For nearly thirty years, Germany prioritised economic prosperity over a genuine geopolitical strategy. Its model rested on three pillars: American protection, Russian energy and Chinese markets. In a stable international environment, this framework enabled Germany to exert its influence primarily through the economy, whilst maintaining a doctrine of military restraint. However, recent geopolitical...

After two decades of relative prosperity, Germany’s strategy based on free trade and its integration into international value chains is facing growing geo-economic fragmentation, Sino-American rivalry, the race for low-carbon technologies and the energy transition in industry. This new landscape has altered the factors determining Germany’s industrial competitiveness in the face of an increasingly...

On September 20, 2026, Die Linke won the regional election in Berlin, a first for the radical left-wing party in the capital. The housing crisis was at the heart of Die Linke’s campaign, and this victory reflects Berliners’ frustration with skyrocketing rents and difficulties in accessing housing. The German housing market is indeed facing significant cyclical and structural constraints, which today...

At the turn of the 2000s, Germany was regarded as the ‘sick man’ of the euro area. Facing high unemployment rates, sluggish growth and public finances weakened by the cost of reunification, the country seemed destined for a slow relative decline. Yet, within a decade, it managed to reinvent itself to become Europe’s main economic driving force.

The residential real-estate market in France has been severely impacted by the sharp rise in mortgage rates since 2022. While the decline in housing sales was quick to materialize, prices in existing properties adjusted with a lag in transactions. On the new housing market, while sales are at historic lows, price declines have been more contained.