GERMANY - 2019 has been a year of transition. It hasn’t brought a change of government. But it will be seen as the year that Angela Merkel virtually disappeared. ‘Where is the chancellor?’, the press asked in autumn, as her public interventions had become even rarer than usual. Merkel’s silence came at a time of economic insecurity, with much talk of a pending recession. (A recession seems to have been avoided, but the economy only grew by a meagre 1.5 per cent over the year).
The year was also overshadowed by two acts of right-wing terrorism: the murder of a local CDU politician in June and the attack on a synagogue in Halle in October. The government’s proposed new laws to punish anti-Semitic violence more strictly are welcome, but its plans to tighten hate-speech laws are worrying.
What will the coming year bring? Will Germany become more democratic, or more authoritarian and illiberal? The future is open, and with cracks appearing in the establishment parties, a lot could change.
“Just what is an APOSTLE?”
Today we find the Church of God in a “wilderness of religious confusion!”
The confusion is not merely around the Church – within the religions of the world outside – but WITHIN the very heart of The True Church itself!
Read online or contact email to request a copy
