Andrea Römmele comments on German local state elections in The New York Times

Following state elections in Hesse and Bavaria over the weekend, Hertie School Dean of Executive Education Andrea Römmele comments on what the election results mean for Germany as a whole in The New York Times from 9 October. While the conservative CDU and CSU gained new votes, environment-friendly Greens and centre-left Social Democrats lost voters.

“The Greens are the new enemy,” commented the Professor of Communication in Politics and Civil Society, explaining how the German public perceives one of the three federal government parties. Many parties exploited cultural arguments focusing their criticism on the Greens, which resonated with conservative voters, she said.

Both of these state elections are seen as a review of the current German government with a poor outcome for ruling Social Democrats, Greens and business-friendly Free Democrats. Furthermore, the elections showed that “populists are rising”, the New York Times writes.

Read the full article in The New York Times.