Centre/Right

»Everything must change for everything to remain the same.« The famous quote from the novel The Leopard is somewhat of an unofficial motto of moderate conservatism. Parties like the CDU came to terms with change and proved to be anchors of stability. Today, it is no longer certain that the centre-right will hold: Do its representatives continue to rely on balance and cautious modernisation? Or on a polarising culture war?

In the Federal Republic of Germany, the last year under Angela Merkel’s leadership were marked by internal disputes within the CDU/CSU. But not least of all the rise of Donald Trump has shown that the identity crisis of the centre-right is not an exclusively German phenomenon: In Italy, Berlusconi and radical right-wing parties like Giorgia Meloni’s Fratelli d’Italia filled the vacuum created by the implosion of the Democrazia Cristiana. In France, the Républicains between Macron and Le Pen are hardly relevant anymore. And in the wake of the Brexit chaos, the Tories are descending into frivolity and a denial of reality.

Thomas Biebricher focuses on this international dimension and describes the turbulent developments post-1990. His findings are explosive, since the future of liberal democracy will be decided by moderate conservatism.

»Thomas Biebricher devotes himself in detail to European developments in the right-wing political spectrum. ... Biebricher convincingly describes how, since the nineties, the external enemy of communism has often been replaced by internal enemy images: from the migrant, mainly Muslim population to the technocrats of the European Union to the ›woke‹ culture wars at universities and in the media.« Oliver Weber, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

»Thomas Biebricher cleverly and elegantly combines contemporary history with the history of political ideas.« Süddeutsche Zeitung

»This book explains why the crash of traditional conservatists affects every liberal democracy.« Marc Reichwein, Welt am Sonntag

»Thomas Biebricher's worthwhile book sharpens the eye for [...] contemporary paradoxes, and for the politicians who are unable to confront them ...« Adrian Daub, Soziopolis