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.”
I mean, Russian collusion. YouTube collusion? I dunno. There must be some kind of collusion in there somewhere, right?
Russia threatens to block YouTube after suspension of German RT channels – Moscow warns of retaliation against video-sharing platform after RT channels blocked over Covid disinformation…
YouTube on Tuesday told German media that it had issued a warning to RT for violating its coronavirus disinformation guidelines and then shuttered two channels for breaching user terms.
On Wednesday, Russia’s foreign ministry accused YouTube of an “unprecedented act of media aggression” which it said was likely aided by German authorities – a claim Berlin denied.
The Russian ministry said the adoption of retaliatory measures against German media “seems not only appropriate but also necessary.”
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.
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.
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.
A survey says. Most Germans also find that they are miserable and without purpose or direction and in desperate search of some Ersatzreligion (substitute religion – see apocalyptic environmentalism and climate activism), my observation says. But maybe that’s just me.
Most Germans find religion unimportant, survey shows – A significant majority of Germans say religion plays no role in their life, a poll has shown. Fewer than one in eight adults believe that faith makes the world a fairer place, although younger people were more positive.
That means mouth and nose protection. You know, a face mask?
They keep you safe. Unless you’re a gas station employee asking a customer to put one on. Then they can be dangerous, deadly even. Remember the days when gas station employees were endangered by people who were already wearing the face masks when they came in?
Germany: Gas station employee killed over a face mask – A 20-year-old clerk was shot after asking a customer to wear a face mask in Germany. The suspected shooter said he was stressed out by coronavirus measures.
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.
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.”
If China won’t let a German warship into one of their harbors who else is going to fix it over there? They may have to blast their way in.
China denies German warship entry into harbor, Berlin says – China has denied a German warship on a mission to the contested South China Sea entry into a harbor, a German Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Wednesday.
The ship involved is the frigate Bayern, the spokesperson told a news briefing, but did not identify the Chinese harbor. The vessel set sail from Germany last month for a six-month mission to the South China Sea.
“China has decided that it does not want a harbor visit, and we took notice of that.”
