The well-known German sociologist, poverty researcher, author of several scientific monographs, Professor Christoph Butterwegge (born in 1951) taught at the University of Cologne from 1998 to 2016. In 2017, the Left party nominated him as a candidate for the German presidential election and his programme was supported by the opposition and he came in second place behind the incumbent, F.-W. Steinmeier. The interview, received after the publication in 2020 of Butterwegge's new book «Inequality in a Class Society» (Ungleichheit in der Klassengesellschaft), continues the analysis of the current social, economic and political problems of the FRG presented in the publication by «NGScience » on 2019 [Butterwegge, Ljubin 2019]. Prof. Butterwegge believes that the impending climate catastrophe and the Covid-19 pandemic cannot be allowed to distract attention from growing inequality . Reducing and overcoming inequalities remains the most important political task. To tackle inequality and other thorny issues, German political parties should change their approaches. As a result of the neoliberal hegemony in Germany, the focus of social science research is on Western Europe and the transatlantic relationship, and the role of Russia and Eastern Europe is underestimated.
climate disaster; pandemic Covid-19; inequality; poverty; hyper-wealth; Russia; Eastern Europe.