Tag Archives: Elections

Logic in the Time of Hysteria

March 27, 2011 By in Helections, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , 6 Comments

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.

“Change has come to Germany!”

May 9, 2010 By in Heconomy Tags: , , , , , , , 2 Comments

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.