We believe that modern states are based on impersonal procedures and the law. The last 48 hours have brutally challenged this conviction, revealing the triumph of blood ties and elite handshakes over the institution.
The Return of Throne Inheritance. Democracy and monarchy paradoxically converge at a point where a name carries more weight than a platform. In Japan, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, the first woman in this position, is cementing a system that excludes women from succession. Although 80% of society accepts an empress, the head of government chooses loyalty to the „cultural treasure” that is patrilineal succession. The fate of the dynasty now depends on a single 19-year-old, Prince Hisahito, while the popular Princess Aiko remains on the margins of history.
Tokyo is not alone in its cult of political DNA. In Brazil, the republican framework is cracking under the pressure of dynastic ambitions. Senator Flávio Bolsonaro reached 42% support in a Datafolha poll, tying with the incumbent President Lula. This is not the result of legislative work, but the transfer of the political capital of his father, Jair Bolsonaro. Even the internal opposition within this camp is familial in nature – the alternative is not another politician, but the senator's stepmother, Michelle Bolsonaro.
„男系継承を維持していくことは、二千年以上続く皇室の安定的な皇位継承を守る上で、極めて重要であると考えております。” (I believe that maintaining the male line of succession is extremely important in protecting the stability of the Imperial Throne, which is based on an uninterrupted history of over two thousand years.) — Sanae Takaichi
In both cases, biology wins over pragmatism. The Japanese Liberal Democratic Party would rather risk the extinction of the lineage than modernize the 1947 law. The Brazilian right prefers to bet on a name burdened by investigations than to build new structures. This is not the politics of rational choice. This is tribal politics dressed in suits and broadcast in HD.Landing Strips for the Chosen. Where inheritance does not apply, the privilege of access does. The British Ministry of Defence has been forced to review RAF flight archives in search of traces of Jeffrey Epstein's network. The suspicion is simple: VIP guest status may have allowed for bypassing passport control at military airfields. National security procedures, usually insurmountable for a citizen, turn out to be flexible for friends of Prince Andrew.
This scandal shows how easily state infrastructure becomes the private backyard of the elites. Brussels is investigating Lord Peter Mandelson, and business emails are disappearing in London. Institutions established to protect borders and transparency become involuntary accomplices in the process. „The Ministry of Defence takes these reports with the utmost seriousness and will analyze every flight that could have raised doubts.” — UK Government Spokesperson
55 — press articles are currently analyzing new threads in the Epstein case, putting pressure on London and Berlin
In this context, the visit of Minister Jacqueline Drese from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern to Lithuania seems almost exotic in its normality. Talks with Minister Arunas Dulkys about cross-border healthcare, planned for February 2026, are an example of boring but functioning administration. This is the only moment in this review of events where the state serves the citizen, rather than a lineage or well-connected friends.Law Against Charisma. The most surprising turn toward institutions comes from a prison cell. Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the PKK, after 27 years of isolation, demands not amnesty, but „peace laws.” This is a fundamental paradigm shift: an attempt to exchange charismatic leadership and armed struggle for hard legislative guarantees. The mediation of the DEM party suggests that even guerrilla leaders understand that in the long run, a paragraph protects more effectively than a rifle.
The Turkish-Kurdish conflict has been ongoing since 1984 and has claimed over 40,000 lives. For decades, it was based on cycles of violence and temporary truces, dependent on the political will of Ankara and commanders from the Qandil Mountains, never finding support in a lasting legal framework.
Proponents of the primacy of tradition and charisma, such as Prime Minister Takaichi or Bolsonaro's supporters, argue that impersonal institutions are unable to bind a nation together in times of crisis. They claim that only the continuity of blood or the strength of a leader provides a sense of identity. However, this is a false argument. It is precisely the reliance on individuals that has brought the Japanese court to the brink of extinction and the Brazilian political scene to deep polarization.
The future of state stability lies not in a return to feudal dependencies, but in their ultimate rejection. If the RAF cannot control the passports of guests, and the Japanese government cannot accept biology, these structures will become empty shells. Paradoxically, it is the imprisoned terrorist leader who today shows a greater understanding of the importance of legislation than many incumbent leaders of the democratic world. We vote for laws, but we are still wounded by the arbitrariness of people who believe they stand above them.