By Shashi P.B.B. Malla

Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany and his mainstream conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) have been trounced by the extreme far-right Alternative fuer Deutschland (AfD) in three recent state elections.

Merz is now fighting for his political existence and the CDU for relevance in national politics.

Merz is not alone in his dilemma.

After all, centrist politicians across Europe and the rest of the wealthy world are struggling to retain the confidence of the electorate. 

Merz is trying to enact difficult economic policies, including painful pension cuts, at a time when voters want simple and painless solutions (Jim Tankersley/The New York Times, Sept. 25).

At the same time, it is very difficult to explain those policies to voters, especially younger ones.

For Germans under 25, social media has replaced church, civic and even political groups as the primary source of political information.

The internet provides a steady diet of simple, bold promises from populists on the political extremes – on the extreme right and extreme left.

Mainstream leaders like Merz “no longer have any way to reach the hearts and minds of young people,” said Steffen Mau, a sociologist at Humboldt University of Berlin.

It is a story that mirrors the surge of populist movements around the world, including in the United States (NYT).

In Germany, in elections in the small eastern states of Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania this month, young people broke heavily toward the extreme far right Alternative for Germany or AfD, which says it will solve the country’s problems in part by deporting millions of migrants, including those who have become citizens. They ignore the fact that Germany is heavily dependent on legal migrants in the work force.

After WWII, the German economic miracle would not have been possible without the contribution of millions of Turkish migrant workers – the ‘Gastarbeiter’.

In the capital Berlin, the voters went to the other extreme.

Young people embraced the far left Die Linke, which promised to reduce housing costs by seizing hundreds of thousands of private apartments – legally questionable.

Balendra Shah Puts Nepal’s Climate Crisis On the World Stage

Prime Minister Balendra Shah used his first address to the 81^st plenary session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to put Nepal’s recent devastating floods at the centre of a broader argument about climate change and the fractured international order.

He said the disaster was not just a local tragedy, it was a warning to the world (The Kathmandu Post, Sept. 25).

He posed a profound question before world leaders: “Have we really heard that warning?”

Balen stressed the scale of the Himalayan disaster [also in its proportions]which killed 1,453 people and left 5,550 unaccounted for, as he said: “I wish I could stand here today, simply to speak about development, democracy, peace and the hopes of a young nation.”

Balen again underlined: “When the next warning comes from the rooftop of the world,” Shah said, “let us be ready to hear and ready to act.”

He also moved beyond Nepal’s terrible floods and climate change and posed a larger question confronting the world in general:

“What kind of world order do we want?”
Shifting from glaciers and floods, he invoked the UN’s founding promise that sovereignty would matter, international law would matter, human dignity would matter and that weaker countries would not simply have to accept the dictates of powerful countries.

United Nations

In the world today, two of the great powers and permanent members of the UN Security Council — which itself is responsible for maintaining international peace and security – is trampling on the UN Charter and causing havoc in Ukraine and the West Asia.

Two West Asian regional powers – Israel and Iran – are attempting to play the regional hegemon and thereby causing unbearable destruction of supply chains in energy, fertilizer and other essential products.

As the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres himself has demanded, there is an urgent need to reform the United Nations, foremost the UN Security Council (UNSC).

Africa as a whole is demanding two permanent seats – at a time when the whole concept of the ‘veto’ is under intense scrutiny.

For a start, it would be better to scrap the ‘veto’ completely.

Six seats each should be assigned to the continental blocks: the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia & Oceania. One seat should be reserved for countries contributing to peace-keeping operations, giving a total of 25.

Of these some would be permanent and others for a two-year term.

Within the continental blocks, some could be on an annual rotational basis, as with Mexico and Argentina or the UK, France, Germany and Italy.

The permanent seats would, of course, include all the great and middle powers: The US, Russia, China, India, Brazil, South Africa, Turkey, Japan.

Decision-making would be by simple majority, except for important questions where a two-thirds majority would be required.

However, even getting so far would be to overcome nearly unsurmountable hurdles – reform proposals would require two-thirds majority in both the UNGA and UNSC, and whether the current permanent members would be willing to give up their vetos in favour of a functioning international organization.

But a start must be made in the UNGA and small nations like Nepal could possibly take the lead.]

After all, the current UNGA is being held under the theme of “Restoring Trust”, against the backdrop of wars, conflicts and humanitarian crises.

Balen himself stressed: “We have built a world with flawless logistics for war and broken logistics for food.”

Overall, Balen has left a lasting impression.

Suhasini Haidar, diplomatic editor of The Hindu, wrote on ‘X’:

“At UNGA Nepal PM Shah speaks up for all of South Asia that has been ‘hit by a climate we didn’t warm and again hit by wars we did not start,”        

Balen’s speechwriter must also be praised for the straightforward and yet surgical tone.

In the meantime, Foreign Minister Dr. Sisir Khanal’s agenda in New York has kept the climate focus front and centre.

He is engaged in bilateral meetings and other events on the side-lines of UNGA and even leading many of those engagements. He has strongly presented Nepal’s case.

The writer can be reached at: shashimalla125@gmail.com