🇩🇪 German elections (federal & EU level)

[BigSerg]

Honestly, banning polls is totally stupid

[BigSerg]

https://twitter.com/Electograph/status/1442159056660176897?s=20

[BigSerg]

Updated ARD exit

24.7% Union 155+43 Seats
24.9% SPD 197 Seats
14.8% Green 117
11.3% AfD 89
11.2% FDP 88
5% Linke 40

An another indication of an Americanization of German elections:

Will the 2021 federal election turn into a 2016 US election? 🤔
The SPD might receive the most second votes while the Union could pickup more seats (thanks to overhang and leveling seats for the CSU.)
It would be extremely funny and ironic if the SSW seat (an SPD ally) was going to tip the scale.

I thought the leveling seats were assigned based on national results? Was the law changed since last time?

Hahahaha, Many users complain about this, but in Canadian elections "The popular vote doesn't matter in a parliamentary system," okay.

[BigSerg]

as i thought, grand coalition remain, this time with spd prime-minister

Why? CSU will have more seats

[BigSerg]

One hour without any update, they are not counting the votes?

Dude this looks like California.

[BigSerg]

A somewhat more detailled summary of the agreement between SPD, Greens and FDP, which will be the framework for coalition talks scheduled to begin next week:

- Climate: Exit of coal energy production until 2030 to save carbon emmissions. This is eight years ahead of schedule: 2038 was the exit date of the Grand Coalition, but criticized by the Greens. Massive investments in renewable energies and science for new, climate friendly technologies planned. Trafficlight coalition wants planning and construction processes for wind turbines and power lines shortened significantly to speed up green energy production and guarantee energy safety at the same time.

- Minimum wage: Minimum wage will be increased to 12€/hour within the first year. Subsequent annual increases will be decided by an independent commission consisting labor, business and economists. An estimation is that this increase will give ten million workers a raise. It was a key promise by Scholz and the SPD.

- Finances and budget: No tax increases, debt brake will be reinstated in 2023 (it's currently paused due to Covid relief programs). However, global minimum corporate tax Scholz co-negotiated will increase tax revenue for the government. Subventions and other expenditures will be audited and a number of them will be reduced or abolished to save money for other purposes. These points were very important to the FDP.

- Social programs: "Hartz IV" will be replaced by a so-called Bürgergeld. Details not known yet, but a major reform of the controversial unemployment insurance adopted under Gehard Schröder in 2003 and that cost the SPD a lot of support since.

- Family policy: Adopt civil rights for children into the constitution (that will require CDU/CSU votes in Bundestag and Bundesrat)

- Housing: Measures to relief the housing market. Target is 400,000 new apartments annually, 100,000 of them subsidized by the federal government for low income households.

- Science: Spending increase for science to 3.5% of the GDP.

- Voting rights: SPD, Greens and FDP want to lower the voting age to 16 years. However, that requires a constitutional amendment and therefore CDU/CSU votes (at least Die Linke will vote for this, too).

- Digitalization: More investments, especially to modernize the state and its authorities.

- Immigration: Immigration reform and implementation of a point system similar to Canada.

- Drugs: SPD, Greens and FDP plan to legalize and regulate cannabis sale and consumption. That was long blocked by CDU/CSU.

These are ambitious goals and if most of that is enacted, a Scholz cabinet may really go down in history as one of the most reform-minded in modern German history.

Political observers already described the 12-pages long paper as relatively detailed as a basis for coalition talks and have praised the discipline the talks were conducted. The only question remaining is how the expenditures can be financed without tax increases. On a more general note, at least all parties agree to modernize industry and labor market and combat bureaucracy to bring Germany to a path of lasting prosperity and economic growth.

Some tax increases and the speedlimit on all highways were things I would have liked to see here, but I realize the FDP just couldn't do that (more important is that they agreed on the minimum wage hike). The Free Democrats came a long a way given that before the election Lindner said he "lacks the fantasy for an offer SPD and Greens could make". However, I'm very happy with the results and the manner of which the talks were conducted exceeded expectations by a lot. The fact that we are at this point today certainly proves functionality of the political system, which is nothing to take for granted.

Trafficlight was certainly my preferred coalition all along because there's the potential to unite social safety, environmentalism, innovation, sound economic and fiscal policies, an open society and a pro-EU, pro-Western foreign policy under the headline of more pragmatism and less ideology.

Lol, lowering the voting age is stupid and would only benefit the left. The CDU should vote against that.