The Natives Are Getting Restless

October 4, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hostility, Hurt Feelings Tags: Angela Merkel, CDU, German, Germans, Germany, Party Conventions, Political Parties, Politicians Leave a comment

The Empress of Germany/Europe is getting headwinds from members of her own party. Of all mere people.

Two relatively unknown CDU politicians are planning to challenge Angela Merkel for the position of party chairwoman of the CDU during the party’s conference this coming December. Only the winner would then be referred to as the party “chairman” if elected. But still.

How rude. She’s only been in the highest echelon of the CDU for eighteen years (and chancellor since 2005). More respect, please. She’s like, I dunno, the Robert Mugabe of Europe. Never touch a running system and all that. Not even when they’re non-running ones.

“Mir ist bewusst, dass es keine Wahl auf Augenhöhe sein wird. Dennoch ist dieser Schritt notwendig.”

There’s Nowhere Else To Go

October 1, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: AfD, Angela Merkel, German, Germans, Germany, Opinion, Political Parties, Polls, Populism, Populists, Surveys Leave a comment

Thanks again, Angie. They couldn’t have done it without you.

Populist attitudes are on the rise in Germany, particularly from within the political center. One in three voters now sympathizes with populist policies, according to a new study by the Bertelsmann Foundation.

The latest “Populism Barometer” found that almost every third German voter sympathizes to some degree with populist anti-establishment policies, whether on the left- or right-wing of the political spectrum.

At the same time, the number of sampled voters who identify as politically centrist has decreased by four percentage points, to just 32.8 percent.

“Right-wing voters support the AfD because the party is right wing. But voters in the middle will also vote AfD because the party speaks to their populist sympathies.”

Mysterious

September 30, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: AfD, Angela Merkel, Asylum Seekers, Crime, German, Germans, Germany, Migrant Crisis, Migrants, Political Parties, Polls, Refugees, SPD, Surveys 1 Comment

Puzzling. Enigmatic. Inexplicable.

The latest poll indicates that the AfD has now surpassed the SPD in popularity and is now number two among the political parties in Germany. None of the other parties will work with them, of course. Not yet, anyway. Of course, none of the other parties will ever need to work with them if they get an absolute majority of the vote in the next election.

As for the causes of this continued surge in popularity, none of the smart folks in government, academia or media can figure out why this is happening. I think it’s time to call even more experts, don’t you?

Die Polizei teilte am Samstag mit, der afghanische Asylbewerber leide nach der Einschätzung eines Gutachters an einer tiefgreifenden psychiatrischen Erkrankung.

It’s Not Supposed To Grow

September 25, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: AfD, Angela Merkel, Asylum Seekers, Fake News, German, Germans, Germany, Journalism, Media, Migrants, Political Parties, Refugees 2 Comments

The AfD’s popularity. But it keeps on growing. How can that be?

Anyone “good German” you ask will explain to you that the AfD is “bad” and “racist” and “Nazi” and “completely unacceptable.” The friendly people from the German media will explain that to you, too. How could such an awful group of people keep on growing in popularity? Something must be wrong somewhere. What on earth could it be?

The AFD is benefiting from being the official opposition to Chancellor Merkel’s grand coalition government. Polls rate it Germany’s second most popular party, dropping the Social Democrats to third.

German Of The Day: Fremdschämen

September 21, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Asylum Seekers, Freiberg, German, Germans, Germany, Immigration, Language, Mayors, Migrants, Political Parties, Refugees, Shame, Social Democracy, Social Democrats, SPD Leave a comment

That means feeling shame on someone else’s behalf. You know, like for the SPD? The party you just left because you can’t take it anymore?

The SPD mayor of Freiberg just tossed in the towel and left the SPD. He had tried to get the party leadership to consider a four-year immigration stop for any new refugees in the hopes of stopping what he saw to be a shift in the public’s mood. He was ignored, of course.

Tired of them refusing to listen to what his constituents on the street in the real world have to say, he announced his departure from the party with a post on Facebook, noting that “if you look at what’s going on in Berlin these days the word “Fremdschämen” doesn’t even come close to how I feel about it.”

“Schaut man diese Tage nach Berlin, drückt das Wort ‚Fremdschämen‘ nicht einmal ansatzweise aus, was ich derzeit empfinde.“

German Of The Day: Allzeit-Tief

September 9, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: AfD, Asylum Seekers, CDU/CSU, Emnid, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Migrants, Political Parties, Polls, Refugees, SPD, Surveys Leave a comment

That means all-time low.

The latest Emnid “Sunday trend” survey indicates that Germany’s CDU/CSU Union and SPD “grand” coalition government continues to loss favor with German voters – and is not nearly as grand as the name implies.

