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Hoffmann-Ostenhof, Georg
profil magazine
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3 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.
Georg Hoffmann-Ostenhof sees no shift to the right in Europe
The right-wing conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has been in power in Hungary since 2010, and in France the far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen is doing well in the polls. But that doesn't mean Europe is experiencing a shift to the right, writes journalist Georg Hoffmann-Ostenhof in the news portal Profil Online: "More than explanations for a shift to the right, what we really need is analyses of why such a shift has failed to come about despite the deepening economic crisis. One reason is certain: the previously effective idea of Islam as the enemy has given way to a far less menacing image since the Arab Spring. ... Even hatred of Europe isn't what it once was. At least for the time being the collapse of the Union has been forestalled. ... And the realisation that the end of the euro and the EU could entail huge costs for all concerned is increasingly sinking in - not a good turn of events for right-wing populism, which has always mobilised against Brussels. Of course, as we have been repeatedly warned, one must always seek to nip radical political tendencies in the bud. ... And we must defend democracy, - though probably less against any rise of the Right than against indolence and squalidness, against boundless opportunism and the boorishness of the political Centre."
» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Weltanschauung, » Elections, » Europe
Georg Hoffmann-Ostenhoff on Lenin's current relevance
In 2011 not only in the Arab world but also many people in Russia, China and the West rose up against the powers that be. This trend will continue in the new year, Georg Hoffmann-Ostenhoff predicts on news portal Profil Online: "It looks like the new movements of the Internet generation are combining with traditional forms of battle. The anger at the unjust circumstances and the deposed political caste is combining with very concrete defence operations against attacks on living standards and the social security system. Lenin once said that a revolutionary situation arises 'when those on top are unable and those at the bottom are unwilling' to maintain the current order. This fits in well with what is happening in the Arab world. ... But also in the developed West the ruling powers are increasingly confused and those who are ruled over are increasingly angry. Revolutions may not be on the cards here but we have certainly come to a turning point. And it's also clear that as well as the state chancelleries and governments on the one hand and the stock exchanges and banks on the other - or in other words politics and the markets - a third player has gained importance: the people on the street. And they are cleverer than ever before."
» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » Social movements, » Social affairs, » Human rights, » Global
Georg Hoffmann-Ostenhof on the benefit of debt
With an eye to the euro bailout fund an article published last week in the British weekly The Economist points out that the German word for "debts" (Schulden) derives from the word for "guilt" (Schuld). Georg Hoffmann-Ostenhof warns in the weekly Profil against condemning all debt on religious grounds: "Debts are not all the same. If you don't fritter away the money you borrow but use it half-way sensibly, the younger generations will be the main beneficiaries. ... Of course over time the mountain of debt must be cleared away. But the religiously-hued, timorous obsession with savings, the focus placed by the economic policy of certain countries on guilt and atonement have only exacerbated the European crisis and brought a total collapse into the realm of the thinkable. So what do we need? Less morals, more courage. And a thoroughgoing secularisation of economics."
» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Financial Markets, » Economy, » Europe, » Global
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