Tag Archives: Political Parties

German of the day: Aller Anfang ist schwer

May 6, 2025 By in Hard Facts, Helections, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means every beginning is hard.

And this one was hard to believe. And hard to follow.

Germany’s Merz becomes chancellor after surviving historic vote failure – Conservative leader Friedrich Merz has won a parliament vote to become Germany’s next chancellor at the second attempt.

Merz had initially fallen six votes short of the absolute majority he needed on Tuesday morning – a significant blow to his prestige and an unprecedented failure in post-war German history.

As it was a secret ballot in the 630-seat Bundestag, there was no indication who had refused to back him – whether MPs from his centre-left coalition partner or his own conservatives.

German of the day: “Fast die Hälfte”

May 4, 2025 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means almost half.

As in “almost half of Germans are in favor of banning the AfD, according to a survey.” And this means, of course, that the majority of Germans are against banning the AfD.

Almost half of Germans in favor of banning the AfD, according to survey – 61% of Germans consider the AfD to be a right-wing extremist party. According to a representative survey, 48% want it to be banned.

German of the day: Verdeckte Tyrannei

May 3, 2025 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means covert tyranny.

Following the classification of the AfD as “verified right-wing extremist” by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, US Secretary of State Rubio has described the classification as “covert tyranny,” while US Vice President Vance even draws historical comparisons.

Both US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Vice President J.D. Vance have criticized the new classification of the AfD by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution with vigorous words. The Federal Foreign Office responded to the X-word battle and countered: “That’s democracy.”

“Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy — it’s tyranny. What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD, but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes.”

German of the day: Genug!

April 25, 2025 By in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means enough! As in enough already!

Most Germans Have Had Enough of the Firewall Against AfD – While establishment parties continue to ostracize the party, only a third of the country supports the cordon sanitaire, with half wanting AfD to be treated as any other democratic party.

After a turbulent election season dominated by the establishment’s demonization of the national conservative AfD—now Germany’s most popular party—the plurality of Germans believe that ending the undemocratic cordon sanitaire against them is long overdue, regardless of who they vote for.

One-sided demonstrations directed against one party?

March 3, 2025 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

And funded by a government under the control of the opposing party?

This somehow sounds vaguely familiar.

Germany’s conservatives scrutinize state support for NGOs – Germany’s conservative CDU/CSU bloc is questioning the political neutrality of some NGOs. That could weigh on relations with its potential Social Democrat coalition partners…

In its inquiry, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group refers to an article in the conservative-leaning German daily Welt in which several experts on constitutional law expressed very critical views about the demonstrations.

“Associations that helped organize ‘firewall’ demonstrations did not act on a charitable basis,” argued Volker Boehme-Nessler from Oldenburg University. “The demonstrations were one-sidedly political. They were directed concretely against one party, the CDU.”

Germany is not turning “far-right”

February 18, 2025 By in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Germany’s established “democratic” political parties are turning Germany “far-right” by not addressing the migrant madness.

And not addressing the Green energy madness. And not addressing the taxation madness. And not addressing the bureaucracy madness. And that’s not all of the madness that’s not being addressed, either. All this madness, you see, is what’s making everybody so mad.

In other words: Fix it already. Or go “far-right.”

Is Germany turning to the far-right? Inside the country’s battle for power – Germany heads to the polls this week facing a challenge for power from the far-right. In the run-up to the historic vote, Siobhan Robbins heads to the country’s right-wing heartland.

“Startlingly aggressive?”

February 3, 2025 By in Hard Facts, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

I’d say it’s more like “refreshingly different.”

Merz doubles down on gambit with German far right in combative speech – Prospective chancellor takes startlingly aggressive line against those protesting against gamble with AfD.

The German conservative opposition leader, Friedrich Merz, whose party is widely tipped to win this month’s general election, defended his hardline migration proposals after a wave of protests accused him of breaching the time-honoured “firewall” between the far right and centrists.

In an uncompromising speech to a party congress of his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Berlin, Merz said he was confident they would win the 23 February vote “with a very good result”, well ahead of the anti-immigration, anti-Islam Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which has been consistently placing second in the polls.

Five days after passing a non-binding resolution on border policy with the votes of the far right – marking a historic breach of a taboo – Merz renewed a promise to bar any formal cooperation with the AfD in future.

“We will not work with the Alternative für Deutschland – not before [the election], not after – never,” he said to a lengthy standing ovation from delegates.

German of the day: Abweichler

January 31, 2025 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means dissenters.

As in dissenters within your own party. In this case, Germany’s CDU.

Germany’s parliament rejects radical migration plan – Greens and SPD earlier refused to support the Influx Limitation Act amid fierce criticism from Merkel over Merz’s cooperation with AfD…

The highly-controversial proposal, put forward by the CDU/CSU opposition party which leads in the polls, failed to secure a majority in the Bundestag, despite the backing of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland.

German of the day: Antrag

January 29, 2025 By in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means motion. As in proposal.

German immigration motion passes, breaking taboo on cooperation with AfD – Narrow passage of controversial CDU-CSU motion ends longstanding boycott on cooperating with far-right party.

The German parliament has narrowly passed a motion urging tough restrictions on immigration that was highly controversial because it was backed by the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party.

The motion was brought by the conservative opposition CDU-CSU and backed by, among others, the AfD, breaking a longstanding taboo on cooperation with the anti-immigration party.

German of the day: Mehrheit

January 27, 2025 By in Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means majority.

Despite Scholz’s criticism (German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, SPD): majority of SPD voters support Merz’s asylum ban, according to poll – Scholz had protested vehemently against the CDU’s push for a turnaround on migration. A survey now shows that 66% of Germans support Merz – as do the majority of SPD voters.