🇩🇪 German elections (federal & EU level)

[Lechasseur]

maybe a different color scheme for AfD? I know which is which but outside observers might wonder why the AfD is winning in Berlin.

Fuchsia and violet stand out pretty well against each other; e.g. you can see that the southern Leipzig constituency is held by a different party to that which holds much of the rest of Saxony. It isn't ideal, but there's no realistic alternative other than going full troll and giving the AfD brown.

The correct option is greys for union, blues for AfD, but I understand if that is undesirable because of black borders.

Actually black, unlike white, is mappable. But it is traditional to use blue for the CDU-CSU when making maps, particularly if there's implicit historical perspective involved. It means you avoid the absurdity of insisting that the CSU is a separate party and draws a distinction between the CDU and its ancestor party the Zentrum.* Not that I'm ever much bothered by party usage, but the CDU itself doesn't use black all that much these days and went through a phase during the early stages of Merkel's second and grand tenure of using orange. Similarly it is worth noting that Die Linke's official colour has never been purple, but purple has always been used to represent the successor parties to the SED. The AfD can take whatever they are given.

_{*A remnant of which insisted on carrying on as a rump party in the early years of the Federal Republic and which had enough support to win a direct seat in Duisburg once.}

Orange seems to be the colour of choice of most Christian Democratic parties: in Belgium, in Luxembourg, in Switzerland, and in France (if you count UDF/MoDem as such), so it makes sense.

Why is orange associated with Christian Democracy though?

Same for the association of Zentrum/CDU with black?

[Lechasseur]

Best Union result (on the list) was not in Bavaria but Lower Saxony: Clopenburg-Vechta with 38.4%. That's less than the CDU's national result in 2013.

I saw that earlier in the thread, but that's pretty interesting regardless.

I believe that historically, Niedersachsen was very much a lean-SPD state, it's funny that now the most CDU constituency in the country's there.

[Lechasseur]

The AfD parliamentary group shrinks from 83 to 82 MPs, as one of the freshmen is considered too right-wing and thus not becoming member of the group. He might get guest status though, which would avail him to participate in group conferences.

Too rightwing ? How so?

And what's the reason they'd want him participating in group conferences but not as a member of the group?

[Lechasseur]

Did the AfD do well in Berlin or any cities?

You can find this answer by using Google, no offense, but I highly urge you to lose Google and learn about some of these countries before posting here, to put it charitably, your knowledge of foreign politics is very lacking.

Thank the good lord Germany abolished it’s monarchy or we’d be swamped by his bizarre questions on who would make a better Kaiser post Merkel…

Haha

Seriously though, the Chancellor is just the German name for the Prime Minister, there would be a chancellor leading the government even under the Kaiser (Emperor), and the Chancellor would likely be the leader of the largest party just like they are IRL, while the Kaiser would be a hereditary member of the House of Hohenzollern.

And Imperial Germany and Austria had chancellors, so it's not a new concept.

So even in a hypothetical situation where Germany still had an Emperor, Merkel would be Kanzler and not Kaiser.

[Lechasseur]

https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/corona-christian-lindner-will-wohl-fuer-impfpflicht-stimmen-a-e7f1311a-8a8b-4a0d-b0f3-58669e08f560

Lindner says he is leaning towards mandatory vaccination, and he will most likely vote for it. On the point of the FDP being dominant in the negotiations on economic issues, its is often neglected just how many previously unimaginable ideological sacrifices the FDP has been willing to make in terms of pandemic fighting. For all three parties this is a permanent political realignment, bigger than any idea or concept, bigger than the interests or privileges of any one individual or group. Comparable to 1969.

In what way is this a permanent political realignment?

[Lechasseur]

Given current polling, it looks like the CDU/CSU are favoured to lead any government formed after the next election, but is Merz or Söder more likely to be Chancellor?

And why does it seem like many voters like Söder but not Merz? Are they really that different?

[Lechasseur]

If you split out CDU and CSU then AfD is now the #1 party

In other words, they still aren't in any meaningful sense?

Doesn't the proposed new election law establish a hard 5% threshold, i.e., one which can no longer be be bypassed by winning three direct mandates? It it becomes reality, then it definitely matters a lot what the CSU vote portion is.

What I'm curious about there is it seems like precedent considers the Union to be one for all intents and purposes electorally (ex: the dispute over who was the leading party in 2005 between SPD and CDU; SPD were number 1 without CSU but the Union was barely number 1 with CSU counted).

I'd imagine the Union would probably challenge the results of CSU's seats were thrown out.

But I'd be interested in hearing from a more knowledgeable source.