Germany has become a less hospitable place for minorities, even if its conservative-leaning society was never the liberal paradise that swathes of Anglo millennials mistook it for after popping a pill at a smoke-filled Berlin nightclub.
And its former leader, Angela Merkel – who voted against same-sex marriage – was never the liberal icon that international media mistook her for after the devout Christian opened the borders to thousands of refugees as a humanitarian gesture.
But where the pragmatist Merkel merely slowed Germany's social liberalisation, the accession of Friedrich Merz to the chancellery has seen it switch from first into reverse gear.
When it comes to social and diversity politics, the staunchly conservative chancellor and his centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) have wasted no time in office marking their political territory.
Much of the controversy has centred around Berlin’s annual Pride parade, which the German parliament has marked since 2022 by flying the rainbow flag. Not this year: The new conservative president of the Bundestag, Julia Klöckner, a Merz ally, has halted the practice, citing concerns about political neutrality.
Shortly after, she prohibited the participation of the parliament’s queer staff network in the parade. In the latest upset, the Bundestag’s administration has ordered MPs to remove Pride flags from their window, with police sent out to enforce a mostly unenforced house rule, as revealed by Euractiv.
And it's not just Klöckner: Merz himself has argued that Pride flags turn the Bundestag into a “circus tent” – somewhat unsurprisingly, after he had once answered a question on his stance on homosexuality with the words that it was a private matter "as long as it doesn't affect children". Merz's education minister reportedly banned gender-inclusive language from her ministry's communications. His interior minister has trained his crosshairs on liberalised naturalisation laws for foreigners.
This crackdown is certainly nowhere near Hungarian proportions, where officials have moved to outlaw Pride parades and queer freedom of expression. Participants in Berlin’s edition can still attend a typically raunchy public party, largely unbothered, followed by an equally raunchy after-party at (in some cases) publicly subsidised clubs.
But the CDU has signalled where its political priorities lie – and it's at the expense of minorities.
It’s not difficult to find voices in the government who fear that this is not just a conservative pushback but a sinister political calculus. | 
