Category Archives: Helections

German Of The Day: Das Sinkende Schiff Verlassen

October 10, 2021 By in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , 1 Comment

That means to desert the sinking ship.

Angela Merkel’s favorites have begun jumping overboard. After the CDU’s resounding election loss, and Angela Merkel’s lame duck hand no longer there to protect them, it’s time to say goodbye.

Two of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s closest political allies and most senior ministers will quit the German parliament to make way for a new generation that can rejuvenate her conservative party after its election defeat, they said.

The decision of Peter Altmaier, the economy minister, and Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, comes amid growing infighting within the conservative camp after Armin Laschet, another close Merkel ally, led it to defeat last month.

“The CDU must get itself in shape for the future. Peter Altmaier and I want to contribute to this by standing down from the Bundestag.”

German Of The Day: Zitrus-Koalition

September 29, 2021 By in Hard Facts, Helections, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means “citrus coalition.” The Greens have green as their party color (what a surprise) and the FDP has yellow.

Germany’s Kingmakers – Difficult Talks Ahead for Greens and Free Democrats – The Green Party and the business-friendly Free Democrats plan to hold exploratory talks with each other before meeting with the main chancellor candidates in the coming days. They appear to be worlds apart but are already finding some common ground…

FDP leader Christian Lindner also continued Monday with the message he initiated on election night: measured praise for the potential coalition partner. The Union (CDU/CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD) are not parties of change, he said. In talks between his party and the Greens, it would therefore be necessary to examine “whether, despite all the differences, this could become the progressive center of a new coalition government,” even if that seems like a bit of a stretch.

German Of The Day: Königmacher

September 28, 2021 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helections Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means kingmaker.

You know, as in Germany’s FDP party (classic liberal, business-friendly)? They will most likely decide what kind of coaltion Germany will now get. Either SPD-Green-FDP or CDU-Green-FDP. Unless, of course, negotiations fail and they go back to another grand goalition of CDU-SPD, which absolutely nobody wants.

Germany’s FDP holds strong cards in post-election haggling – Buoyant from its best election result in 10 years, Germany’s liberal FDP party looks set to play a outsized role in coalition negotiations to form the next government…

The FDP wants to avoid tax increases and preserve Germany’s cherished debt brake, while the SPD and the Greens want to raise the minimum wage, increase taxes for the wealthy and and invest public money in tackling climate change.

“The coalition issue is extremely difficult for the FDP. Its members do not want the FDP to be propping up a left-wing government,” said political scientist Oskar Niedermeyer of the Free University of Berlin.

German Of The Day: Fünfprozenthürde

September 27, 2021 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helections, Helplessness Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means the “five percent hurdle.” A political party has to get at least five percent of the votes in order to get seats in the German Bundestag.

The Left Party (communists pretending not to be communists) received only 4.9 percent in yesterday’s election so they’re out. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer party. Don’t let the door hit you and all that.

So, with them gone, the local Berlin vote to pass the non-binding referendum to expropriate real estate companies (already deemed illegal by Germany’s highest court) takes on an even more fantastic touch.

Germany: Berlin locals vote to expropriate real estate giants – Berliners cast their referendum votes on whether to nationalize thousands of housing units owned by real estate giants. After counting 27% of the votes, results found that over half voted yes while just 39% voted no.

Two Votes Per Voter?

September 20, 2021 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

Ain’t no big deal. In the USA (some call it The Banana Republic) Democrat voters get eight or nine votes each.

Shoot. Even dead Democrat voters get more than two.

Two Votes and Coalition Talks: How the German Election Works – German voters elect a new parliament on Sept. 26 in a vote that will determine who succeeds Chancellor Angela Merkel after her 16 years in power.

Every voter gets two votes: one for a directly elected candidate, the other for a party list.

Merkel Germany: The Integration Nation

September 19, 2021 By in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Germans in Berlin are integrating into Syrian culture much easier than expected.

Merkel’s Legacy Comes to Life on Berlin’s ‘Arab Street’ – Refugees from Syria have changed the cultural makeup of Germany’s capital in a way not seen since the 1960s.

“It’s just like back home,” said Hamad, 27, a Palestinian born and raised in a Damascus refugee camp. “We know how to trim beards better than the Germans do. But they’re better with color.”

Energy Prices Can’t Be High Enough

September 12, 2021 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helections, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The German Greens reassure their voters. To save the planet and all that.

But their voters are finally starting to get restless. Even Good Green Germans may stop doing what they’re told at one point.

Not easy voting green: Germans wary of getting climate bill – Climate change is among the top concerns for Germans going into this month’s national election, which will determine who replaces Angela Merkel as chancellor.

“They don’t say enough where the money is going to come from.”

Person Responsible For Party’s Record Low Implores Voters To Lift Her Party Out Of Record Low

September 8, 2021 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

They couldn’t have reached this low without you, Angie. And everybody here in Germany knows it.

This is where seventeen years of “taking the wind out of the opponent’s sails” slaps back in your face. You’ve turned what was once a conservative CDU/CSU into another SPD (Social Democrats – bourgeois socialists). You’re greener than the Greens. The Free Democrat FDP who stuck to their guns are back and more liberal (in the good sense) than ever but don’t have to have you as coalition partner anymore. Many staunch conservatives who still could jumped your CDU/CSU ship and are now with the EVIL AfD who no one will work with because nobody, your party included, likes competition, so they must be EVIL. And nobody likes the Mini-Merkel-Man you selected to succeed you. Other than that, though, things are looking good. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Merkel implores Germans to back conservatives as they hit record low – Chancellor Angela Merkel made an impassioned plea to German voters on Tuesday to back her would-be successor Armin Laschet at this month’s national election, as an opinion poll showed support for their conservatives slumping to an all-time low.

The Forsa poll for RTL/n-tv put support for the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) at 25%, extending their lead over the conservative CDU/CSU bloc, who dropped 2 points from the previous week to 19%, which n-tv said was a record trough.

Sunflowers And Cargo Bikes

August 27, 2021 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

That’s what the German voter wants. Or at least that’w what the German Greens think they want.

I knew they’d shoot themselves in the foot before the upcoming election but that they could shoot themselves three or four times was beyond my wildest dreams.

German Greens under fire over 19th-century folk song in election ad – Greens go for wide appeal with reworked campfire song with no mention of devastating floods.

The original song, Kein Schöner Land in dieser Zeit (there is no country more beautiful than ours at this time) – still a popular campfire song and widely sung by scouts – celebrates the gathering of friends in nature one summer’s evening. They declare that with God’s grace they will continue to meet in this way in the future.