🇩🇪 German elections (federal & EU level)

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Three further candidates have entered the race for the SPD chairmanship; that makes 15 candidates in total as matters stand:

The duo Hilde Mattheis/Dierk Hirschel and the single candidate Karl-Heinz Brunner.

Hilde Mattheis (64) belongs to the left wing of the SPD. She has been the chair of Forum Demokratische Linke 21, an association and think tank founded in 2000 for left-wing members. She has been a member of the Bundestag from Baden-Württemberg since 2002.

Mattheis' running mate Dierk Hirschel (48) is the chief economist of ver.di, the second-largest trade union of Germany.

https://twitter.com/HildeMattheis/status/1163497656712421376
The other candidate, from the other side of the isle, is Karl-Heinz Brunner (66), a member of the Bundestag from Bavaria since 2013. A member of the neoliberal Seeheim Circle, he is deemed to be one of the most conservative SPD members and a staunch supporter of the grand coalition, but he's also the Bundestag faction's spokesman for LGBTI matters. Brunner stated he announced his candidacy because he wants the entire variety within the party to be reflected, as he can tell a distinct superfluity of GroKo opponents and of the left-wing spectrum of the party. From 1990 to 2002, Brunner was the mayor of Illertissen, Bavaria (about 17,000 inhabitants).
Furthermore, and that may quicken Tender's interest, he is also a member of the Austrian SPÖ.

https://twitter.com/ntvde/status/1163696681084264449

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That said, in other news Olaf Scholz will run with Klara Geywitz, Landtag Member for Brandenburg. She was one of the instrumental negotiators for Grand Coalition agreement. So the message of Scholz-Geywitz is very clear: Vote for us to continue the Grand Coalition and stay on the current path. The left-wingers opposing them will argue for a change.
This could be the dividing line. Will there be any reason for the leftists like Comrade Kevin to stay in the SPD if Scholz wins? I personally dont see any (I am heavily biased, of course). His win would cement the centrist control in the SPD.

And Scholz was predicted to do that and he's being heavily criticized for doing that.
There's one word I've read numerous times in this context: "Quotenlieschen".
He just took an utterly and completely unknown woman, just to fulfill the unwritten female quota of the that self-proclaimed feminist party.

https://twitter.com/En24News/status/1163783039765438465
That being said, two influential SPD members stated today that they would finally and absolutely refrain from a candidacy: General Secretary Lars Klingbeil and Lower Saxon Governor Stephan Weil, the latter of whom criticized the selection procedure as too tedious and protracted last weekend.
And we finally have our first endorsement: The SPD Lower Saxony endorses its state's Interior Minister Boris Pistorius and his running mate Petra Köpping.

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Aaaaaaaaand we (are about to) have another contestant: late-night comedian and Sultan Erdogan's best buddy Jan Böhmerman announced on his satire show NEO MAGAZIN ROYALE yeasterday that he was going to seek the chair of the SPD. There are, however, three problems: The application deadline ends on Sunday; he needs the endorsement of one SPD state association or five SPD chapters; and yes, he still needs to become a member of the SPD.
But alas, Josef Wirges, the Social Democratic borough mayor of Böhmermann's place of residence Cologne-Ehrefeld, and Roland Pahl, SPD general secretary of Böhmermann's birthplace Bremen, both have already adamantly refused him an endorsement.

Here is his official campaign website: http://neustart19.de

https://twitter.com/zeitonline/status/1167344961324498944

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The acting SPD triumvirate becomes a duumvirate consisting of Malu Dreyer and Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel, since Manuela Schwesig steps down after a breast cancer diagnosis.

She retains the governorship and her state party chair, though.

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In a bit of a blow to Olaf Scholz, former SPD chair/Vice-chancellor Sigmar Gabriel endorses Köpping/Pistorius:

https://m.tagesspiegel.de/politik/rennen-um-den-spd-vorsitz-gabriel-favorisiert-duo-pistorius-koepping/25002692.html

I endorse or will vote for Olaf Scholz. He's a third-wayer and haas a ton of experience in public office. Hope he wins and makes the party great again. If Schwan and Stegner were elected, I'd quit the party.

If you quit the SPD who would you join?

Guys, I made an extra special thread for the SPD chairmanship election, which took me four days to bring to completion. Hence, I implore you to post information and questions regarding that primary there. (The chairmanship election isn't a federal election anyway, thus it doesn't belong here.)

