideologically regulations and bureaucracy have long ago killed initiative and pushed innovators to greener pastures.
The EU has also influenced the dilution of national and regional identities. Legacy political parties follow the EU towards a swill of serfs, all indistinguishable, interchangeable economic units.
German Eurocrats have this problem of EU and € idolatry and dogma that they impose on other members
Yes, thats true. Any national pride is labeled as Nazi. We are not allowed to a have a positive history as a nation, So, what can one expect.
@@smftrsddvjiou6443it doesn't help that so many successful German companies are tainted by their connections to the Nazis.
I remember Mick Jagger saying many years ago (when asked) that Brexit would be hard initially but better for the UK in the future. I believe he is a smart business man.
His company is listed in the tax haven The Netherlands. He's a shrewd business man alright.
He is right. EU is a mess.
The current state of the EU is exactly what you get when idealism far outweighs pragmatism.
The EU is like a bike. If it doesn't keep moving forward it'll fall over.
It knows this.
Ironically it was the Thatcherite single market that saved its bacon in the 1980s.
What will save it now with its economic powerhouse now deprived of cheap Russian gas Germany raises some mighty interesting questions.
'It will be forged in crises' said one of its original leading voices Monnet.
Looks like it's time for a bit of forging......
@@reptilespantoso Bono-JAXED and U2 also have their business listed in NL .
like all germans he immediately has to mention without thinking that AFD is far right. fantastic job from the interviewer to question why and we get a lot of mental gymnastics and no real answer
On the difficulty of forming a government in this situation - In Sweden it was said nobody would form a coalition with the "unacceptable" "far Right" Sweden Democrats (SD,)but now we have a coalition govt whose majority is based on an agreement with SD. Nobody else was able to form a govt. You can't escape reality.
I am German myself. PLEASE spear us this person in the future
That would be a bit messy to put on you tube
@@madeinengland1212 Let's agree on it's a typo. ^^
From what do you wish to be spared? The open discussion of SOME of Germany's ills or the obfuscation of 'closed pipelines' and scary 'far right' parties who just want to keep Germany German.
@@archibaldikowski3646 , or is it? One less left wing propagandist.
"spare"
Thank you for this interesting discussion/prognosis. I learned a lot. My only question is why you mention only the right-wing AfD party as having fascist tendencies. To me as an outsider, the German Green Party also seems to have unconscious(?) fascistic tendencies. They have completely betrayed their pro-peace roots and now operate as a kind of cheerleading squad for US global military and financial expansion -- in spite of the fact that the US military has the largest carbon footprint of any organization in the world. Moreover, the German Greens uncritically repeat verbatim all sorts of discredited US propaganda against a variety of BRICS nations. The German Greens also seem to worship power and adore the fact that the US wants to become the unipolar global power and maintain an almost worldwide empire. In fact, the Greens seem to be competing with the British Tories to see which country, Germany or the Britain, will be the most loyal sidekick of the US neocons. Ironically, many American writers, including some US Greens, have severely criticized the US permanent war state and its attempt to become an empire. Some US critics have even called the would-be unipolar US Empire the Fourth Reich. And US support for many totalitarian regimes and military dictatorships around the world since 1945 is well known. The current corrupt and undemocratic regime in Ukraine, a semi-colony of the US since 2014, also displays some ultranationalistic, racist, and even neonazi influences. In fact, Ukraine is probably the only country in Europe that has made national heroes out of fascists and Nazi collaborators -- for example, Stepan Bandera. Yet the German Greens almost giddily embrace this very problematic regime with no hesitation, though they are not the only ones. So, do not the German Greens also qualify as quasi-fascists, although they display different (USA-approved) fascistic tendencies than the German far right does? I would like to see this difficult question discussed by UnHerd.
Just admit that you/we do not know why Russia invaded Ukraine, and that we also do not know to what degree US politicians contributed to the start of this war. So basically like WW1 and WW2. You cannot decide who of the 2 started it. Perhaps both, believing they could win. Perhaps it is the same now.
Therein Freddy's true bias is revealed, alas.
@@tomorrowneverdies567how about nato moving up from west german border to the russian border, and taunting russia with making ukraine the next USA satrap.
