🇩🇪 German elections (federal & EU level)

[buritobr]

FDP secretary-general Volker Wissing has said that they're planning to wrap up the coalition negotiations until the end of November with the election and inauguration of Olaf Scholz as Chancellor intended for the week of December 6.

December 6 is Saint Nicholas Day.

Saint Nicholas wears red and transfers money to the poor, like the social democrats

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

FDP secretary-general Volker Wissing has said that they're planning to wrap up the coalition negotiations until the end of November with the election and inauguration of Olaf Scholz as Chancellor intended for the week of December 6.

December 6 is Saint Nicholas Day.

Saint Nicholas wears red and transfers money to the poor, like the social democrats

It should be noted that it's a very common custom for children in Germany to polish their boots on the eve of St. Nicholas' Day and set them outside in order for Saint Nicholas to fill them with candy - providing they have been good and virtuous all throughout the year. 🍬👢🍭

[palandio]

FDP secretary-general Volker Wissing has said that they're planning to wrap up the coalition negotiations until the end of November with the election and inauguration of Olaf Scholz as Chancellor intended for the week of December 6.

December 6 is Saint Nicholas Day.

Saint Nicholas wears red and transfers money to the poor, like the social democrats

It should be noted that it's a very common custom for children in Germany to polish their boots on the eve of St. Nicholas' Day and set them outside in order for Saint Nicholas to fill them with candy - providing they have been good and virtuous all throughout the year. 🍬👢🍭

Saint Nicholas seems to have a special importance in Germany when it comes to entering and leaving coalitions.

Remember "Am Nikolaus ist GroKo-Aus" (="On Saint Nicholas day comes the end of the Grand Coalition")? (cit. the chairwoman of the Bavarian chapter of the Jusos, i.e. the SPD youth organization, November 24, 2019, shortly after Esken and Walter-Borjans were elected SPD chairs)

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

I don't wanna crow about my own accomplishments, but I think it's worthy of mention that I was the only one to check the correct answer in that January 11, 2020 poll.




I will now accept my accolades‼

And I think it deserves a (dis)honorable mention that our self-proclaimed German politics pundit floated two random suggestions, both of which turned out to be painfully wrong. 🙅🏼‍♂️😒🤦🏼‍♂️

Habeck or Baerbock

Also, the risk for the CDU/CSU is pretty limited as they will win the election either way.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[President Johnson]

There was another poll from several months ago about the next chancellor and I answered "Olaf Scholz (troll option)", but can't find it anymore. Somehow I must have overlooked the thread above.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

There was another poll from several months ago about the next chancellor and I answered "Olaf Scholz (troll option)", but can't find it anymore. Somehow I must have overlooked the thread above.

That was my poll, but YE deleted all my topics on this board after it had been undermined by trolls and haters (bar the poll about Merkel breaking Kohl's record).

[Oryxslayer]

I don't wanna crow about my own accomplishments, but I think it's worthy of mention that I was the only one to check the correct answer in that January 11, 2020 poll.




I will now accept my accolades‼

And I think it deserves a (dis)honorable mention that our self-proclaimed German politics pundit floated two random suggestions, both of which turned out to be painfully wrong. 🙅🏼‍♂️😒🤦🏼‍♂️

TBF you were likely answering this not based on data at the time - which suggested a Union stranglehold on the electorate challenged only by the Greens - but more on your gut. And I'm not sure if that proves you have more foresight or are just a committed SPD partisan - not a bad thing but just a recognition of  perspectives.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

TBF you were likely answering this not based on data at the time - which suggested a Union stranglehold on the electorate challenged only by the Greens - but more on your gut. And I'm not sure if that proves you have more foresight or are just a committed SPD partisan - not a bad thing but just a recognition of  perspectives.

I'll admit having voted on mostly my "gut feeling".
I started on the premise that most Germans were tired of voting for the CDU (which proved to be a correct assumption), while simultaneously being scared of a Green Party, which had been becoming more and more radicalized, and becoming more and more sympathetic to the [censored], FFF, Extinction Rebellion, Jan Böhmermann's brigade and other far-left terror groups (which also proved itself true).
TBH, in the meantime I was genuinely dreading the prospect of the CDU or the Greens remaining or becoming, respectively, the next chancellor party.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Schleswig-Holstein moreover contains Germany's bellwether constituency No. 1: Pinneberg (No. 7), which has always sent the district candidate of the overall winning chancellor candidate's party to the Bundestag via direct mandate. (It would technically be wrong to say that this district has always given its first vote to the new chancellor's party. Take a guess why...)

As nobody has taken a guess, I'd herewith like to answer that question:
In the very first federal election of the FRG in 1949, the citizens cast only one vote, which served both as the "first vote" for the direct candidate of their constituency and simultaneously as the "second vote" for the statewide party list. (The same mode is still used for most municipality elections.)
Thus, it would have technically been wrong to say that the bellwether constituency Pinneberg has always given its first vote to the party of the overall winning chancellor candidate.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The inaugural meeting of the newly elected 20th German Bundestag is tomorrow (Tuesday).

One of the first orders of business is to elect a new presidium.

Traditionally, the largest party in the parliament (SPD) is nominating the president. Each party, including the largest party, has also the right to nominate a single vice president (the CDU/CSU has bemoaned the fact that they have not been allowed to nominate two vice presidents, given that they're holding almost as many seats as the SPD).