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Source: tax-funded state TV news tagesschau.de

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Today, the Greens are electing their parliamentary party leader-duo.
The current faction leaders Anton Hofreiter and Katrin Göring-Eckardt since 2013, who deemed their renewed candidacies to be a sure-fire success, unexpectedly met with resistance; Cem Özdemir, former party chairman from 2008 to 2018, and some random woman named Kirsten Kappert-Gonther, run against Toni and Frau Göring. His candidacy is so remarkable as he is reported to seek the chancellorship; but in order to achieve the nomination, he'll have to compete against the Messiah Robert Habeck in a primary.

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And Bernd Björn Höcke can now officially be called a fascist.

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There is now another party with a member of theirs in the Bundestag: Former Social Democrat Marco Bülow has switched parties and is as of now a member of the satire party DIE PARTEI, which is already represented in the European Parliament with two seats.
As the reasons for his party change he cited lobbying, financial scandals and moreover willful neglect of environmental protection and insufficient support for caregivers (a yuuuuuuuge issue in Germany for over a decade now, especially since the outbreak of the Corona pandemic) within the SPD.

https://twitter.com/marcobuelow/status/1328687138452480000

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Just something to think about...

https://twitter.com/BlondJedi/status/1335132697384144897

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DIE LINKE is having a new dual leadership soon - after nine year! It will be the first time in German history that a major party is led by two chairwomen.

Yesterday, Susanne Hennig-Wellsow (43) and Janine Wissler (39) were elected as the new party leaders on an online party convention. The results, however, remain to be confirmed via postal voting in order to become legally binding. Thus, Henning-Wellsow and Wissler succeed Katja Kipping and Bernd Riexinger, both of whom technically still act as chairpersons.

Susanne Hennig-Wellsow faced two male no-name opponents on the "mixed-gender list" and received 378 out of 536 votes cast (70.5%). Reimar Pflanz received 104 votes (19.4%), and Torsten Skott got 15 votes (2.8%). 39 online delegates (7.3%) abstained from voting.
Janine Wissler ran exclusively on the "women's list" and therefore faced no opposition. She received 448 out of 532 online votes cast (84.2%), with 64 nays (12.0%) and 20 abstentions (3.8%).

Susanne Hennig-Wellsow is the parliamentary group leader of the Left in the Thuringian Landtag. Her harelip attracted national attention last February when she unveiled her antidemocratic and anti-social behavior by hurling a bouquet at legally-elected Governor Thomas Kemmerich's feet. Henning-Wellsow is deemed to be a member of the pragmatic reformer wing of her party. She regularly makes the case for a potential government participation, a highly controversial issue weithin her left-wing populist party, particularly among her West German comrades.

Janine Wissler is the parliamentary group leader of the Left in the Hessian Landtag and perceived as the left-wing radical antithesis to Henning-Wellsow. She is reported to be skeptical towards a federal green-red-red coalition.

Furthermore, the elections for Wissler's and HW's deputies delivered some remarkable insights regarding the - obviously non-existing - desire for a potential government participation among the party base:
First of all, Matthias Höhn, the security policy expert of the Left Party faction of the Bundestag, ran for one of the six posts for deputy chairman. Prior to the online convention, the pragmatist tried to enlist support for the Bundeswehr and for readiness for operations abroad under UN mandate - a fundamental prerequisite for entering a green-red-red coalition on the national level, but also an absolute no-go for the inexorably pacifist party, though. Reformer Höhn, as a consequence, was immediately punished by the online delegates; he was denied a post as deputy chair.
Secondly, Sarah Wagenknecht - a remarkably social conservative member of the Left, former Bundestag faction leader, renowned financial expert, Katja Kipping's arch foe, and party founder Oskar Lafontaine's wife - also had to face the hatred of their fundamentalist party comrades; all contenders that are deemed her confidants were failed by the mainly left-wing online delegates, barring one: Ali Al-Dailami.

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What is the point of having 2 people as party leaders? (Especially when both are going to be women, I thought the double candidates thing was a bad excuse for "equality" or whatever?)

Pretty much the same reason as for the dual leadership of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen: representation fi the different wings and of the different regions within the party.
One "Realo" and one "Fundi".
One "Wessi" and one "Ossi".
And formerly: one man and one woman.