Like the SPD experience last week when it fell behind the AfD in similar popularity ratings, the CDU/CSU has also continued its slide and are now only at 29 percent. With the SPD’s current 17 percent rating, the grand coalition would only reach 46 percent of the vote if elections were to be held today.

Everyone is puzzled about what the reason for these low ratings could be. Not.

Die Parteien der großen Koalition verlieren bei den Wählern an Zuspruch. Von den Einbußen der Unionsparteien und der Sozialdemokraten profitiert bislang nur eine Bundestagspartei.

German Of The Day: SPD

September 4, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: AfD, Andrea Nahles, Angela Merkel, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Migrants, Political Parties, Polls, Refugees, SPD, Surveys Leave a comment

That stands for the Sinking Party of Deutschland. Or was it for Sterbende (dying) Partei Deutschlands? One of those.

I’m talking sinking, folks. Low. How low, you ask? I’ll tell you how low. Why, a pool released today indicates that the SPD’s national popularity rating is now so low that it has dropped behind that dreadful, awful and completely unacceptable AfD party. Times change, comrades. Thanks for your help there, Angela Merkel (she’s not SPD, of course, but her wild and crazy refugee policy has made the AfD what it is today: The second largest party in the Bundesag – and they’re not done yet). The SPD help make up Germany’s current grand coalition, you know. It doesn’t look like their help will be very much help for very much longer, however.

Es ist der nächste Schock für die Sozialdemokraten: Die SPD liegt in einer bundesweiten Umfrage nur noch auf dem dritten Platz – hinter der AfD.

Another German Initiative Bites The Dust

August 31, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hostility, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: Daylight Savings Time, EU, Europe, German, Germans, Germany, Surveys, Time Leave a comment

Although they moan the loudest about it, Germans and other vocal continental moaners have finally succeeded in doing away with that awful, terrible and truly horrible daylight savings time nonsense – an idea that they introduced in the first place.

The German Empire and Austria-Hungary organized the first nationwide implementation, starting on April 30, 1916. Many countries have used it at various times since then, particularly since the energy crisis of the 1970s.

A European Union online survey has concluded that a vast majority of the bloc’s citizens are against switching between summer and winter time. All signs point towards the EU now putting a stop to changing the clocks.

More than 80% of respondents to the largest online survey in EU history are in favour of abolishing changing the clocks in summer and winter, German newspaper Westfalenpost reports, citing well-informed sources in Brussels.

Es wäre sinnlos, die Bevölkerung erst zu einem Thema zu befragen, und dann, wenn es einem nicht passe, dem nicht zu folgen.

PS: Of the roughly five million Europeans who actually took part on the online survey over three million of them were German.

Left Now Right?

August 5, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: AfD, Aufstehen, Borders, German, Germans, Germany, Left Party, Migrants, Political Parties, Sahra Wagenknecht Leave a comment

No, let’s call it Right Goes Left. How about Left Right Left?

This perennial leftist Frontfrau (lead singer) has just thrown up her hands in desperation about what to call her new collective (collectivist?) lefty movement of malcontents (there’s a big demand for movements like that these days) and finally settled for #aufstehen (stand up, rise up).

Leftwing politicians are singing the praises of border control while rightwingers call for expanding the welfare state. Old political certainties could be turned upside down in Germany this summer as the far ends of the country’s political spectrum both moot a “national social” turn.

A new leftwing movement soft-launching in Germany in August aims to part ways with what one of its founders calls the “moralising” tendency of the left, in an attempt to win back working-class voters from the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

SPD-Vize Stegner kritisiert das Projekt als “Egotrip notorischer Separatisten.”

They Keep Getting My Hopes Up

July 2, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Angela Merkel, Borders, CDU/CSU, Coalition Governments, EU, German, Germans, Germany, Horst Seehofer, Migrants, Politics Leave a comment

But they’re not going to sucker punch me this time, either. Not when they come at me with this “Merkel is in big trouble and this could be the end” stuff.

I’ve been through this too often before. I will not be swayed by their Chruchill-esque come-on: “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” I mean, wouldn’t it be great if it really were the end of the beginning? I’ll take the beginning of the end if necessary but the end of the beginning would be way cooler. If it can’t be the actual end, I mean. The actual end would be best of all, of course. That goes without saying. But we’re not there yet. Or are we? Damn it! Here they go tricking me into getting my hopes up again.

A resolution to Germany’s government crisis proved elusive Sunday after the head of the Bavaria-only Christian Social Union in Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc offered his resignation rather than back down from his stance against the chancellor’s migration policies…

If Seehofer does step down, it is not immediately clear what effect the move would have on a three-week impasse between Merkel and her CSU partners, which has centered on his resolve to turn away some types of asylum-seekers at Germany’s borders.

„Dass es ernst ist, weiß jeder.”

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Category Archives: Helections