The Green Party has now also learnt to kowtow to the will of the US. It has seen how it worked for Merkel as opposed to Schroeder on her stance on the invasion of Iraq.
@@tomorrowneverdies567 The war in Ukraine started in February 2014, and we know who started it: 1) Obama/Biden, and the State Dept. We have concrete evidence of this. And 2) a core of armed, violent activists in Right Sector and other contemporary fascist followers of Stepan Bandera and similar fascist Ukrainian collaborators with the Nazis after 1941. The Banderites and other ultranationalist OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) fascists also slaughtered at least 100,000 Jews and Poles. In 1945, they contacted US forces and offered their services, and the US supported them in a guerilla war against the Ukraine SSR from 1945-55, since many in the US even in 1945 hoped to overthrow the communist government of the USSR. After this OUN guerilla war failed, many OUN ultranationalists, along with many former Nazi intel officers, scientists, etc., were given special treatment and illegally given US citizenship ("Operation Paperclip" etc.). Other OUN members went to Canada and the UK, while the US supported OUN groups who gathered in Munich and Vienna to write tracts about their ultanationalistic movement. After 1992, many returned to independent Ukraine and began to teach young Ukrainians about the OUN, Bandera, and other ultranationalist fascists. Out of this learning experience came the leaders of the Ukrainian Social-Nationalist Party (a play on National Socialist Party), Right Sector, Azov, Aidar, and other openly fascist and ultranationalist groups that spearheaded the violent Feb. 22, 2014 coup that threatened the life of the legally elected president of Ukraine and drove him out of the country. This coup was also helped and commanded in the background by the State Dept, and because the US supported the coup, the Ukraine military decided to recognize it, even though it was illegal. The first thing the junta did was outlaw the use of the Russian language in public and outlaw Ukrainian left-wing political parties. It also put up many statues to and renamed streets after fascist Banderite heroes from the 1940s. Many racist (against ethnically Russian, Magyar, and Roma Ukrainians) laws resembling the Jim Crow laws in the American south were passed, and the government especially harassed and suppressed ethnically Russian Ukrainians, calling them "subhuman" by using the Nazi tern "Untermenschen." The illegal 2014 coup and junta were not recognized by the majority of people in eastern and southeast Ukraine, and when their protests were ignored, some declared their independence.The junta and then president Poroshenko responded by sending military force, but in two places the protestors successfully established republics: the Donetsk People's Republic and the Lugansk People's Republic, where fighting is currently going on. These republics voted to become part of Russia, but at first Putin refused to accept them, because the Minsk Accords, signed by Ukraine, France, and Germany required Ukraine to give Donetsk and Lugansk special autonomy within Ukraine. But Ukraine never actually gave the areas any autonomy, and France and Germany never pressured Ukraine to carry out the agreement it had signed. Instead, ever since 2014, the Ukrainians have constantly shelled civilian homes and buildings in Donetsk and Lugansk Republics from a distance, killing about seven thousand people and wounding many, many more. This 2014-2022 civil war, a form of ethnic cleansing, was never properly reported by the western media and so it is almost unknown in the west. Then, last year Poroshenko, Hollande, and Merkel admitted that they never even tried to carry out the Minsk Agreement. Instead, they said they were actually just trying to buy time so Ukraine could build up its military. When Putin heard that he had been tricked, he must have been very angry, and soon Russia officially recognized the independence of republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. Also, in December 2021, the US completely rejected Russia's offer to negotiate about mutual security for both NATO and Russia. The US basically told Putin, "We don't do negotiation with you -- go pound sand," or should I say "pound snow"? Then, in Feb. 2022, the shelling of civilians in Donetsk and Lugansk began to increase sharply, and the Russians said they had intelligence that the Ukrainians were planning to invade Donetsk and Lugansk in March 2022, so they decided to invade Ukraine first in order to prevent the planned invasion. At that time about 120,000 Ukrainian troops were in trenches near the borders of Donetsk and Lugansk, so the Russians couldn't attack directly. Instead they invaded Ukraine mainly through the back door in the north before the planned Ukrainian invasion of the two republics, which were allies of Russia, could begin. I think the Russians were trying to protect Russia as well as the