Daniel Ziblatt, a democracy scholar from Harvard, warns Germany’s CDU and CSU that lowering the party’s hard line on the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) would be a mistake. In an interview with “Der Spiegel”, he argued that a coalition with the AfD in eastern states would carry a high risk, and that a Union minority government at the federal level would essentially tolerate a far‑right party-an approach he says the United States tried with Trump, only to find that such a strategy fails.
Ziblatt, who co‑authored “How Democracies Die” with Harvard colleague Steven Levitsky, also heads the “Transformationen der Demokratie” department at Berlin’s German Centre for Social Research. He believes the Union could achieve greater political success by crafting concrete solutions to everyday problems for Germans, rather than simply defending the status quo. “The forces of the center must offer renewal, not just protect the old” he told the magazine.
The scholar also advises German universities and researchers, whose own institution at Harvard has been targeted by the Trump administration for months, to prepare for a possible takeover by parties like the AfD. “If similar forces gain power in German states, we should expect attacks on science and universities. These institutions should now seek partners in society-trade unions, business leaders, churches-that can help them” he said.
On the US side, Ziblatt expressed alarm at the country’s slide toward authoritarianism. “In recent months, the United States has devolved into an authoritarian regime more rapidly than I ever imagined” he said. “The scale of the assault on democracy has never been seen in US history”. He added that within a year, the country has become a “fragile” democracy akin to Hungary or Turkey, where political competition still exists but is increasingly distorted in favor of those in power.