European migration blamed for spike in populism, as extremists eye EU elections

The European migration battle reminds us that “should” is a word we probably shouldn’t use in politics and government. It tends to be a reality denier. Long before the current European political crisis, with Bavaria’s CSU party this week bringing coalition government in Germany to the verge of collapse, the rest of Europe should have better helped Germany with the wave of a million refugees that arrived here in 2015-16.

What the German election tells us about the multiple non-truths of populism

Perhaps the biggest international lesson to be drawn from the German election results is that many liberals, reformists and conservatives — so people from across the political spectrum — should be modifying their discourse on Germany, its chancellor and above all, populism.