The Brief – How Germany went from Pride to shaming diversity

Germany has become a less hospitable place for minorities, even if its conservative-leaning society was never the liberal paradise that swathes of Anglo millennials mistook it for after popping a pill at a smoke-filled Berlin nightclub.

And its former leader, Angela Merkel – who voted against same-sex marriage – was never the liberal icon that international media mistook her for after the devout Christian opened the borders to thousands of refugees as a humanitarian gesture.

But where the pragmatist Merkel merely slowed Germany's social liberalisation, the accession of Friedrich Merz to the chancellery has seen it switch from first into reverse gear.

When it comes to social and diversity politics, the staunchly conservative chancellor and his centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) have wasted no time in office marking their political territory.

Much of the controversy has centred around Berlin’s annual Pride parade, which the German parliament has marked since 2022 by flying the rainbow flag. Not this year: The new conservative president of the Bundestag, Julia Klöckner, a Merz ally, has halted the practice, citing concerns about political neutrality.

Shortly after, she prohibited the participation of the parliament’s queer staff network in the parade. In the latest upset, the Bundestag’s administration has ordered MPs to remove Pride flags from their window, with police sent out to enforce a mostly unenforced house rule, as revealed by Euractiv.

And it's not just Klöckner: Merz himself has argued that Pride flags turn the Bundestag into a “circus tent” – somewhat unsurprisingly, after he had once answered a question on his stance on homosexuality with the words that it was a private matter "as long as it doesn't affect children". Merz's education minister reportedly banned gender-inclusive language from her ministry's communications. His interior minister has trained his crosshairs on liberalised naturalisation laws for foreigners.

This crackdown is certainly nowhere near Hungarian proportions, where officials have moved to outlaw Pride parades and queer freedom of expression. Participants in Berlin’s edition can still attend a typically raunchy public party, largely unbothered, followed by an equally raunchy after-party at (in some cases) publicly subsidised clubs.

But the CDU has signalled where its political priorities lie – and it's at the expense of minorities.

It’s not difficult to find voices in the government who fear that this is not just a conservative pushback but a sinister political calculus.

One source close to Merz's coalition partner, the SPD, said that parts of the CDU were "increasingly [working] behind the scenes” to push the boundaries on queer and migration policy. The source suspects this to be a dog whistle to conservative and far-right voters who have flocked to the rising far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). CDU parliamentary sources obviously deny any such scheme.

Whatever the reason, politics at the expense of minorities of all sorts and shapes makes for a gut-wrenching development amid increasing pressure on marginalised groups.

While conservatives point to the purported homophobia of Middle Eastern immigrants, it is the locals who have made diversity festivals in the right-leaning German province events to attend at your peril in recent months. Festivals have been attacked – allegedly by far-right activists – and parades have been cancelled due to threats.

Post-war Germany has long been an ethnically homogenous country where the smallest deviation from the majority was at the very least noted, making it hard for minorities to integrate.

This had only waned in recent years after a spike in ethnic diversity followed by the inauguration of a socially liberal government. For all his social ineptitude, Merz’s predecessor, Olaf Scholz, had a comforting habit of acknowledging outsiders’ struggles, be it when awkwardly draping himself in the Pride flag or when empathising with the fears of ethnic minorities after terror attacks linked to refugees.

Merz’s front row has so far signalled that this is not a priority for them.

The Roundup

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Aid for Gaza – Israel and the EU have reached an agreement to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, calling for a substantial increase of daily trucks for food and non-food items to begin flowing in the coming days.

A tough summer for Ukraine – The EU has channelled nearly €160 billion to Kyiv since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but amid uncertainty on US support the EU may be lacking new avenues to help close the embattled nation’s funding gap as military analysts warn it faces a difficult summer on the battlefield.

Across Europe

Contractual dogfighting – The German aviation industry is seeking support from Berlin as France seeks to take over a significantly larger share – 80% – of the joint European next-generation FCAS fighter jet project. The project extends beyond building the jet itself, including a system of connected platforms to support the pilot.

Irish data dispute – The Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) has opened another GDPR inquiry into social media company TikTok, which allegedly transferred European Economic Area users’ data to servers located in China. This follows a decision in April, when it fined the company €530 million.

Born in the USA – Italian Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida has backed a plan to make Italian bresaola using U.S. beef and ship it back to America – a proposal that grabbed headlines but appears to breach EU trade rules.