+Afghanistan: Taliban Promises “Inclusive” Government +German Elections +US President Biden Under Severe Attack

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the head of the Taliban’s political office, has told Al Jazeera the group is in the process of forming an “inclusive” government following its lightning takeover of the country last month (September 4).

Last Friday, sources within the Taliban told Reuters news agency Baradar would lead the new government in Afghanistan, with Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob – the son of the Taliban founder Mullah Omar – and Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai taking senior roles. Baradar served as deputy defence minister when the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001. Following the fall of the Taliban government, Baradar served as a senior military commander responsible for attacks on coalition forces, according to a UN sanctions notice.

He was arrested and imprisoned in Pakistan in 2010. After his release in 2018, he headed the Taliban’s political office in Doha, becoming one of the most prominent figures in the group’s talks with the United States and the signing of their agreement in the Qatari capital last year.

Last Wednesday, Stanikzai told the BBC that women would be able to continue working, but “may not have a place” in the future government or other high-ranking positions. Taliban [main] spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Italian newspaper La Republica that women would be able to work as nurses, in the police or as assistants in ministries, but ruled out that there would be female ministers. Resistance to Taliban Continues

The head of the National Resistance Front, Ahmad Massoud has said his fighters will not give up the battle for the holdout valley of Panjshir, north of Kabul (DW, September 4). Massoud is the son of the Ahmad Shah Masoud, a major opposition figure against the Taliban’s previous regime and leader of the Northern Alliance. He was assassinated by Al Qaeda in a suicide bombing just two days before the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Massoud the son was trained at the UK’s Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst and honed his theoretical knowledge of war and peace at King’s College, London.

Panjshir is the last Afghan province holding out against the Taliban armed group that swept to power last month. Both sides claimed to have the upper hand but neither could produce conclusive evidence to prove it ( Al Jazeera, September 5).

The Taliban was unable to control the valley when it ruled Afghanistan in a draconian fashion from 1996 to 2001. However, this time around, both domestic factors and the regional situation are in their favour.

According to the BBC’s legendary correspondent Lyse Doucet, it is possible that in the battle of opposing narratives, the Taliban control the Panjshir’s principal public arteries and areas, and a landscape known intimately only by its own inhabitants may now be sheltering the most defiant of resistance fighters.

In Germany only Three-Party Coalition Government Possible after General Elections

The latest opinion polls indicate that no single party or a combination of two parties would manage to secure a majority to form the government following the general elections on September 26 this year (DW/ Deutsche Welle, September 3). According to last week’s national opinion polls, the political parties’ positions are as follows [values in parentheses are percentage point changes from August]:

SPD 25 percent

CDU/CSU 20

Greens 16

FDP 13

AfD 12

The Left 6

Others 8 [ + 7 ] [ -7 ] [ -3 ]

[ + 1 ] [ + 2 ] [ +/- 0 ] [ +/- 0 ]

Deciphering the Colour Code

The centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its

Bavarian siater party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) are symbolized by the colour black.

The centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) is red, as is the socialist Left Party.

The pro-free market Free Democratic Party (FDP) or Liberal Party is designated by the colour yellow.

And the Green

The German media refer to the three-way colour combinations (since a two-party coalition is currently ruled out in the polls) and the national flags of other countries and use them as shorthand for political combinations of the various political parties.

The “Germany” Coalition – Black, Red, Yellow (Gold) – the Colours of the German National Flag

This three-party coalition would consist on the centre-right CDU/ CSU [black], the centre-left SPD [red] and the liberal FDP [yellow]. However, if the SPD remains ahead of the Conservatives on election day, the colour order would be slightly changed, putting the SPD in the lead with red-black-yellow – a very different game altogether!

The “Kenya” Coalition – Black, Red Green – the Colours of the Kenyan National Flag

The combination of the centre-right CDU/CSU and centre-left Social Democrats – what has been termed the “Grand Coalition” -- a coalition of the two big tent parties that has been in power for the last eight years, but will probably no longer have a majority in the Bundestag [the lower house of parliament]. Taking in the Greens – currently polling in third place -- as a third limb would secure a comfortable majority.

However, with the CDU/CSU and SPD running neck-and-neck it’s not clear which will emerge the strongest and name the presumptive chancellor [prime minister]. In addition, the Conservatives may not be willing to play second fiddle. The “Jamaica” Coalition – Black, Yellow & Green (the colours of the Jamaican national flag)

The centre-right CDU/CSU have often teamed up with the much smaller Liberals (FDP) at the state and national level over the years. Including the Greens to form a threeway coalition would be an attractive

Party

is

selfexplanatory. option to many in the CDU/CSU. But the Greens and

Moreover, a similiar attempt failed after the last general elections in 2017.

The “Traffic Light” Coalition – Red, Yellow, Green

The free-market-oriented liberal FDP has in the past generally ruled out federal coalitions sandwiched between the Social Democrats and the Green Party.

But this year the FDP is not ruling out any options. Germany’s traditional “kingmaker” party is above all very keen to return to power – no matter in which colour combination.

The so-called Ultra Progressive Alliance – Red, Red & Green

The SPD joining the Greens and the Left Party is a spectre the conservatives like to raise whenever they perform badly in the polls. Such a combination might just about clinch 50 percent in the Bundestag. But the SPD and the Left Party [which originally broke away from the mother party, SPD] have a difficult history.

Moreover, the Left’s extreme foreign policy positions [like scrapping NATO] would hinder negotiations to start with. It would also damage the SPD’s image of pushing towards the centre. Such a coalition would only have an outside chance.

German Elections: Embattled CDU/ CSU Chancellor-Candidate Presents Policy Team

With just under three weeks to the general elections, the CDU/CSU’s candidate to replace long-serving Chancellor Angela Merkel has presented his brand-new policy team in a last-ditch effort to help him turn around an alarming drop in voter support (DW/ September 3). The decline has been blamed largely on Armin Laschet, the top candidate slated to succeed Angela Merkel, who is standing down after four continuous terms in office.

The CDU’s chairman and governor of the most populous state of North Rhine- Westphalia, Laschet has come across as vague and indecisive, with a lack-lustre campaign marred by slip-ups – including laughing at a joke during a somber moment in summer in a flood-ravaged western part of the country while the federal president was delivering a speech. This so-called “policy team” consists