“Not only in the rural population are there fears of transformation. This is understandable to some extent, as the pace of change has been very, very high in recent decades. If you consider what has changed in Europe since the end of the Cold War, you can only wonder that we have managed it at all. Every change creates winners and losers, and it is quite normal for the losing side to then fear even more change, regardless of whether you live in the countryside or in a small town or in the urban periphery. But that doesn’t mean we have to stop driving progress. It means we have to honestly discuss who has to bear the costs and burdens of progress.”
– Author and constitutional judge Juli Zeh in “Chic left-wing politics is the problem”, Handelsblatt from 6., 7., 8. September 2024, page 52, No. 173
