Politics German Politics

[Tarek]

Very informative and equally concerning thread guys..thank you all for the heads up. Damn aint' the world screwed up pretty good these days.

 

[chonkoa]

My take on this is that the AfD is a party of disillusioned CDU members whilst the Greens party are the disillusioned SPD members.
Two different offshoots with different underlying concerns.

 

[Deleted member 1071]

The plot begins to thicken:

Not only will Angela Merkel retreat as CDU party chairman, but has since announced that she will relinquish her candidacy for a further term as chancellor and retreat from politics altogether following her current term (which, due to the present extremely volatile political environment in Germany, may be in 2021...or...the end of this year...or...next week.). Jens Spahn, Friedrich Merz and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer or currently positioned as heir-apparents. "Flash Polls" see Merz having a massive lead in approval ratings, topping runner-up Kramp-Karrenbauer by a 2-to-1 ratio. I personally find this immensely encouraging.

 

[Mick Briesgau]

Encouraging in the sense of the complete retreat from politics by Merkel, yes. But CDU needs to renew all the way.
Thinking they will gain voters with the likes of AKK, Jens Spahn, Armin Laschet and Daniël Günther will turn out to be an abject failure. Merz or no Merz.
I have a distinct feeling quite some members of Parliament (CDU Bundestag abgeordneten) are aware of it and will act accordingly. After all, these members “dismissed” Kauder... there’s still hope for CDU.

 

[EnI]

So, after Angela ... Annegret. "What" a "change"! Merkel Ver 2.0. Meh!

C'mon CDU! You're going to single-handedly f..k up Germany and the entire EU/Europe. Merkel should have been gone already. In spirit as well. Kramp-Karrenbauer is "just another Merkel". And Merkel has proved to be very damaging for Gernam and also EU politics. Mind her (CDU) politics helped in rise of populist movement in Germany, and across Europe - also due to installing that Merkel's poodle Juncker as president of EU Commission.

It's a very harmful continuity. For Germany, and for Europe. Expect populist movements to prosper further.

Really! WTF! CDU delegates, you are so, so, so stupid.

 

[CrunchSlaughtered]

So, after Angela ... Annegret. "What" a "change"! Merkel Ver 2.0. Meh!

C'mon CDU! You're going to single-handedly f..k up Germany and the entire EU/Europe. Merkel should have been gone already. In spirit as well. Kramp-Karrenbauer is "just another Merkel". And Merkel has proved to be very damaging for Gernam and also EU politics. Mind her (CDU...

Look at the positive side, this will make German cars cheaper due to the rise of populist and finally decreasing the power of the automotive lobby that is so almighty in Germany

 

[SCOTT27]

I remember even as a child being taken to the Berlin Christmas market. Look at the stalls,eat some delicious food participate in the festivities and when older meet acquaintances for a beer in amongst the winter weather whilst talking about Politics,general life and cars. It was always open. No barriers and no protective cages. No bag searches, no metal detectors. It was the precursor to Christmas it got you excited for the days to come...

Now not so much...

 

[Mick Briesgau]

Look at the positive side, this will make German cars cheaper due to the rise of populist and finally decreasing the power of the automotive lobby that is so almighty in Germany

Cheaper? Hmm, the way I see it, german politics is killing it’s own, home made, car Industry. CDU is doing absolutely nothing to prevent this happening. Merkel’s CDU has become more some kind of Green party/SPD.
Former CSU politician Franz-Jozef Strauss once said:”there never should be room for a democratic legitimized party right from the union”. True, but not with this “modern” Union and Merkel 2.0.

 

[Deleted member 1071]

I'm quite willing to give AKK a chance-in hopes that she will SOON resolutely distance herself from numerous elements of "politics ala Merkel". My expectations, however, are low. Very low, in fact.

As things appear at the moment, I suspect that the right-wing populist AfD will emerge as a profiteer. EU parliament elections and crucial state as well as communal elections in eastern Germany next year will present a clear picture.

 

[Deleted member 1071]

Merkel has proved to be very damaging for German and also EU politics... Her (CDU) politics helped in rise of populist movement in Germany, and across Europe.

Agree.

 

[Deleted member 1071]

The apparently imminent appointment of Paul Ziemiak as CDU general secretary may be a good move. The current chairman of the Young Christian Democrats is reknown as a vocal critic of many Merkel policies and a supporter of the conservative Jens Spahn as well as Friedrich Merz.

I can only hope that a direct exposure to the Merkel lapdogs does not corrupt his pragmatically modern conservative political principles.

 

[EnI]

OK, AKK may (yet this has to be proven first ... let's give her a chance) steer German DOMESTIC, interior politics on some different path. But I don't expect tectonic changes & miracles. It's a continuity. It's not a change.

Everybody is saying AKK's m.o. and style-of-governance is very similar to Merkel's. Sure some of her views differes from Merkel's views but no dramatic differences there. Especially when it comes to German foreign politics & strategic EU matters (eurozone reform; common immigration policies etc).

Also mind that CDU itself left the voting congress deeply divided: AKK only got less then 52% of the votes. And she's an underdog, just like Merkel was. Although Merkel was picked by Kohl quite early to be his protegee and then his successor. While AKK enters into federal politics at very late stage, at the end of Merkel's ere, while Merkel's influence & powers & image had already been damaged & broken.

