German Elections & Politics

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I take my hat off to INSA: they've outdone themselves this time. Bravo.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Opening a book on which polling firm goes with 'no one over 20% and everyone basically statistically tied'.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

CSU strategy did not flop at all and in fact was an astounding success.

The CSU's performance in the last federal election was poor even within the context of that election and they usually perform better in state polls than federal ones. You can make the case that this election was not as bad for them as it could have been (though it's still notably worse than 2008 which at the time was bad enough to cause a crisis of identity and considerable internal turmoil) but anything more is really gilding the lily.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Small defense of Blair (!) - he never did anything as blatantly economically right-wing Agenda 2010 (although he tried).

Yes, this is a very important point to understand. This is why the Labour Left did not leave as the SPD Left did.

Anyway, class in a narrow occupational sense isn't really the right way of looking at things for the Bavarian SPD - outside certain parts of Franconia (where, of course, they have retained a higher level of support than elsewhere even now) they were historically more of an urban party than a class party. Catholics in the countryside continued to vote overwhelmingly CSU even after the countryside ceased to be exactly rural and even after they got nice new industrial jobs rather than worked on the family farm.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Small defense of Blair (!) - he never did anything as blatantly economically right-wing Agenda 2010 (although he tried).

Yes, this is a very important point to understand. This is why the Labour Left did not leave as the SPD Left did.

That, and FPTP...

And a fundamentally adversarial political culture that can keep large political parties together out of sheer hate for the other side, yes.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Everything is relative: the average resident of Chicago would probably find such districts positively quaint.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Let's not count chickens.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I think 'Deputy Prime Minister' or 'Deputy Premier' would be better translations - 'Governor' has colonial overtones, which sit a little awkwardly.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

An actual exact tie for second place on the list vote is exactly the sort of electoral absurdity that we have come to expect from the good people of Hesse.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Part of Frankfurt, includes the Bockenheim borough which is a very strong area for the Greens and will be why they edged it.

Edit: or do you mean Darmstadt? Not sure what you mean by 'the south of Hesse'.

[Filuwaúrdjan]