Interviews, Podcasts and Videos

Get ready for the worst – Germany’s political crisis is a warning for Keir Starmer

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Interview by Gavin Jacobson, The New Statesman, January 13, 2024.

Gavin Jacobson:  Let’s start with the mood of discontent in Germany, reflected in the various strikes (rail workers), protests (farmers), and demonstrations (Palestine). How ominous is the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD)’s call for a general strike?

Wolfgang Streeck: I haven’t even heard of it, clearly because I don’t regularly read British newspapers, with their typically sober, well-informed, level-headed reporting on Germany. There obviously is a lunatic fringe at the right end of the German political spectrum, even more lunatic than the friends of Liz Truss, I suppose, and certainly creepy and spooky enough not just for the media but also for the ruling parties, which are desperately looking for ways to scare voters off from voting AfD. (…)

Continue reading on newstatesman.com

Versión española:
Wolfgang Streeck: “El apoyo a Israel causará un daño duradero a Alemania como democracia liberal”

El Salto, 12 de febrero 2024.

El sociólogo Wolfgang Streeck valora el momento de guerra y crisis que vive la Unión Europea, que define como un campo de batalla ampliado de las disputas entre los Estados europeos.

En esta entrevista Wolfgang Streeck (Lengerich, Alemania, 1946) evalúa el crecimiento de la extrema derecha en su país y las posibilidades de futuro de la Unión Europea, envuelta en una crisis infinita.

Empecemos por el descontento existente en Alemania, que se refleja en las diversas huelgas (ferroviarios), protestas (agricultores) y manifestaciones (Palestina) de estas semanas. ¿Hasta qué punto no augura nada bueno la convocatoria de una huelga general por parte de la ultraderechista Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)?

Ni siquiera he oído hablar de ella, obviamente porque no leo habitualmente los periódicos británicos, con su información típicamente sobria, bien informada y sensata sobre Alemania. Es evidente que existe una franja lunática en el extremo derecho del espectro político alemán, incluso más lunática que los amigos de Liz Truss, supongo, y ciertamente lo suficientemente espeluznante y escalofriante no sólo para los medios de comunicación, sino también para los partidos gobernantes, que están buscando desesperadamente formas de asustar a los votantes para que no voten a AfD. (…)

Continúe en elsaltodiario.com

Lechts oder Rinks? …eine dialogische Orientierung

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International,14. Dezember 2023.

Von Wolfgang Streeck & Gabriele Matzner

Anlaß und Hintergrund dieses Zwiegesprächs ist zwar der Zoff in der deutschen LINKEN nach S. Wagenknechts angekündigter Verselbständigung, darüber hinaus sind es aber auch der Zustand und die Aussichten linker Parteien und Politik im Allgemeinen und in Europa. (…)

Weiterlesen auf international.or.at

Wolfgang Streeck: Germany – the Broken Heart Of Europe

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Interview by Chris Bambery, Conter.scot, October 3, 2023.

Conter Editorial Board member, Chris Bambery, talks to German sociologist Wolfgang Streeck. Wolfgang is emeritus director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne. He is the author of numerous books, including: How Will Capitalism End? Essays on a Failing System.

In this interview, Chris and Wolfgang discuss Germany’s economy, domestic political situation and foreign policy.

Chris Bambery: The Economist has described Germany as “the sick man of Europe.” How do you react to that statement?

Wolfgang Streeck: They have said that forever, roughly every ten years, beginning in the early 1980s. Apart from this, there are a lot of sick men and women, in Europe these days, take France or Italy. And, not to forget, the United Kingdom. But then, it may no longer belong to “Europe”. (…)

Continue reading on Conter.scot

Demos und Globus im Neoliberalismus

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Zu Gast bei L.I.S.A., 24. April 2023.

Die Demokratie ist in Gefahr, so heißt es seit vielen Jahren. Vor allem Populisten von rechts und links bedrohten die Demokratie. Gestützt wird diese Annahme unter anderem durch den Aufstieg populistischer Parteien, Bewegungen sowie populistischer Politiker und Politikerinnen insbesondere in Staaten des Westens. Eine Renationalisierung von Politik sei die verhängnisvolle Folge, statt mehr globale Verständigung und Vernetzung erfolge ein Rückfall in überkommene Nationalstaatlichkeit. Der Soziologe und frühere Direktor des Max-Planck-Instituts für Gesellschaftsforschung in Köln sieht das in seinem neuen Buch anders. Nicht der Bezug auf National- bzw. Einzelstaat gefährde die Demokratie, sondern vielmehr die Verlagerung von politischen Entscheidungen auf die globale Ebene, die sich gegen demokratische Verfahren immunisiere. In einer neuen Ausgabe von Zu Gast bei L.I.S.A. haben wir Professor Streeck zu seiner These befragt.

