Welcome to the beginning of our series WTF Politics from indieBerlin where we take a weekly meander through what's happening in German politics, every Tuesday - especially for expats and internationals living in the fair city of Berlin!
Because yes, it does get confusing.
And we do seem to live in times where there's, well, a lot going on.
So here we go - Post #1 - March 17, 2026
It's been - surprise, surprise! - another week in the German and Berlin political landscape that, well, requires a little catch-up.
It's not really possible to say anything about politics at the moment without referencing the war going on in Iran, as both the violence and the repercussions expand daily.
Without wishing to suggest that any of the other aspects of this widening conflict are in any way less important, still: there's one above all others that is uppermost for me, and that is how Trump and his administration is doing their best to persuade other countries - especially European ones - to join in. And that it's, well, not going very well.
From Spain risking the wrath of the orange one by point-blank refusing to have any part in it, and even condemning the war completely, to the general European political community deciding that this was just a bridge too far in doing their best to keep on appeasing the flipflopper-in-command, it was perhaps, finally, a turning point.
It's your war mate
We've all wished that our political leaders would draw a line in the sand and say, no more; but we have to admit at the same time that it's tough: when the US is so difficult to ignore as a commercial partner and the job of the politicians is to keep their country's economy going as well as obey basic common-sense morality - this has been the proverbial rock and hard place.
But enough is enough, and Trump's decision to go to war without apparently informing anyone - neither the US congress nor any of the US's allies - has led country after country to simply say non. Yes, even Keir Starmer, whose position is even harder than that of the Europeans, trying to run a country with a broken economy while not actually being allowed, for whatever weird reason, to admit that cutting themselves off from their main trading partners ten odd years ago might just be the thing that got them to this point…even he, in his enforced supplicant position, has found the temerity to shake his head and say, It's your war mate. We're not involved. (Knowing as well that in a week, a month or a year from now the Orangeness would suggest that the UK never came to the party anyway; or they did, but stayed well back out of harm's way).
So there's that. Is the tide turning? Perhaps.
Meanwhile these are some of the important things that have been happening close to home:
Brandenburg's new coalition
While it has generally become de rigeur as a denizen of the German capital to completely ignore the large and many-laked state that surrounds it, it might behoove us to pay a little more attention: recent polls have shown that the AfD (the right wing extremist party that wants to take us back to the good old Nazi days, in case you've been living under a rock recently) is standing at 35%: Which means that if you wander around Brandenburg these days, one in three people who are looking at you voted for the party that considers it reasonable to publicly declare that there is such a thing as ethnic nationalism and that they're proud to espouse it (ethnic nationalism being something you could briefly sum up as meaning that even if you have a German passport, you're not really German unless you're white and you like a good Bockwurst).
Which is all the more reason to rejoice that the SPD (think Labour in England or the Democrats in the US, loosely) is managing its wafer-thin hold on power: after its previous coalition with the Sara Wagenknecht party (BSW) fell apart, it's just now (today, at time of writing), and after a few months of governing as a minority party, managed to set up a new coalition with the CDU (think the UK's Conservative Party and, perhaps, the Republican party of ten or twenty years ago in the US).
Everyone in Brandenburg, though, is looking ahead with some trepidation to 2029, when the next state elections take place. Sounds distant and perhaps unimportant, but having the Nazis get back into power in the state that surrounds the German capital is something worth keeping an eye on.
The Greens triumph in Baden-Württemberg
I'm going to take a leap of faith and assume that if you're reading this you're probably somewhat liberally minded and open to the idea of not messing up the earth any more than it is already…in which case this is great news right?
Yes, down in Baden-Würtemberg (head straight south to Munich and turn right an hour before you get there) one of the Green party's most visible and well-liked politicians, Cem Ozdemir, was voted in to lead the state.
This made waves for various reasons: first off, he's Germany's first state premier of Turkish origin - and this in a time of a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment and a societal polarisation down right-left lines.
Secondly, the CDU (the Conservatives, remember?) were expected to get in pretty easily; especially a. because the Greens became pretty unpopular after their (perceived?) performance in the last government and b. because Baden-Württemberg is the land of capitalism, being the place where, for example, both Porsche and Mercedes are based, i.e. home territory - you would think - for the CDU.
But it was not to be: Merz's CDU are nose-diving in the polls, not only because he/they has/have completely reneged on most of the things he promised to do before he was elected (never heard that one before!) but also because he ain't handling pretty much anything very well - from immigration to the economy to semi-racist dog whistles with references to immigrants (read: darker skinned people) messing up his idea of what the city landscape should look like.
Ryanair
Apparently they're cutting a lot of flights to and from Berlin and Hamburg. It's complicated, but they're annoyed that Germany is charging too much tax (aren't we all haha) and too high a charge to offset pollution.
BahnBet
A Brazilian-Austrian artist with a sense of humour, Caio van Caarven has taken the fact that the Deutsche Bahn has over recent years become hugely unreliable - often arriving late, and almost as often cancelling trains - and turned it into a game called the BahnBet project. Now you can bet on whether trains are going to be late or not and win…well, "Caßh", which is not cash after all. But hey, a lot of fun, and will probably offset the frustration if you're playing the game while standing on a platform, waiting for a train that's been delayed.
Well that's all for this week folks, pop back around next Tuesday for your weekly fix of WTF Politics from indieBerlin!
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