This Survey Is Clearly Incomplete

February 26, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Hideology, Hysteria Tags: China, Donald Trump, German, Germans, Germany, Media, Polls, Surveys, USA 2 Comments

They trust North Korea more, too.

Germans trust China more than US two years into Trump’s presidency, survey finds – More Germans view China as a better partner with their country than the United States, according to a recently released poll showing souring relations since Donald Trump took office two years ago.

Germans hold an increasingly negative view of the relationship between the US and their country, with just 23.1 per cent saying they think the US is a better partner than China. Meanwhile, 42 per cent of Germans surveyed said that China is a more reliable partner than America.

Fast 60 Prozent sprechen sich für eine stärkere Distanzierung Deutschlands gegenüber den USA aus.

More Fake News

February 8, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Angela Merkel, Donald Trump, German, Germans, Germany, Polls, Surveys, USA 1 Comment

It’s 95 percent easy.

Nicht gut: Nearly 85 percent of Germans see U.S-German ties as negative.

Nearly 85 percent of Germans have a negative or very negative view of U.S.-German relations, and most want to put more distance between the traditionally close transaltantic allies, a new poll showed on Friday.

Just over 40 percent of those polled view China as a better partner for Germany than the United States, the survey of around 5,000 people, conducted by Atlantik-Bruecke and the Civey institute in poll in November and December, showed.

Ties between the United States and Germany, Europe’s largest economy, have been strained since the 2016 election of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has criticized Germany repeatedly for its trade practices, defense spending and its participation in the Russian-led Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

German Of The Day: Pessimistisch

December 26, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hostility, Hurt Feelings Tags: Asylum Seekers, Germans, Germany, Integration, Language, Migrants, Negativity, Optimism, Pissimism, Polls, Refugees, Studies, Surveys, The Future Leave a comment

That means pessimistic. As in pessimism. German pessimism, to be exact.

German optimism is already pretty pessimistic so you can imagine what German pessimism must be like. And the Germans going through another pessimistic pessimism phase again these days.

A new survey indicates that a mere 17 percent of the population see the coming year with any kind of confidence or optimism. This is the largest drop in confidence in five years, the polling institute Ipsos says, and the turning point was the Flüchtlingsdebatte (refugee debate) that began in 2015.

2015 hatte die Flüchtlingsdebatte zu einem Stimmungseinbruch geführt. Die Sorgen im Hinblick auf die Integration der Zuwanderer sind noch immer da: 50 Prozent der Befragten befürchten, dass eine wachsende Fremdenfeindlichkeit den sozialen Frieden gefährdet. Das sind vier Prozentpunkte mehr als vor einem Jahr.

Germans More Important Than You Think

November 13, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hypocrisy Tags: German, Germans, Germany, Importance, Polls, Surveys Leave a comment

But not more important than they think. And this is important. I think.

The perception of which countries wield the most influence on the international stage can be in the eye of the beholder. People around the world largely agree that China has become more important over the past 10 years and are more mixed about the roles that Russia, India, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States play. But people in Russia, India and Germany stand out for being much more likely to say their country is playing a bigger role in world affairs than do people in other countries, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

For example, 72% of Russians say their country is playing a more important role in the world today than it did a decade ago. This compares with a median of 41% across the 25 other countries surveyed. Indians and Germans are similarly rosy-eyed about their own countries, while global evaluations are much more circumscribed.

In contrast, American, French, and British views of their own country’s importance on the world stage generally mirror the median view in the other countries surveyed.

Russians, Indians, Germans especially likely to say their countries are more globally important.

German Of The Day: Unerklärlich

November 8, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Angela Merkel, Asylum Seekers, Crime, German, Germans, Germany, Islamist Terror, Islamophobia, Language, Migrants, Muslims, Polls, Prejudice, Rape, Refugees, Surveys, Terror, Terrorists, Xenophobia 1 Comment

That means inexplicable.

You know, inexplicable like of all places on earth it’s inexplicable that Islamophobia and xenophobia could be on the rise in Germany. But it is. What could possibly be behind it?

Prejudice towards Muslims and foreigners is rising in Germany, a study has revealed.

More than 44 per cent of Germans believe Muslims should be banned from immigrating, compared to 36.5 per cent in 2014, the Competence Centre for Right-Wing Extremism and Democracy Research found.

The poll found more than one in two (55.8 per cent) said the number of Muslims made them feel like strangers in their own country, while 43 per cent gave the same answer four years ago, the Die Welt newspaper reported.

“We want a leader who governs the country with a firm hand for the good of all.”

They Still Don’t Feel Anything

October 25, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Angela Merkel, Asylum Seekers, Borders, EU, Europe, German, Germans, Germany, Immigration, Migrants, Polls, Refugees, Surveys Leave a comment

They’re still numb. And if they’re honest, they’ll admit it. Germany’s Willkommenskultur has always been a myth.