two republics, since in Feb. 2022 Zelensky told the Munich security conference that Ukraine was thinking of gaining nuclear weapons. To the Russians, who lost 27 million people to Nazi invaders during WWII, the thought of the ultranationalist, quasi-fascist government of Ukraine (when Zelensky visited the Pope this year he wore OUN insignia on his shirt) getting atomic weapons may have seemed apocalyptic -- and unfortunately the US never stepped in to reassure Russia that they wouldn't allow Ukraine get nuclear weapons. I am not a Putin supporter, and I don't like invasions, but it's clear Russia was both provoked and felt existentially threatened by Ukraine. If Russia put hundreds of thousands of soldiers in Canada and placed nuclear-capable missiles just north of the US border, the US would immediately give Russia and Canada an ultimatum, and if that were ignored, it would immediately invade invade within 24 hours. And in fact JFK gave such an ultimatum to the USSR in 1962, and luckily Russia was willing to negotiate and withdraw its missiles from Cuba, while the US withdrew its missiles from Turkiye. We should not forget that in Feb. 2022 and now as well Russia obviously feels existentially threatened by the US and its allied "assistant" nations in NATO. The Cold War began when the US dropped A-bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, mainly in order to threaten the USSR, and ever since 1945 the US and its European allies have been planning and looking for ways and chances to achieve regime change in Russia. Above all, they have existentially threatened Russia by breaking their solemn promise in 1990 never to let NATO advance a single step beyond the border of East Germany. All the promises made to Russia by the US not to expand NATO up to Russia's border have been broken. In 2022 the Russians clearly felt they had to invade Ukraine in order to keep Ukraine from becoming a huge invasion ramp for use by NATO in its attempts to cause regime change in Russia. Correct or not, that is what they obviously believed and still believe, and they refused to take any chances on the issue of national security. The US has been meddling in Ukraine and supporting anti-Russian ultranationalists and fascists there ever since it became independent, especially since 2004, and US pols constantly talk about regime change in Russia in a great variety of ways, so it's not hard to see that Russia truly feels threatened by the US, whose president constantly demonizes Putin and talks about turning Russia's economy -- and thus its government -- into "rubble." This, all too briefly, is how the internationalized civil war in Ukraine seems to have begun. There is much more to say, of course. The Ukrainians have been used mainly as pawns and cannon-fodder in the titanic, decades long US struggle to destroy the governments of Russia and China and achieve worldwide hegemony -- a strategy formulated by the neocons in Washington DC. Objective discussion of the deep structure and history of this global strategy is generally taboo in the US MSM, though glimpses of this worldwide strategy can be had in reports made by the Rand Corporation and other DC think tanks, etc.
Only 20% of Germany’s Natural Gas was from Russia. Norway is roughly as important. The principle people who lost when Nordestream was partly blown up (3 of 4 pipes, when only 2 worked previously) are the German companies who owned 49% of it and made money from selling on gas to Europe. Wholesale Natural Gas prices in Europe are actually less than they were before the war started although not back to 2020 levels. The rise in bills to households and industry is largely “greedflation”.
If they didn't do any thing wrong,
Then they have no thing about which to worry.
As a German he „had“ to say far right.
@@ThomasVWorm You’ve just totally proven my point. Actually, it’s even worse than I thought.
@@ThomasVWorm You know that commenting produces CO2, right? Shouldn't you be glued to some street? ^^
No Höcke is a nazi simpleton idiot. As bad as the green fascist party. One can call the things what they are.....
A major industrial country shuts off nuclear power and shuts of gas from a major supplier. What do you think will happen to their economy; answers on a postcard.......
Nothing.
Europe (the EU) took the wrong path when it focused exclusively on cooperation, seeking to create a United States of Europe. Healthy competition among the various European countries should also have been encouraged. That was Europe's strength, and it reflected and shored up the continent's diversity.
You can judge him on the use of "incompatible with constitutional law" without giving any good examples. Everywhere now you see left wingers use extra adgetives next to "far right" or "extreme right" because they know that those words lost all meaning. In the Netherlands they now use "anti rechtsstatelijke extreem rechtse partijen" or "anti constitutional law extreme right party's" They are all using the same playbook.