I must say that I find it extremely sexist and hypocritical that a double-female leadership doesn't infringe the internal statutes, but a double-male leadership would. 
The same applies to the chair and (former) top candidates primaries of the Green Party.

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Her harelip attracted national attention last February when she unveiled her antidemocratic and anti-social behavior by hurling a bouquet at legally-elected Governor Thomas Kemmerich's feet.

Nothing wrong or antidemocratic or antisocial about protesting someone who collaborated with Nazis to get power.

Even if you consider the AfD Nazis, Kemmerich has never supped with the AfD. Kemmerich stood for election - and he was eventually elected in a Democratic way.
The harelip reacted snitty, not on ideological grounds, but merely because her party didn't win the vote for Governor, thus not being able to plant their own tax-eating ministers into the government.
SHW's behavior was simply childish and Trumpish, especially considering the facts that her openly lef-wing extremist party murdered over 300 innocent people, directly or indirectly, and brutally tortured their fellow citizens, and that most of their voters and party members glorify the GDR despotism and the RAF terrorist attacks (just recently on Twitter #GrundgedankenDerRAF) and blatantly want to restore communism and flagrantly promote the use of violence by the Antifa goons. 🤬

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Do you happen to be an SPD voter or member?

I was a Juso until I was a member of an SPD claqueur delegation to a talk-show, where I was forced to applauded an SPD member who justified the death threads against Flemming Rose on that talk-show. When I refused I was insulted with the standard name-calling like "Nazi" etc. and I was "asked" to leave that youth organization. After the wall of my apartment was "lovelified" with paint bombs, I eventually left the part and moved to another neighborhood of Hamburg...

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They are excepted from the 5 percent threshold and just need to cling over the "natural threshold" required to get Bundestag seats, which equivales about 45,000-50,000 votes. They have a chance to do so, in the last state elections they received 49,000 votes.

I was  sure that exemption only applies to Schleswig-Holstein Landtag elections. But you're right. The SSW doesn't need to surpass the 5% on the federal level, either.

In the meantime: SPD chairwoman Eskja and Juso Führer Kevin Kühnert are about to freeze former Bundestag President Wolfgang Thierse out of their party due to his traditional views, which are quite common among the remaining ancestral Democrats Social Democrats. As a consequence Thierse is now indeed considering leaving his party. 😒
Note: Homophobic remarks are only okay, according to Greens, Jusos, and Antifa, if they are uttered by the Migrantifa! ☝🏻

https://twitter.com/Tagesspiegel/status/1366825658744242176

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Oh, before I forget: There's another party that is about to freeze a renowned member out because she has become too conservative and too popular for that party 🙄:

https://twitter.com/SPIEGEL_alles/status/1366827669975822337

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But I am really not sure about overhang and compensatory seats, as the election system was reformed recently (so that CDU/CSU can nicely benefit), but a lawsuit against it is pending.
But I am really not 100 % sure, the German electoral system itself is not too complicated in total, but the details of when a seat gets compensated in which state etc. are too much for me to.

Thank God, I am not the only one...
I know about the new electoral law, but I don't know whatsoever how it will be implemented.
Initially, CDU and SPD merely wanted to reduce the number of congressional districts, which is equivalent to half of the default number of Bundestag seats.
However, the CSU acted willfully obstructively as they usually benefit heavily from those overhang seats, which ought to have been reduced. The last federal election marked the first time the number of allocated seats according the second vote matched the number of direct seats.

The one MP doesn't have much too say unless he or she joins a parliamentary group (unlikely, but most probable match would be SPD or Greens?)

For the Bundesversammlung ("electoral college"), which elects the Federal President, the Schleswig-Holstein SPD is wont to nominate one SSW member for their delegation.

PS: Wait ...

that would be about 80'000 votes, half of it would be 40'000 (I found the number of 45'000-50'000 in an online news article).

... you're Swiss? 

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Friedrich Merz just can't let it go. He just announced his candidacy for a Bundestag seat. The "problem": There is already an incumbent CDU politician, Patrick Sensburg, running for reelection in the district he seeks to represent. And Sensburg isn't just a backbencher. Furthermore, it's unclear what larger goal he has with the candidacy. It will definitely lead to a contested convention vote for the CDU candidacy in the district.

