Democracy is being shaken from outside and within: The wake-up call of the former Federal President The Russian attack on Ukraine threatens liberal democracy at a time when it is also under pressure from within. How come?
Former Federal President Joachim Gauck and his co-author Helga Hirsch examine the question of why many citizens' trust in liberal democracy has been shaken. What threatens democracy from within? What role do authoritarian and libertarian dispositions play in times of crisis? How much immigration can a democracy tolerate? At the same time, he explores why we are now faced with the shards of an Eastern policy that, in relation to Russia, has for too long only relied on the principles of “peace before freedom” and “change through trade”.
Joachim Gauck shows very impressively and partly in a personal way how certainty about the stability of democracy has been lost in recent years - and how we can succeed in defending liberal freedoms in the future and actually becoming a defensive democracy.
(Program in German)