Skip to main content
NEU job advert
Germany: a new right, a newer left, and the old war
We can only hope the charismatic leftist Sahra Wagenknecht’s new party can beat the AfD, as the increasingly out-of-touch ruling caste in government prepares Germany for huge, belligerent ‘war games,’ writes VICTOR GROSSMAN
A man holds a sign reading ‘Anti-fascism is handicraft’ during a protest against the AfD party and right-wing extremism in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, January 21, 2024

LOOKING down from my window onto Berlin’s broad Karl-Marx Allee boulevard a week ago Friday, I saw hundreds and hundreds of green tractors moving in two disciplined lines towards central Brandenburg Gate.

Similar lines all over Germany were angrily protesting against government measures, based on budgetary or ecological concerns, but which cut farm income, especially for struggling farmers.

Hostile placards on the tractors denounced government ministers; a few added makeshift gallows with their names. On Monday they converged for a giant national protest.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Heidi Reichinnek
Berlin Bulletin / 23 May 2025
23 May 2025

In part two of May’s Berlin Bulletin, VICTOR GROSSMAN, having assessed the policies of the new government, looks at how the opposition is faring

WE SHALL OVERCOME: Marchers display a huge word ‘PEACE’
Features / 21 February 2025
21 February 2025
VICTOR GROSSMAN reports, with a little chuckle, on how US readiness to work with Russia, not just on peace for Ukraine, has thrown a spanner into the German electoral machine
HARD-HITTING: Sevim Dagdelen
Interview / 8 February 2025
8 February 2025
Ben Chacko talks to Bundestag member for the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, SEVIM DAGDELEN, about the continuing war in Ukraine, the economic crisis, controversies over immigration, the failings of Germany’s liberalised prostitution policy, and the importance of free speech
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (left) and AfD co-leader Alice
Features / 3 January 2025
3 January 2025
With federal elections coming up in Germany in February, NICK WRIGHT takes a look at the class forces shaping the policies of the main parties, and sees little hope of a breakthrough for the left