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IMAGO / ZUMA Wire

Mexico ahead of the election

Problems and challenges

Presidential and parliamentary elections will be held in Mexico on 2 June 2024. These will be the largest elections in the history of the world's largest Spanish-speaking country. The candidate chosen by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) from the left-wing populist government camp, Claudia Sheinbaum (MORENA), is currently leading in most of the polls, while her rival Xóchitl Gálvez (PAN), who is running for a coalition of three opposition parties and civil society organisations, is not yet within striking distance. One thing is clear: from October, Mexico will be ruled by a woman as head of state for the first time. While the nationwide election of almost 21,000 offices and the prospect of a female president actually symbolise Mexico's great progress as a democratic society, the country continues to struggle with considerable structural problems.

KAS / Dambisa Dube

South Africa before the elections

New hope at the Cape?

On May 29, 2024, elections will be held in South Africa for the national assembly and all provincial parliaments. After years of economic decline, the country is in urgent need of a new direction. Polls suggest that Nelson Mandela's party, the ANC, will fall short of an ab-solute majority at national level for the first time since the end of apartheid in 1994 and will rely on coalition partners to form a government. At the same time, the South African party spectrum is becoming increasingly fragmented, which also means more competition to pro-vide better solutions to the country's numerous challenges. Against this backdrop, the con-stellation in which South Africa will be governed in the future is uncertain, as various sce-narios are conceivable following the outcome of the elections.

KAS Frankreich

80 years of D-Day

Looking backward and looking forward to French, European and Franco-German remembrance culture

8 May is a public holiday in France. It commemorates the day of the ceasefire of the Second World War and the surrender of Nazi Germany. France is already preparing for important anniversaries in the context of the Second World War, which will be commemorated this year and next year, and which will take on a new dimension in view of the war of aggression against Ukraine. France prepares with the government's organisational unit "Mission de la Liberation" to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day on 6 June 2024. 150,000 Allied soldiers from the USA, Great Britain, Canada, France, Poland, New Zealand, and other countries landed in Normandy on this day in 1944 to liberate France from Nazi rule. It was the beginning of a gigantic military operation, "Operation Overlord", which heralded the end of the Second World War. 8 Mai 2025 will mark the 80th anniversary of the surrender.

The former warring parties still commemorate D-Day today. The celebrations to mark the major anniversaries have long since achieved the status of high-ranking political and diplomatic meetings. Although the battle of 6 June is one of many in the Second World War, there is no other that has so quickly attained the status of an epic. Nevertheless, the way in which the nations involved look back on this battle differs and the interpretation of the events of the Second World War has changed again and again over the years.

Today, two years after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the topic of war is once again present in Europe after a long time and dominates political discourse in Germany and France. At the same time, there are hardly any contemporary witnesses left who can report on the Second World War. What does it mean to remember D-Day in this context? And what role do Germany and France play in the European politics of remembrance?

Adobe Stock / Sir_Oliver

„Just not that the constitution protection authorities ring my doorbell“

The spread of right-wing and left-wing extremist attitudes in Germany

This study uses a representative survey to analyse three questions: How widespread are attitudes that belong to general extremism or to left-wing or right-wing extremist ideology? How many people support ideas from several extremisms? To what extent do attitudes close to one extremism occur together with other attitudes (including trust in institutions, anti-Zionism and conspiracy theory)?

IMAGO / Xinhua

Elections in Panama: The new president is José Mulino

Realzando Metas party candidate wins with over 34 percent

On May 5, three million Panamanians were called upon to elect the next President and Vice-President, 71 deputies to the National Assembly (Asamblea Nacional - AN), 20 deputies to the Central American Parliament (Parlacen), 81 mayors, 701 representatives of the governing districts and 11 councils of Panama City, as well as their respective deputies, for the next five years. Eight candidates have been approved by the Tribunal Electoral (TE) to run for president and have been vying for voters' favor since February 3, 2024. In the end, José Raúl Mulino Quintero of the Realizando Metas party won 34.36 percent of the vote on May 5 and will take over the presidency of Panama on July 4 of this year.

Imago / ZUMA Wire

Rome's perspective on the Gaza war

A diplomatic balancing act on both sides of the Tiber

The Gaza war poses a dilemma for two centers of power in Rome: Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government, with its clear pro-Israel stance, is out of step with the majority of society for the first time since taking office. The longer the Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip continue and the humanitarian situation worsens, the more sympathy there is for the Palestinian side. The Holy See, which traditionally sees itself as the protector of Arab Christians and guardian of biblical sites, is increasingly distancing itself from the Netanyahu government. However, there are deeper reasons for this. The difficult situation in the Holy Land poses challenges for both sides. An analysis.

Adobe Stock / abr68

Wake-up call for integration policy

The crime statistics 2023 show the need for integration policy action

At the beginning of April, the Federal Minister of the Interior presented the Police Crime Statistics (PCS) 2023. According to these statistics, the number of crimes in Germany has risen by 5.5 per cent since 2022. The Federal Criminal Office (FCPO) believes that one reason for the increase is the high immigration figures. The PCS suggests that there may be a connection between criminal tendencies and a lack of integration. What contribution could integration policy make to crime reduction?

