“Obama and I have very much in common.”
“We are both really good-looking, we are both congenial and we are both able to unleash hype like this. Both of us are very good speakers, we both have leftest ideological positions which we can in no way ever implement and which, I believe, will eventually bring us both to despair.”
“Inhalte überwinden!”
Who cares? It’s election time! And that’s the Berlin equivalent to Karnival, sort of.
So what if Berlin’s unemployment rate is twice that of the national average and its schools are the worst in the country and the S-Bahn (the local commuter rail system) is still broken after three or four years and will remain so indefinitely and cars are set ablaze every night by a group of unknown arsonists who aren’t politically motivated in the least, honest, so what? Berlin is still Berlin, whatever that means. And that’s why everyone will be re-electing Klaus Wowereit on Sunday (or so the experts say – they just love to announce election results beforehand here for some reason).
No, he and his SPD aren’t doing anything about the problems here (malicious tongues would say that they are the problem), but what does that matter in the end? They aren’t doing it with style. Sounds vaguely familiar somehow…
Wowereit himself is their program. The whole city has been covered in posters featuring the native Berliner holding hands with a granny, or having his face bitten by a crocodile glove puppet in a child’s hand. His campaign slogan is “Understanding Berlin” — that’s not much of a vision, but Wowereit doesn’t appear to need one.
Ah, Berlin. Poor but sexy. And now partly on fire every night.
“The enthusiasm about Berlin as the capital of alternative culture has never been as great as it is these days. EasyJet tourism is booming, as is the real estate market — prices may be rising in Berlin, but beer and apartments are still relatively cheap.”
As are lighting fluid and matches.
Rot-Rot hat Brandstiftern zu lange zugeschaut.
Of the Elitists?
“PARTEI” is an acronym for Partei für Arbeit, Rechtsstaat, Tierschutz, Elitenförderung und basisdemokratische Initiative (Party for Work, Rule-of-Law, Protection of Animals, Advancement of Elites, and Grassroot-Democratic Initiative). At the same time, “Partei” is German for party. Usage of the definite article (“die PARTEI”) is evocative of totalitarian parties (see Socialist Unity Party of Germany and National Socialist German Workers Party) and is therefore a tongue-in-cheek reference to the totalitarian ambitions of the founders of “Die PARTEI”.
Here in Berlin, almost. And I tell you what. If I could vote here, I might just look into these guys. Their arguments are, I dunno, compelling or something.
They would start blending in with the leaves and the flowers here.
Green? They call their bicycles recycles here.
Table legs sprout roots here, it’s that green.
We’re talking green. One guy I know named his kid Kyoto.
Some folks are so green that they carry a tree around with them at all times for optimum air quality.
And German businesses aren’t much better these days. Some have turned so green that employees hug their corporate offices.
Green? They are so green that the very thought of unsorted garbage landing in a landfill makes them turn red.
What is the connection between a 9.0 earthquake that hits Japan and damages a nuclear power plant there and the nuclear power plants operating in Germany?
There isn’t one. But there doesn’t have to be one once the hysteria hits the fan.
Angie Merkel could have tried sticking to her guns and not playing to the crowd like she did but the result would have probably been the same.
Pech gehabt (tough luck).
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats are set to lose the key state of Baden-Wuerttemberg after six decades, exit polls suggest.
So when are the Germans going to make up their minds here? The third try’s the charm, I guess.
Get it over with already and let Paul the Psychic Octopus decide.
Or maybe it hasn’t. Let’s see.
If Angie Merkel’s CDU loses today’s big regional election in big North North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) big time, it would mean an end to her coalition’s majority in the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat.
This would threaten long-promised tax cuts and health system reforms. And you know how it is; a long-promised promise is a long-promised promise.
And that would be the “change has come to Germany” part, see? It wouldn’t really change much of anything, in other words.
With the economic crisis dominating the campaign, Mrs Merkel tried to delay a decision on the hugely unpopular rescue package for Greece until after the poll, but failed. Meanwhile, local councils are sinking into debt. Kindergarten fees have gone up, libraries and swimming-pools are closing.
Observing Hermann 