Marc Martorell Junyent is an author and researcher based in Munich.
In Germany, at least 8,000 people go to jail each year for failing to pay public transit tickets. The relevant part of the criminal code was introduced under the Nazis — yet is still routinely used to imprison mostly poor non-payers.
Germany’s socialist party Die Linke has been revitalized by its recent election breakthrough. With the Social Democrats cravenly backing Friedrich Merz’s conservative and militarist agenda, Die Linke has to offer a bold oppositional message.
In Germany, a toxic national debate on Muslims and immigration has fueled the rise of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland. Polling second place ahead of February’s federal elections, mainstream parties are increasingly playing into its rhetoric.
Germany’s left-wing party is in trouble, with divides over Gaza adding to the split by former spokeswoman Sahra Wagenknecht. At last weekend’s party congress, a new leadership set out plans to reconnect with working-class voters in order to avoid collapse.
Electoral gains for the Alternative für Deutschland have shown that the far right can win in Germany. Mainstream parties are touting broad coalitions to keep the AfD from power — but they show little sign they can resist its antiestablishment messaging.
On July 20, 1944, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg led a failed bid to assassinate Adolf Hitler. In the postwar years, the coup attempt was used to claim that Germans had never accepted Nazism — and today even the far right calls the plotters its heroes.
Head of the Alternative für Deutschland’s state branch in Thuringia, Björn Höcke is one of the far-right party’s most extreme leaders. He just got fined for using a Nazi slogan — but it might not hurt his chances of winning this fall’s Thuringia state election.
Seven years since the failed bid for Catalan independence, the national question still haunts Spanish politics. But Sunday’s snap elections in Catalonia are also about its economic model — and its increasing dependence on a low-wage tourist sector.
Leaks from a secret meeting on “remigration” have prompted a wave of protests against the Alternative für Deutschland. But as Germany’s debate on immigration harshens, this far-right party is becoming a powerful electoral threat.
Spain’s Law of Democratic Memory was meant to end official silence over the Spanish Civil War and shed light on Franco-era crimes. But right-wing parties are using their power to ensure the truth remains buried.
In July, the European Union announced a deal with Tunisia to police migration. The deal allowed the EU to outsource the dirty work of repressing migrants — but it’s done nothing to hide the mounting numbers of desperate people dying in the Mediterranean.