🇩🇪 German elections (federal & EU level)

[Amanda Huggenkiss]

After a couple of CDU officials had more or less accused Friedrich Merz.of being a spreader of conspiracy theories (due to Merz' accusation that the CDU convention wasn't postponed because of COVID but to prevent him from becoming party leader) the convention is now set for a new date in mid-January... for now anyway. Media has commented on recent events as the moment when the CDU leadership race turned "ugly".

What's your opinion on the issue?

Friedrich Merz has a big ego and a big mouth and sometimes he speaks before he thinks. I (and probably also a lot of people in the CDU as well) dread him becoming CDU chairman let alone Chancellor, because then everything would become about him and not the public good or something. Unfortunately, Merz has taken a page from the textbook of Trump and other populists by claiming that his own ego trips are ultimatly about fighting the corrupt elites and the establishment (says the guy who has been a senior executive at BlackRock for the past couple of years).

Word is that some state chapters are eager to prevent a CDU-Leader Merz before the crucial state elections in Baden-Wurttemberg and Rheinland-Pfalz in the spring next year.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

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

[PSOL]

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

Die Linke is already far better on these issues than the SPD, and ideologically pretty much the same at this point in office, why not them?

[pilskonzept]

Die Linke is already far better on these issues than the SPD, and ideologically pretty much the same at this point in office, why not them?

Had been expected, and would not have made the news. Oh, and the local PARTEI leader died just a week ago.

[Middle-aged Europe]

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

Bülow had already left the SPD in 2018 and he had been an Independent member of the Bundestag since then.

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

September 26th, 2021 shall be the date

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Just something to think about...

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

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

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.

[Former President tack50]

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?)

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

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.

[MaxQue]

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.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

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. 🤬

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

[President Johnson]

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.

[Lechasseur]

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 my Merkel and Laschet. The guy is a real trainwreck.

When was the leadership election? And what was the final result?

[Estrella]

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. 🤬

1. I wish I had a dime for every time you write some variation on this phrase.

2. Your description of Die Linke is absolutely hilarious.

3. There are many phrases one can use to describe a person whose obsession leads them to shove their hatred of an ideology into quite literally everything they write and repeatedly insult their ideological enemies' birth defects. "Mentally well-adjusted" is not one of them.

[President Johnson]

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 my Merkel and Laschet. The guy is a real trainwreck.

When was the leadership election? And what was the final result?

Back in January, and Laschet defeated Merz 53-47% in the runoff among the 1,001 delegates. So, Merz lost by more against Laschet than he lost against AKK.

[Estrella]

Note: the party being described in the second paragraph is Germany's Die Linke.

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. 🤬

Opposing violence and murder phantasies by a paramilitary guerilla, an anti-constitutional party, and a brutal dictatorship and an anti-constitutional party is supposed to be "absurd/ignorant". Maybe you consider acknowledging that the vast majority of the Occident, including the vast majority of the Left, which I myself ascribe to, opposes left-wing extremism steadfastly. I goddit...

Replying to this here because I don't want to derail that thread.

Do you happen to be an SPD voter or member? Because that would confirm all my prejudices about that party lmao.

(Also, broad generalizations about "Occident" and suchlike... they don't necessarily mean anything, but they tend to indicate a certain type of ideology, one whose name you are very fond of using yourself)

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

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...

[Astatine]

It fell under the radar, but besides CDU, CSU, SPD, AfD, FDP, Left and Greens we might see another party entering the Bundestag in September. The South Schleswig Voter Federation (SSW), the minority party of Danes and Frisians which runs in Schleswig-Holstein local and state election, decided to participate in the federal elections for the first time since 1961.

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.

SSW is nominally centrist but leans more to the left as the party governed from 2012 until 2017 in a "Danish traffic light" coalition in S-H together with SPD and Greens.

Btw, in theory, two other parties could benefit from this rule: The "Lusatian Alliance" (representing Sorbians) and the "The Frisians" party, representing Frisians specifically. On federal level, they would be excepted from the threshold too, but as neither party had statewide electoral success (LA is excepted from the threshold in Brandenburg only but never ran in state elections, The Frisians never got over 0.x % - Both parties have some local representation though), it seems extremely unlikely they'll run.

[njwes]

It fell under the radar, but besides CDU, CSU, SPD, AfD, FDP, Left and Greens we might see another party entering the Bundestag in September. The South Schleswig Voter Federation (SSW), the minority party of Danes and Frisians which runs in Schleswig-Holstein local and state election, decided to participate in the federal elections for the first time since 1961.

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.

SSW is nominally centrist but leans more to the left as the party governed from 2012 until 2017 in a "Danish traffic light" coalition in S-H together with SPD and Greens.

Btw, in theory, two other parties could benefit from this rule: The "Lusatian Alliance" (representing Sorbians) and the "The Frisians" party, representing Frisians specifically. On federal level, they would be excepted from the threshold too, but as neither party had statewide electoral success (LA is excepted from the threshold in Brandenburg only but never ran in state elections, The Frisians never got over 0.x % - Both parties have some local representation though), it seems extremely unlikely they'll run.

Why do you think they chose to go this route now? Would 1 seat in the Bundestag give them that much an opportunity to advocate for Danish and Frisian issues?

[Estrella]

It fell under the radar, but besides CDU, CSU, SPD, AfD, FDP, Left and Greens we might see another party entering the Bundestag in September. The South Schleswig Voter Federation (SSW), the minority party of Danes and Frisians which runs in Schleswig-Holstein local and state election, decided to participate in the federal elections for the first time since 1961.

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.

SSW is nominally centrist but leans more to the left as the party governed from 2012 until 2017 in a "Danish traffic light" coalition in S-H together with SPD and Greens.

Btw, in theory, two other parties could benefit from this rule: The "Lusatian Alliance" (representing Sorbians) and the "The Frisians" party, representing Frisians specifically. On federal level, they would be excepted from the threshold too, but as neither party had statewide electoral success (LA is excepted from the threshold in Brandenburg only but never ran in state elections, The Frisians never got over 0.x % - Both parties have some local representation though), it seems extremely unlikely they'll run.

What exactly does that mean? Is it ¹/₅₉₈ (the minimum number of Bundestag seats), or just list seats, or total number of seats after overhangs, or how does it work?

[Astatine]

What exactly does that mean? Is it ¹/₅₉₈ (the minimum number of Bundestag seats), or just list seats, or total number of seats after overhangs, or how does it work?

As estimation this works, yes, but the Bundestag seats get allocated according to Sainte-Lague's method (0.5, 1.5 etc. as divisor instead of 1, 2 etc.), so the "natural threshold" is a bit lower. 46 million people voted in the last elections, multiplied with ¹/₅₉₈ 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). 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.

Why do you think they chose to go this route now? Would 1 seat in the Bundestag give them that much an opportunity to advocate for Danish and Frisian issues?

Well, I can just guess, but maybe because the SSW has stabilized in recent years (for many years they were stuck between 1 and 2 % in S-H, now they've been stable at 3-4.5 % for almost 20 years or so), therefore it is just mathematically more likely that the expenses for a campaign could be worth it. It would give them some nationwide attention probably (currently the SSW has close to none), so maybe running should set a sign for minority representation?
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?). Independents usually don't get committee assignments as far as I know, but maybe the other parties could compromise to add the SSW MP to a Committee that is somewhat close to Frisian/Danish issues.  Not sure which one that could be tbh.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

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

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

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