SOLOMON HUGHES recommends Sunjeev Sahota’s recent novel set in a trade union election campaign for its fresh approach to what unites and divides workers, but wishes the union backdrop was truer to life
THE forthcoming Bundestag — German parliament — elections on September 26 will be a nail-biting affair and the outcome will have repercussions not only for national politics but also for Germany’s role internationally.
The new Bundestag’s first task will be to elect a Chancellor. Since her election to the chancellorship in 2005, Angela Merkel has been a conciliatory and stabilising figure.
Although her party — the Christian Democratic Union (CDU-CSU) — was the largest in the Bundestag, it never had an overall majority. Throughout her chancellorship Merkel has been obliged to rule in coalition with one or two of the other parties. Her decision to resign this year, after 16 years in the post, has left a gaping hole, with no obvious successor to fill it.
NICK WRIGHT returns to Berlin and finds a city in darkness and political turmoil
The German Chancellor seeks EU sanctions on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to prevent future governments from resuming Russian gas deliveries, delivering a devastating blow to German industry — and German workers, writes RAINER RUPP