This comes after his "offer" to become Minister of Economics right after losing the CDU leadership to Armin Laschet in the current Merkel government, in which Peter Altmaier already holds the post. The ridiculous move back then was immediately rejected by Merkel and Laschet. The guy is a real trainwreck.

Now it's official: There will be a primary - or how the gonzo German media like to put it: "Kampfkandidatur" - between incumbent Patrick Sensburg and Friedrich Montgomery Merz after the latter has been nominated by the CDU chapters of Sundern and Arnsberg.
There was also also a third candidate, 35-year-old Bernd Schulte, but he has renounced his candidacy.
480 delegates will decide upon who is eventually going to represent their constituency in mid-April - in a sports stadium in Arnsbergs called "Große Wiese".

The constituency Hochsauerlandkreis (No. 147) is congruent with Hochsauerland County, the largest county by area in North Rhine-Westphalia, which is contiguous to Hesse.
The constituency and county is staunchly conservative. It used to go to the CDU candidate by a majority - until 2017, when Patrick Sensburg "merely" won it by a plurality (but still carrying it with 48% of the first votes).
Merz won that constituency four times in a row by a majority; he delivered his best result in 2005 with 57.7% of the first votes. Merz's successor to that district was Sensburg, who acceded to his direct mandate in 2009.

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So, any thoughts about corrupt Bundestag member Philipp Amthor?
Will the AfD conquer his district, which already encompasses all AfD strongholds within Mecklenburg-Vorpommern? (Every state constituency the AfD had won in 2016 lies within Amthor's federal constituency.)
Is it even possible that the AfD will become the strongest party in MV, now that Amthor is officially leading the statewide party list?

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In this interview, LINKE chairwoman Hennig-Wellsow is demonstrating her unbelievable incompetence; she unconditionally opposes Bundeswehr operations abroad, she wants to end all operations, but she doesn't know if and where our troops are currently operating...

https://twitter.com/i/status/1367558391099518979

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So, any thoughts about corrupt Bundestag member Philipp Amthor?
Will the AfD conquer his district, which already encompasses all AfD strongholds within Mecklenburg-Vorpommern? (Every state constituency the AfD had won in 2016 lies within Amthor's federal constituency.)
Is it even possible that the AfD will become the strongest party in MV, now that Amthor is officially leading the statewide party list?

With the recent scandals surrounding Nikolas Löbel (CDU) and Georg Nüßlein (CSU), Amthor is longer in the public spotlight at this point. Both made a fortune by taking huge commissions for mask purchases and are under criminal investigation. Finally Armin Laschet called for their prompt resignations. So far, they just have left the parlamentary group, announced not ro run again and resign by the end of August, a month before the federal election. However, I assume the pressure will take them down the next few days.

Nikolas Löbel has renounced both his CDU party membership and his Bundestag seat.
Georg Nüßlein is no longer a member of the CSU, but he still clings to his seat, which Söder insistently urges him to give up.

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With the recent scandals surrounding Nikolas Löbel (CDU) and Georg Nüßlein (CSU), Amthor is longer in the public spotlight at this point. Both made a fortune by taking huge commissions for mask purchases and are under criminal investigation. Finally Armin Laschet called for their prompt resignations. So far, they just have left the parlamentary group, announced not ro run again and resign by the end of August, a month before the federal election. However, I assume the pressure will take them down the next few days.

Nikolas Löbel has renounced both his CDU party membership and his Bundestag seat.
Georg Nüßlein is no longer a member of the CSU, but he still clings to his seat, which Söder insistently urges him to give up.

Söder even urged them to donate the hundred of thousands of euros they made these deals.

Someone is reeeaaally desperate to become chancellor...

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So, a more reasonable categorization would be:

Center-left to left: 43%
Center-right: 40%
---
Far-right (irrelevant): 11%

Woah! I didn't know that 11% of all Germans are bent on voting for the NPD, Der III. Weg, or Die Rechte...

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But as you said, that's the stereotype. There are also many rural low-info voters who have jumped ship in the recent past. My own aunt (a nurse and life-long CDU supporter) has recently told me that she thinks of voting for the GRÜNEN in the Baden-Württemberg state elections. She mentioned that "today's Greens are electable" and that "people like Kretschmann know that they need to reconcile environmental protection with economic necessities."

Anecdotal evidence and hence completely irrelevant.
I wonder if your "aunt" thought the same if she lived in Berlin or any other failed state.