Hier gibt es das Gespräch als Video und als Podcast beim L.I.S.A. Wissenschaftsportal der Gerda Henkel Stiftung

Carta desde Europa: El belicismo suicida de las democracias autoritarias occidentales

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El Salto, 19 de febrero, 2023

Esta entrevista a Wolfgang Streeck se ha publicado originalmente en la revista croata Novosti Hoboctn y se reproduce aquí con permiso de su autor y de la publicación.

En tus artículos escribes sobre la “post-Zeitenwende Deutschland”, esto es, a la nueva situación creada en Alemania tras el punto de inflexión que ha supuesto el discurso pronunciado por el canciller Olaf Scholz ante el Bundestag el 27 de febrero de 2022, poco después del estallido de la guerra en Ucrania, sobre la política exterior, de defensa y de seguridad alemana. ¿Puedes explicar qué significará este “punto de inflexión” para Alemania y Europa durante los próximos años y cómo se relaciona la misma con la creciente americanización de la política, la ideología y la cultura alemanas? (…)

Continúe en elsaltodiario.com

English version:
Wolfgang Streeck – Virtuous Germany

Brave New Europe, February 20, 2023.

Germany’s political elite has subordinated itself to US geopolitical strategy. Why and how explains Wolfgang Streeck in this interview.

1. In your articles you write about the “post-Zeitenwende Germany”, referring to the content of Chancellor Scholz’s speech in the Bundestag on the eve of the war in Ukraine. Can you explain what this “turning point” means for German foreign and defence policies in the years to come and also for Europe, and how is this linked to the increasing Americanisation of German politics, ideology and culture? (A telling quote of yours says: “Seen this way, the fact that the special €100 billion defence budget announced by the German government three days into the war will have its first effects on the ground only in five years’ time does not mean that it is wasted; it only means that it has nothing to do with the Ukrainian war as such”.) (…)

Continue reading on braveneweurope.com

Hrvatska verzija:
Njemačka se ponaša kao država u ratu

Novosti Hoboctn, 23. siječnja 2023.

Vlada priprema mehanizme koje će okrenuti protiv svakoga tko se usudi posumnjati u mudrost pružanja bezuvjetne podrške ultranacionalističkom režimu u Ukrajini i Bidenovoj administraciji. Svakoga tko ponašanje Putinovog režima pokuša objasniti na način koji ne uključuje kliničko ludilo ili genocidne opsesije proglašava se putinovcem, rekao je njemački sociolog i počasni direktor Instituta za studije društva Max Planck u Kölnu.

Na početku rata u Ukrajini njemački kancelar Olaf Scholz održao je svoj čuveni „Zeitenwende“ govor u kojemu objašnjava zašto taj rat predstavlja „povijesnu prekretnicu“ za Njemačku. Što to znači za njemačku vanjsku i obrambenu politiku? (…)

Nastavi čitati na portalnovosti.com

MaxPo at 10: Closing Remarks

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Round Table at MaxPo Anniversary and Closing Conference, Paris, October 21, 2022.

The Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo) looks back on ten successful years advancing discourse and building international networks in the social sciences.

A conference which took place in Paris on October 21, 2022, marked both the anniversary and the conclusion of the joint research endeavour that brought together the Max Planck Society and its Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies in Cologne with Sciences Po in Paris and reflected the insights gathered on each of these topics over the last ten years.

Listen to Prof. Streeck’s conference contribution on mpifg.de

Politics Today: Interview with Wolfgang Streeck

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In: Crisis and Critique 9 (2022) 2, 427-431.

Interview by Frank Ruda and Agon Hamza

1) We cannot not begin with the ongoing war in Ukraine. It appears on some level to be very difficult to assess or analyze such a situation, which is not only heated but also still intensely developing. In addition, none of us is a military analyst. But we nevertheless want to start with a rather huge question: What should we expect from this war?

However the war ends, or more likely: drags on, it will result in a resurrection under American leadership of what is called “the West”, with Western Europe closely tied to the United States, and NATO rather than the European Union as the dominant international organization for Western Europe. For a long time, there will be no rapprochement between Western Europe and Russia, therefore no French-led third-party role for Europe in the evolving post-neoliberal global system. Russia will be allied with China, Europe with the United States, both blocs getting ready to battle over global dominance or, alternatively, the structure of a bipolar world order. NATO will be the European arm of the United States, the EU the bridgehead of the United States on the other side of the Atlantic.

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