Explainer – “symbolpolitik” or “signal politics” means proposed laws that do not solve an issue but instead show a certain part of the population what your intentions are. For example, the mandatory handshake to get citizenship; the confiscation of jewelry from refugees; the border control with Germany; etc. Imagine you live in a city where people don’t really like the idea of flying cars. A political party can build popularity with a law to ban flying cars even though there are no flying cars invented yet. That is “signal politics”.