Democracy

Can Austria and Portugal provide clues as to which conditions are needed for progressive forces to flourish?

A discussion with Ralf Fücks, outgoing president of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, on the situation in Germany, coalitions with Merkel and the rise of the AfD.

What was the Italian referendum on constitutional reforms really about?

Green Mayor of Grenoble Eric Piolle on involving citizens in how their city is governed.

How has the significance of democracy changed, and why do elections not stimulate the same pre-vote frenzy and post-result calm that they use to, and are supposed to?

Brexit has been a shock. It wasn’t the European Union that smashed the trade unions, depleted Britain’s social housing stock and then went on an orgy of privatisation, but Brexit has handed complete, unregulated control over to those who did, and the potential consequences reach far beyond Britain’s borders.

Since the outset, the ‘Franco-German engine’ has been the driving force in the European construction process.

Can democracy be the project that leads to further European integration?

The architecture of the European Union institutions is flawed.

The European Union is far from perfect – from a Green perspective – yet at times when it is threatened, we must rally to its defence as an idea and as a project.