I'm not sure how it will play out with AKK. Sure she has quite some experience on state level, being a PM of Saarland - the smallest German state (bar City of Berlin). At least not the poorest one. But at least she has some governmental experience ... Merkel had none.

But being elected CDU president is only the first step. The next one: being a candidate for German Chancellor will be much tougher challenge. But still ... I can't see any major change in CDU's programe or policies. Merkel was just a face of lame CDU policies & decision making - and AKK's role will be the same. No change there. Therefore we can still predict the rise of the extremes: Die Grünen, Die Linke, AfD ...

CDU had a chance but they blew it with electing AKK. The optics are bad. I'm not an optimist.

 

[Mick Briesgau]

The apparently imminent appointment of Paul Ziemiak as CDU general secretary may be a good move. The current chairman of the Young Christian Democrats is reknown as a vocal critic of many Merkel policies and a supporter of the conservative Jens Spahn as well as Friedrich Merz.

I can only hope that a direct exposure to the Merkel lapdogs does not corrupt...

With all due respect @Jimmy, but calling Spahn conservative, explains a lot about current political views within the German electorate.
EDIT: AKK = Alles Kalter Kaffee (Wolfgang Herles). That says pretty much all.

 

[Deleted member 1071]

With all due respect @Jimmy, but calling Spahn conservative, explains a lot about current political views within the German electorate.
EDIT: AKK = Alles Kalter Kaffee (Wolfgang Herles). That says pretty much all.

I consider Spahn to be a "modern conservative". Policy-oriented and anchored in Realpolitik devoid of sermons promoting dictated political correctness and detached from (Green and/or "Merkelesque") visions of "gutmenschliche Massenonanie".

Obviously, from the viewpoint of the proponents of dogma-dictated Catholicism, Jens Spahn is NOT a conservative.

 

[Deleted member 1071]

...the plot thickens as we speak (write)...

Ziemiak gets just under 63% of delegate votes in order to secure his nomination as CDU general secretary. A tepid result. And testimony to the Merkel-factions' unwillingness and perhaps inabilty to promote much-needed renewal.

Pathetic.

 

[Mick Briesgau]

I consider Spahn to be a "modern conservative". Policy-oriented and anchored in Realpolitik devoid of sermons promoting dictated political correctness and detached from (Green and/or "Merkelesque") visions of "gutmenschliche Massenonanie".

Obviously, from the viewpoint of the proponents of dogma-dictated Catholicism, Jens Spahn is NOT a conservative.[/QU...

Can’t remember Spahn doing anything against to ludicrous moves Merkel made the last, let’s say 10 years. Though being a member of parliament/MdB since 2002, he didn’t vote against the “Energiewende” and with it the departure of nuclear energy, not the mention what happened since 2015. Just two examples.
The fact calling Spahn a, modern or not, conservative, is just a sign of how far Germany’s political landscape has turned to the left.
I do hope so, his behaviour and what he every once and a while says the media, would concur more with his voting in parliament.
By the way, calling him a non-conservative only because he’s gay and married to another man, I would call a cheap shot. That’s not my style

 

[Deleted member 1071]

Can’t remember Spahn doing anything against to ludicrous moves Merkel made the last, let’s say 10 years. Though being a member of parliament/MdB since 2002, he didn’t vote against the “Energiewende” and with it the departure of nuclear energy, not the mention what happened since 2015. Just two examples.

To Jens Spahns' defense, I maintain that a combination of youth and inexperience bridled his ambitions (if he harboured any at the time) to rebel against a then (from 2005 until 2013) far more popular Kanzlerin Merkel.
And in terms of the "Energiewende"-Few Merkelesque policies were conducted in a more short-sighted, ham-fisted manner. In principle perhaps "innovative" and arguably "noble" (Germanys' palpable "Angst" following Tschernobyl and later Fukujima + some poorly maintained EU-neighbor nuclear energy facilities on Germanys' borders as well as a few maintanence-neglected plants at home)-but so amazingly incompetently executed that it has evolved into a calamity. Much like the immensely silly "Fahrverbote".
The fact calling Spahn a, modern...

 

[Deleted member 1071]

Smug, meglomanic delusions of "moral superiority" paired with...the progression of the emasculation of the (west) German male of which the seeds were sown from the Green mindset of the 1980s' onwards...and a generous dosage of a resultant highly dysfunctional justice system ( over 45% of very recently surveyed Germans agree)... plus a dash of the perverted compulsion to declare perpetrators as "victims" and vice versa..lead to...Amberg, December 2018...and then, counteractively, to Bottrop/Essen on New Years Eve 2018/19.

 

[chonkoa]

Smug, meglomanic delusions of "moral superiority" paired with...the progression of the emasculation of the (west) German male of which the seeds were sown from the Green mindset of the 1980s' onwards...and a generous dosage of a resultant highly dysfunctional justice system ( over 45% of very recently surveyed Germans agree)... plus a dash of the perverte...

You will like Professor Jordan Peterson..Look him on Youtube. I am afraid the future of western civilization is under serious strain if continue on our current trajectory.

 

[SCOTT27]

Well,Well,Well. The rise of the Watermelons (green on the outside, red in the inside) was foreseen and inevitable.
Soon Germany will unveil its (Trump) card. Someone who values Germany's industry and German jobs.
Frau Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer?
Someone needs to send her Hilary's book.