KAS

Chad votes

The president's son reaches for power

Chadians will go to the polls on Mai 6 as military ruler Mahamat Deby wants to get elected as president of the unruly central African country. Opposition parties call for a boycott saying the elections won’t be fair as Deby controls the constitutional court, state media and the election body. The European Union nevertheless helping fund the vote as Western power worry Chad will slide into instability like other Sahel countries such as Mali. Chad is surrounded by neighbours from Niger to the Central African Republic where Russian mercenaries are active and is impacted by civil war in Sudan from where some 750.000 people had fled to eastern Chad, one of world’s poorest regions. Western powers hope the vote will pass uneventfully and will be followed by parliamentary elections, which would be the first since 2011.

Adobe Stock / AkuAku

Turning point? Civil clauses!

Why military research belongs at German universities

There has been no militarization of science in the Federal Republic of Germany since German reunification, but in view of the tense security situation, a strict ban on military research at universities in the form of civilian clauses no longer seems appropriate. Christian E. Rieck gives five recommendations for action for science and politics, and an overview of the discussion in the German press rounds off the analysis.

IMAGO / ZUMA Wire

Guatemala: 100 days of Arévalo’s government

Of the travails of the plainx

Bernardo Arévalo's election victory came as an absolute surprise to him, his Semilla party and Guatemala. Despite massive resistance until literally the last minute, he was able to take office on January 15, 2024. He was also supported by people and groups who did not vote for him, but who wanted to save Guatemalan democracy. After the first 100 days, however, the impression spreads that Arévalo and his government are still caught up in the element of surprise and are not prepared for the famous "travails of the plains".

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Facts and Findings

Selected contributions to the series with international relevance

The series informs in a concentrated form about important positions of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung on current topics. The individual issues present key findings and recommendations, offer brief analyses, explain the Foundation's further plans and name KAS contact persons.

 

International Reports

Journal for international issues, foreign policy and development cooperation

International Reports (IR) is the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung's periodical on international politics. It offers political analyses by our experts in Berlin and from more than 100 offices across all regions of the world. Contributions by named authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial team.

Die Politische Meinung

Zeitschrift für Politik, Gesellschaft, Religion und Kultur

Die Politische Meinung ist eine Zweimonatszeitschrift, in der ein breites Spektrum politischer, gesellschaftlicher und kultureller Themen der Gegenwart dargestellt und diskutiert werden. Sie bietet als Bezugspunkte fundierte Analysen historischer Hintergründe und eine der individuellen Eigenverantwortung verpflichtete, im christlichen Menschenbild verankerte Ethik. Die jeweiligen Themenschwerpunkte werden von einer inspirierenden Bilderstrecke, namhafter zeitgenössischer Künstlerinnen und Künstlern, vertieft.

 

Research and Sources on Contemporary History

In der Reihe „Forschungen und Quellen zur Zeitgeschichte“ veröffentlicht das Archiv für Christlich-Demokratische Politik seit 1980 wissenschaftliche Studien zur Christlichen Demokratie, Darstellungen zur Geschichte der Bundesrepublik und der CDU sowie Biographien wichtiger Repräsentanten. Zu den 50 bisher erschienen Büchern zählen auch Quelleneditionen, wie Protokolle von Parteigremien oder Tagebücher von einflussreichen Politikern. Die Publikationen sind im Buchhandel erhältlich.

Interviews

In our series "Interviews", talks and discussions are held with experts from the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung e.V. on various topics.

kurzum

Concise, reduced to the essentials, but always highly topical. In our series "kurzum", our experts summarise an issue or problem on a maximum of two pages.

Country Reports

Short political reports of the KAS offices abroad

The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung is a political foundation. Our offices abroad are in charge of over 200 projects in more than 120 countries. The country reports offer current analyses, exclusive evaluations, background information and forecasts - provided by our international staff.

Monitor

The Monitor series deals with one main topic at a time from the perspective of KAS experts and places it in the political and social context on the basis of a few key points.

Event Reports

The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, its educational institutions, centres and foreign offices, offer several thousand events on various subjects each year. We provide up to date and exclusive reports on selected conferences, events and symposia at www.kas.de. In addition to a summary of the contents, you can also find additional material such as pictures, speeches, videos or audio clips.

Handouts for Political Education

Grundlageninformationen zur Beteiligung
an aktuellen politischen Diskussionen

Mit der Reihe „Handreichungen zur Politischen Bildung“ möchte die Politische Bildung der Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung interessierte Bürgerinnen und Bürger über politische Entwicklungen informieren, Orientierungen in Sachfragen geben und das Interesse an politischer Mitwirkung stärken. Die Handreichungen verstehen sich als Grundlageninformationen zur Beteiligung an aktuellen politischen Diskussionen.

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