brief update: I'm now back in Berlin full-time. What Germany stories should the Economist cover? Send me your ideas/invite me to your events/suggest meeting for coffee etc. DMs open

I haven't seen so many EU flags since the last time I was in a candidate country for accession.

RIP Martin Parr. I was in Pisa last year and could not stop thinking about this photo. Indeed, tried (and failed) to recapture it. https://t.co/O6tSdOf4v7

Merz is cancelling a trip to Norway tomorrow to visit De Wever in Brussels instead. Expect the hairdryer treatment over Belgium's intransigence on Russia's frozen assets.

Swipe to see us light up the heart of Milan! This year we wanted to go big, opening a season of greatness as the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 approach in 60 days. The result was a stunning 29m-tall Christmas tree — Holiday season truly begins the moment the tree

As a sign of the German government's nervousness about the pension vote, MPs have been ordered to break off foreign trips, to break maternity leave etc to ensure a majority is secured on Friday. (For those with long memories, shades of John Major's UK government in the 90s.)

Make-or-break moment for Merz with a vote on a (v mild) pension reform in the Bundestag on Friday. Expect much more of this as a disputatious coalition tries to manage a tiny parliamentary majority.

Europol hive mind: do routine events organised by populist-right parties anywhere bar Germany attract the sorts of mass protest we saw in Gießen over the weekend? I'm talking tens of thousands on the streets, huge police turnout etc, rather than chucking a milkshake at Farage.

The German economy "is in its deepest historical crisis since the founding of the Federal Republic", says the head of the country's biggest industry group. "Germany needs a fundamental shift in economic policy."

Lots of protests in Gießen at the founding of the AfD youth organisation today, but this might be the most effective. Unbelievably potent earworm.

Stadtbild, Gießen.

Ukraine peace talks latest https://t.co/uGCrzSm05l

Bleak, clarifying piece. "It is now increasingly hard to see how Europe, in particular, can avoid large-scale protection [against China] if it is to retain any industry at all."

Sad news, but at least a perfect opportunity to rewatch The Harder They Come.

No comparable clause in the E3's counter-proposal.

.@washingtonpost reports that the postwar amnesty clause was added to Trump's Ukraine plan *at Ukraine's request*.

@COdendahl @spignal And our accompanying cover leader. To avoid crushing change, Europe must take control of its destiny https://t.co/Y1SLwOhX9Q from The Economist

With help from stellar colleagues @COdendahl, @spignal and others

Our new cover story is on the threat posed to German and Europe by China’s industrial model and its decision to exploit its stranglehold on chips/rare earths. Based on my reporting from the Black Forest & Berlin. https://t.co/DlUeXFmcOs

Johannes Volkmann, one of the CDU's foremost China experts, discusses Germany's changing relationship with China on Drum Tower, our China podcast. Much more to come on this theme in our forthcoming edition.

Merz's regular gaffes - here, being pointlessly rude about Brazil - are made that much worse by what should otherwise be a strength: his clear, direct mode of delivery, such a refreshing contrast to his predecessors. He really sounds like he means it when he says Brazil is crap.

Passive-aggressive speeches from Söder to an adoring CDU crowd craving conservative red meat? We would appear to be so back.