We asked Germans what they really felt after Angela Merkel opened the borders to refugees in 2015.

German chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision in 2015 to keep her country’s borders open and give shelter to hundreds of thousands of refugees was praised by commentators and leaders around the world. Her decision was also approved of by thousands of German citizens who welcomed refugees and provided clothes, food, and other support.

The term welcome culture, or Willkommenskultur, was frequently used in political debates and the media to describe the events of autumn 2015.

But a year later, the picture had changed dramatically. By the end of 2016, the public debate had shifted to focus on the so-called refugee crisis, or Flüchtlingskrise, alongside the religion of refugees and migrants, and limits to Germany’s capacity to integrate them. The change of perspective was reflected in discussions about upper limits – Obergrenzen — of the numbers of refugees that should be allowed to enter the country.

Our recently published research suggests that welcome culture has never been as widely embedded in German society as public debates in 2015 would make us believe.

How Accurate Are The Polls For German Elections?

October 14, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: AfD, Angela Merkel, Bavaria, CSU, Elections, German, Germans, Germany, Media, Polls, Surveys Leave a comment

We know how accurate they can be for American elections, right? Let’s see what the results will be like after the Bavarian election today.

Some say if Merkel’s CSU partner party loses as bad as these polling number suggest it could be the straw that finally breaks her camel’s back. I doubt it will happen, though. As the Germans say: Totgesagte Leben Länger. This chick ain’t never going away.

Just like Oktoberfest, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative sister party is woven into the checked fabric of Bavarian culture.

The Christian Social Union (CSU) has ruled Germany’s richest state since 1957, sharing power just once in a coalition with the free-market FDP. And since then, every Bavarian prime minister has risen from its ranks.

But now, swift as a reveller draining his tankard, support has ebbed away.

The CSU is bracing itself for humiliating losses in Sunday’s Bavarian state election. The party is on course to lose the absolute majority its leaders once took for granted.

Bayern steht vor einem politischen Erdbeben.

There’s Nowhere Else To Go

October 1, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: AfD, Angela Merkel, German, Germans, Germany, Opinion, Political Parties, Polls, Populism, Populists, Surveys Leave a comment

Thanks again, Angie. They couldn’t have done it without you.

Populist attitudes are on the rise in Germany, particularly from within the political center. One in three voters now sympathizes with populist policies, according to a new study by the Bertelsmann Foundation.

The latest “Populism Barometer” found that almost every third German voter sympathizes to some degree with populist anti-establishment policies, whether on the left- or right-wing of the political spectrum.

At the same time, the number of sampled voters who identify as politically centrist has decreased by four percentage points, to just 32.8 percent.

“Right-wing voters support the AfD because the party is right wing. But voters in the middle will also vote AfD because the party speaks to their populist sympathies.”

Mysterious

September 30, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: AfD, Angela Merkel, Asylum Seekers, Crime, German, Germans, Germany, Migrant Crisis, Migrants, Political Parties, Polls, Refugees, SPD, Surveys 1 Comment

Puzzling. Enigmatic. Inexplicable.

The latest poll indicates that the AfD has now surpassed the SPD in popularity and is now number two among the political parties in Germany. None of the other parties will work with them, of course. Not yet, anyway. Of course, none of the other parties will ever need to work with them if they get an absolute majority of the vote in the next election.

As for the causes of this continued surge in popularity, none of the smart folks in government, academia or media can figure out why this is happening. I think it’s time to call even more experts, don’t you?

Die Polizei teilte am Samstag mit, der afghanische Asylbewerber leide nach der Einschätzung eines Gutachters an einer tiefgreifenden psychiatrischen Erkrankung.

German Of The Day: Allzeit-Tief

September 9, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: AfD, Asylum Seekers, CDU/CSU, Emnid, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Migrants, Political Parties, Polls, Refugees, SPD, Surveys Leave a comment

That means all-time low.

The latest Emnid “Sunday trend” survey indicates that Germany’s CDU/CSU Union and SPD “grand” coalition government continues to loss favor with German voters – and is not nearly as grand as the name implies.

Like the SPD experience last week when it fell behind the AfD in similar popularity ratings, the CDU/CSU has also continued its slide and are now only at 29 percent. With the SPD’s current 17 percent rating, the grand coalition would only reach 46 percent of the vote if elections were to be held today.

Everyone is puzzled about what the reason for these low ratings could be. Not.

Die Parteien der großen Koalition verlieren bei den Wählern an Zuspruch. Von den Einbußen der Unionsparteien und der Sozialdemokraten profitiert bislang nur eine Bundestagspartei.

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Tag Archives: Polls