Step One: Do everything you can to make it difficult to build new housing…

Step two: Once rent prices explode due to step one, introduce a rent freeze to end the few meager building projects still in operation.

Go Social Democracy!

Germany’s ruling party plans to curb rent increases – SPD set to unveil measures to tackle soaring costs facing tenants, says senior lawmaker.

Germany’s ruling Social Democratic party is set to propose a three-year rent break across the country, as tenants struggle to cope with the soaring cost of housing in Europe’s largest economy.

“We need to create breathing room — we need a rent freeze for the next three years,” senior SPD lawmaker Verena Hubertz told Bild am Sonntag, adding that Chancellor Olaf Scholz would outline measures on Monday to tackle the country’s cost of living crisis.

Attract workers to Germany?

Great idea!

But I saw a report last night about who’s already going to be put on the list: Unwed and unemployed mothers living off the German welfare system, for example.

We’re from the government and we’re here to help! Some call it “Social Democracy.”

Germany is moving forward with a plan to ease its citizenship rules as it seeks to attract workers – Applicants will IN MOST CASES be required to prove that they can support themselves and their family without receiving state benefits. The new legislation will specify that “antisemitic, racist or other inhumanly motivated actions” rule out naturalization.

Go Green, Go Broke

I know, it doesn’t ryhme as well as with “woke” but it’s OK. They’re woke too.

We’ll see for how much longer, though.

Nearly two-thirds of Germans want new government, poll says – A survey shows nearly two-thirds of voters want to pull the plug on Germany’s ruling coalition. The poll comes immediately after figures that show most Germans are unhappy with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his government.

As many as 64% of Germans who answered in the survey released on Saturday said a change of government would make the country a better place…

Pollsters also asked about the so-called “traffic light” coalition of center-left Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens, and the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP). Voters were asked how it measured up against Chancellor Angela Merkel’s “Grand Coalition” of conservative Christian Democrats/Christian Socialists (CDU/CSU) and the SPD.

It’s not a slowdown…

It’s more like a Vollbremsung. That’s German for full braking or emergency stop.

Germany’s highest court just cancelled the Green’s latest rush-rush trick, I mean plan to save the planet at German taxpayers’ expense.

Germany’s Green Slowdown – While voters may still broadly support net zero goals, they’re not necessarily on board with the escalating costs of the transition.

… Today, it’s the Greens’ proposed ban on new gas boilers in homes that’s causing trouble. Against a backdrop of sliding poll ratings, the party’s partners in the coalition forced a dilution of the plan last month in a package that also included a massive road-building program.

In another blow to the policy — dubbed Habeck’s Heating Hammer by the opposition — Germany’s constitutional court has made a highly unusual intervention in the legislative process and ordered the government to give parliament more time to scrutinize the plan.

Talk The Talk

But walk the walk? And give up one of my many annual vacations, say?

Thanks, but we’ll just stick to the talking, if you don’t mind.

This, folks, is “saving the planet” rhetoric in a nutshell.

Germans Want Climate Policy – Just Not in Their Homes. A new law about home heating reveals political constraints on the energy transition.

Polls show that Germans are earnestly worried about the climate crisis and in favor of more climate action. The fallout of global warming is one of their most pressing concerns, indeed as it is across Europe. And yet, when it comes to modifying their lifestyles or paying higher prices to curb emissions, most say they’re not willing, or only as much as it doesn’t sting.

This Isn’t A Joke

Gun and/or knife controllers never joke. And there is a certain logic to it.

But once you outlaw knives, shouldn’t you consider outlawing sticks and stones and pressure cookers and umbrellas too? Or, if you really want take that big leap and finally get it over with, why not just outlaw people who want to harm or kill other people? Oh, that’s right. You already have. Well, what if you outlaw them twice?

German police calls for knife-free zones in cities – Interior Minister Nancy Faeser and the federal police are calling for more weapon-free zones on trains and in inner city areas in a bid to tackle knife crime.

“We should think about banning knives on public transport, on buses and trains,” Faeser told the Funke Media Group. “After all, anyone traveling by plane is not allowed to take a knife with them.” Apart from increasing security measures on public transport, Faeser said another solution could be weapon-free zones in certain urban areas.

Are Even The Germans Starting To Wake Up?

From this Green nonsense?

Nope. But there are signs of hope.

Sidelined Greens lose faith in the German coalition – Governing partners accuse each other of ‘crowbar’ politics and ‘exploiting social qualms’

The German Greens once thought they were in the driving seat of Olaf Scholz’s coalition. Some now feel like back-seat passengers on a political road to nowhere.

“There’s a lot of frustration,” said Rasmus Andresen, a Green member of the European parliament. “This coalition promised progress and a fresh start, but, to be honest, I don’t see much evidence of that now.”

The source of their anger is the series of painful concessions forced on them late last month by their coalition partners, Scholz’s Social Democrats and the liberal FDP, which dismayed senior Green leaders and enraged the party’s rank and file.

Scholz is for many Greens the cause of their plight. They once saw him as a natural ally — he had, after all, campaigned at the last election to become Germany’s “climate chancellor”. But these days they increasingly see him as an obstacle, ready to sell out Green interests for the sake of political peace.

“Scholz has sided with the FDP,” said Reinhard Bütikofer, another Green MEP. “The FDP and SPD obviously decided they could score political points by exploiting social qualms about climate policy. But that’s populism.”

Could, Might, Should…

But they won’t.

That the SPD even uses the word “could” says it all.

Germany’s ties with China chould change fundamentally – SPD leader.

Germany would be forced to cut ties with China in the way it has with Russia should China attack Taiwan, the leader of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) told the weekly Die Zeit in comments published on Wednesday.

Eva K.

Beautiful corrupt EU socialist technocrat of the week.

Because somebody has to admire them.

European Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili has been arrested in an investigation into suspected bribery by a Gulf state…

Cash worth about €600,000 ($632,000; £515,000) was seized by Belgian police in 16 searches in Brussels on Friday. Computers and mobile phones were also taken by police in order to examine their contents.

No German Going-It-Alone Here

They have another word for it. It’s called Alleingang.

That means going-it-alone, of course. Although that is something Germans regularly claim they would never ever do. Apparently, only Germans are capable of believing such nonsense.

Olaf Scholz Is Undermining Western Unity on China – The German chancellor’s go-it-alone approach has alienated domestic, EU, and international partners.

The German chancellor sought to get ahead of the pack. Scholz argued it was time to speak directly with Xi after a three-year hiatus in such bilateral meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The chancellor said he sought to confront issues in the Germany-China relationship precisely because it isn’t business as usual. In an op-ed in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Scholz wrote that “as China changes, so must our approach to the country.”