The SPD has nominated Bärbel Bas for president and Aydan Özoğuz for vice president. The CDU has picked Yvonne Magwas. All three would be newcomers in the presidium.

The Greens, the FDP, and the Left have renominated their incumbent vice presidents Claudia Roth, Wolfgang Kubicki, and Petra Pau respectively.

The AfD has nominated Michael Kaufmann, but as it is by now almost a long-standing "tradition" it is expected that he will fail to win the necessary majority tomorrow.

And yes, if all goes as expected, the new presidium will indeed consist of five women and a man. But Wolfgang Kubicki certainly has enough testosterone in his body to balance that out (in a recent BILD interview Kubicki had casually admitted to having regularly violated social distancing and lockdown rules last winter while insulting well-known SPD lockdown hardliner Karl Lauterbach in the same interview).

The inaugural meeting will be opened by the longest-serving member of the house, who coincidentally happens to be outgoing president of the Bundestag, Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) - first elected MP in 1972.

[President Johnson]

New Bundestag is formally in office now.

Kind of weird that Angela Merkel is on the VIP visitor bench since she's no longer a member of the body. It's also the last hours of her being formal chancellor, as the cabinet will be relieved later today and continue serving as acting government.

[President Johnson]

Bärbel Bas (SPD) elected Bundestag president with 576 votes. 90 Nays, 58 present. She's the third woman in the position and third Social Democrat in post-war history.

[Middle-aged Europe]

As expected, Özoğuz, Magwas, Roth, Kubicki, and Pau have been elected Bundestag vice presidents, while Michael Kaufmann has been not. The AfD is now deciding whether to send Kaufmann on to further ballots.

[Sir Mohamed]

I find it astonishing that there are 736 members. That's for sure too much, but I'd trade the political system of Germany or most other European nations any day of the week with our system here.

[DL]

I find it astonishing that there are 736 members. That's for sure too much, but I'd trade the political system of Germany or most other European nations any day of the week with our system here.

It seems like a lot but the UK has 650 MPs with a population of about 65 million and Germany has 736 with a population of over 80 million - and Canada has 338 with a population of 38 million - so in terms of MP per capita its not unreasonable

[Sir Mohamed]

I find it astonishing that there are 736 members. That's for sure too much, but I'd trade the political system of Germany or most other European nations any day of the week with our system here.

It seems like a lot but the UK has 650 MPs with a population of about 65 million and Germany has 736 with a population of over 80 million - and Canada has 338 with a population of 38 million - so in terms of MP per capita its not unreasonable

Seems a little too much, either. I think the US House should have about 650 members. 500-550 seems more approriate for Germany and/or UK.

[DL]

I find it astonishing that there are 736 members. That's for sure too much, but I'd trade the political system of Germany or most other European nations any day of the week with our system here.

To what extent is the Bundestag bigger than it has to be as a result of "overhang" mandates needed to maintain perfect proportionality?

[President Johnson]

I find it astonishing that there are 736 members. That's for sure too much, but I'd trade the political system of Germany or most other European nations any day of the week with our system here.

To what extent is the Bundestag bigger than it has to be as a result of "overhang" mandates needed to maintain perfect proportionality?

The normal size according to the Basic Law is 598 seats. Most of the time it was around 650, and that's also the size the Reichstag chamber was originally designed in the 1990s by British star architect Norman Foster.

Trafficlight coalition wants to enact a reform during this legislative term. That wasn't possible last time due to CDU/CSU's staunch opposition. Obviously the Union wanted to protect as many of their members as possible.

[President Johnson]

So... President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has formally relieved the fourth Merkel cabinet from their posts. The ceremony took place about two hours ago. Merkel remains acting chancellor until Olaf Scholz is (likely) being elected in December. All other ministers, including Scholz at Finance, remain in office as caretakers.

https://twitter.com/phoenix_de/status/1453049247721525257

[Middle-aged Europe]

I find it astonishing that there are 736 members. That's for sure too much, but I'd trade the political system of Germany or most other European nations any day of the week with our system here.

To what extent is the Bundestag bigger than it has to be as a result of "overhang" mandates needed to maintain perfect proportionality?

Normally the Bundestag is supposed to consist of only 598 seats. In the 2021 election, 34 overhang seats were created and 104 leveling seats to compensate for the overhang seats.

[buritobr]

Does the junior party of the coalition have a big bargaining power to set its agenda?
I believe this is a possibility because if the coalition breaks, the party which has bigger loss is the party of the chancellor.

[Oryxslayer]

Does the junior party of the coalition have a big bargaining power to set its agenda?
I believe this is a possibility because if the coalition breaks, the party which has bigger loss is the party of the chancellor.

That depends entirely on circumstance, but it has so far appeared that the FDP can demand the most as the weakest link.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Full sized image can be accessed via the Magick of 'right-click'.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Does the junior party of the coalition have a big bargaining power to set its agenda?
I believe this is a possibility because if the coalition breaks, the party which has bigger loss is the party of the chancellor.

That depends entirely on circumstance, but it has so far appeared that the FDP can demand the most as the weakest link.

It's also a case of being the one furthest removed from the "ideologial center" (SPD/Green center-left politics) of the coalition. The FDP apparently needed to show some successes to sell the Traffic light coalition - as opposed to the Jamaica coalition - to their own base. Or at the very least that's the premise they have been negotiated on.

[Хahar 🤔]

Full sized image can be accessed via the Magick of 'right-click'.

I believe this kind of sorcery is forbidden in Missouri.