Russian-German relations in the context of A. Merkel's visits to Moscow and Kiev

Federal Chancellor A. Merkel, who is leaving her post after the Bundestag elections in September, visited Moscow and Kiev on August 20 and 22. The working visits became part of the consolidation of foreign policy foothold, to be transferred to the future government coalition and its leader. The author analyzes results of the negotiations between Bundescanzlerin and presidents of Russia and Ukraine and their significance for the future of Russian-German relations.

The significance of the Bundestag elections for internal and external political processes in FRG and Russian-German relations

The article analyzes the results of elections to the German Bundestag, held on September 26, 2021. They are viewed as “epoch-making” due to A. Merkel’s leaving the politics, electing a new chancellor, forming a new government coalition by three parties, determining the fate of popular and small party formations and their political leaders. The author assesses the election results from the viewpoint of prospects for domestic and foreign political development of Germany and future of Russian-German relations.

Corona als „Stunde der Regierungsparteien“? Die Folgen der Covid-19-Pandemie für das Parteiensystem

Within weeks after its occurrence in March 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic led to major changes in the structure of the German party system . The pandemic was an external shock that changed the relations of the parties to each other and their strength in the polls . Until the end of 2020, there was broad support for the governing parties, in particular for the CDU/CSU . Following mismanagement of the crisis response, high expectations were dis­appointed in early 2021 and a general loss of trust and support in the political decisions makers could be registered . However, a third phase was characterized by a lightening of infections and more dominated by the party campaigns in the run-up to the federal elec­tion in September 2021 . All in all, the different campaign strategies and individual gaffes of leading candidates were most important for the outcome as was a general, yet diffuse wish for change . All in all, the pandemic did have a strong influence on the German party sys­tem, but it was not decisive for the results of the 2021 Bundestag elections .

New medium, old strategies? Comparing online and traditional campaign posters for German Bundestag elections, 2013–2017

Election campaigns in hybrid media systems are characterised by the integration of newer and older media. With the rise of social media platforms, newer tools of political communication emerge, such as online campaign posters, complementing older tools, such as traditional campaign posters. This raises the question whether the newer medium online campaign posters replicates strategies of professionalised political communication (i.e. personalisation, de-ideologisation and negative campaigning), and whether major and minor parties differ in their use of these strategies in online campaign posters. Against this background, we conducted a quantitative content analysis of visual and textual elements of online campaign posters and traditional campaign posters ( N = 1,069) for the 2013 and 2017 German Bundestag elections. The results indicate that online campaign posters are significantly more negative than traditional campaign posters. Moreover, the use of online campaign posters tends to moderate the inter-party competition in the social media environment.

Wer ist der ideale Kandidat? Auswahlkriterien bei der Kandidatenaufstellung zum Deutschen Bundestag

Before an election takes place, the party members select their parliamentary candidates . Their nomination decisions depend on their vision of an ideal candidate . Based on the IParl survey of party members participating in the candidate selection for the 2017 German Bundestag elections we are able to investigate these preferences . As we see, there is neither a common ideal among all participants, nor are there any distinctly different groups . Differentiating between district and state level these variations are less distinct than between the different parties . We could also show that competitors seem to perceive demands from their electors at least partially different . Presumably those aspirants who are better at anticipating their electors’ complex preferences might have better chances in the intra-party nomination process .