German politics

Volker Kauder, a close ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the last 13 years, has been sent packing as head of her party’s parliamentary group in an inner-party ballot.
Guenther Oettinger, who’s also one of the leading figures in the Christian Democratic Union, noted that Merkel is losing her power within the CDU party. “This is normal, she’s a lame duck,” he said in an interview.

Reports that German intelligence has been unable to find any evidence of Russian interference in German politics comes as no surprise.
It has become an article of faith on the part of establishment politicians and commentators in the West that the Russian government (always referred to as “the Kremlin”) is manipulating from behind the scenes the political processes in Western countries.