Germany megathread

[President Johnson]

Olaf Scholz owns hecklers! Protesters against Covid restrictions (which are mostly lifted since today) interrupted a SPD campaign event for the upcoming NRW state election, and the chancellor countered: "And I'm saying this: Hello! Scream all you want! Because this is what the citizens of Ukraine are fighting for. That you can say your option out loud, without fear. And therefore, I don't accept the evil cynicism with whom some say you can't say your opinion on that subject. It's a lie! Look at dictatorships around the world, then you know what it means."

https://twitter.com/AliKaanSevinc/status/1510226348324929536

[Middle-aged Europe]

Continuing from the polling numbers that I had posted earlier in the Ukraine megathread (https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=469771.msg8551757#msg8551757) one conclusion is that the Ukraine crisis has been very good to the Greens this month. Sort of a "Macron effect" - before inflation kicked in in France and Le Pen surged of course.


Robert Habeck (econonmy and climate energy minister) and Annalena Baerbock (foreign minister for NATO relations and Russia sanctions) being in full crisis mode turn the Greens into April's big winners. First graph is voting intention, second one is individual politicians' approval ratings.







As has been so frequently noted in the media recently they also benefit from the fact that our Chancellor has never been a man of big words and likes to play it safe. "Silent Olaf" often prefers doing and saying nothing instead of possibly doing and saying something wrong.

That seems to differ drastically from Robert Habeck's blunt (albeit these days sometimes bleak) style of communication where he tells it like it is by going full realist: Yes, we're in a sh**t situation and all of you people are probably gonna lose a lot of money over it and recently I went to Qatar to buy a sh**tload of gas from an evil, authoritarian regime, but alas, it is what it is. For some reason that seems to resonate with the voters at the moment. The popularity of that could come to an end one day, for it now is seems to hold.

At the opposite side of the scale, health minister Karl Lauterbach, who used to be everybody's darling not so long ago, drops sharply due to regularly bungling COVID crisis response and not really being good at communicating things. Some people have started to wonder for how long he will remain at his post now.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Continuing from the polling numbers that I had posted earlier in the Ukraine megathread (https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=469771.msg8551757#msg8551757) one conclusion is that the Ukraine crisis has been very good to the Greens this month. Sort of a "Macron effect" - before inflation kicked in in France and Le Pen surged of course.

Robert Habeck (econonmy and climate energy minister) and Annalena Baerbock (foreign minister for NATO relations and Russia sanctions) being in full crisis mode turn the Greens into April's big winners. First graph is voting intention, second one is individual politicians' approval ratings.

🤮🤮🤮
At least the lesser of those two evils is prevailing. 🤢

As has been so frequently noted in the media recently they also benefit from the fact that our Chancellor has never been a man of big words and likes to play it safe. "Silent Olaf" often prefers doing and saying nothing instead of possibly doing and saying something wrong.

You ought to watch his CNN interview. There he was uttering more words than in his whole political career. (Which is because as a non-native English speaker he isn't proficient in the anglophone formal-diplomatic register.)

That seems to differ drastically from Robert Habeck's blunt (albeit these days sometimes bleak) style of communication where he tells it like it is by going full realist: Yes, we're in a sh**t situation and all of you people are probably gonna lose a lot of money over it and recently I went to Qatar to buy a sh**tload of gas from an evil, authoritarian regime, but alas, it is what it is. For some reason that seems to resonate with the voters at the moment. The popularity of that could come to an end one day, for it now is seems to hold.

Not forgetting: "WeLfArE ReCiPiEnTs bUrN ThEiR TaX-PaId hEaTiNg aSsIsTaNcE ThRoUgH OpEn wInDoWs!!!1!"👆🏻😤 Such statements prove that the Greens remain a party of the affluent upscale elite.
I wonder if Habeck regrets in the meantime not having become the gubernatorial candidate for the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag election. Ever since the Greens nominated two (!) women (!) for that post, a nursery worker on the one hand and the farthest-left gubernatorial candidate Germany has ever faced, they dropped from being the prevailing party to third again, just like in the course of the federal election. Bear in mind, he absolutely surprisingly won a direct seat owing to a landslide result in the latest federal election, while his party merely came third as for the second vote, which proves that endowing him with a direct mandate served a declaration of love from the people to him.

At the opposite side of the scale, health minister Karl Lauterbach, who used to be everybody's darling not so long ago, drops sharply due to regularly bungling COVID crisis response and not really being good at communicating things. Some people have started to wonder for how long he will remain at his post now.

Honestly, you start sounding like your fellow party member and anti-vaxxer and anti-masker PUTP. 😕 I always thought you were saner and smarter than her.
Being the forth-most favorable political while being backed by half of the electorate is nothing Karl ought to be worried about. The tiny minority of QAnon disciples shouldn't be regarded as "some people", but should rather be utterly disregarded instead.

I wonder why Mrs. Doubtfire hasn't been assailed with demands to resign, even though she has been scnadal-ridden from - literally - the first minute since her assumption of office, when she decided to take a two-week hiatus in ... whatever. 🤬
Not to mention her generous offer to send 5,000 helmets to the Ukrainian army. 😒

[Middle-aged Europe]

I wonder if Habeck regrets in the meantime not having become the gubernatorial candidate for the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag election. Ever since the Greens nominated two (!) women (!) for that post, a nursery worker on the one hand and the farthest-left gubernatorial candidate Germany has ever faced, they dropped from being the prevailing party to third again, just like in the course of the federal election. Bear in mind, he absolutely surprisingly won a direct seat owing to a landslide result in the latest federal election, while his party merely came third as for the second vote, which proves that endowing him with a direct mandate served a declaration of love from the people to him.

I think I have mentioned this before, but Habeck running for the Schleswig-Holstein state parliament is not something that was ever actually contemplated by anyone... not by himself, not by the party, not by the media. It's an idea that seems to entirely exist in your mind, separate from the rest of reality.

Honestly, you start sounding like your fellow party member and anti-vaxxer and anti-masker PUTP. 😕 I always thought you were saner and smarter than her.
Being the forth-most favorable political while being backed by half of the electorate is nothing Karl ought to be worried about. The tiny minority of QAnon disciples shouldn't be regarded as "some people", but should rather be utterly disregarded instead.

I'm aware that I'm probably not frequenting the same obscure channels of information that you seem to be using, but I really haven't the slightest the idea what or who you are talking about. For instance, who is "PUTP" supposed to be?? If you wan't other people to understand what you have cooked up in that mind of yours you still need to be whole lot clearer in communicating it.

Other than that I was of course referring to an increasing number of recent media speculation that Lauterbach might be gone soon or at least that he's in serious trouble politically... obviously such reports haven't anything to do with "QAnon".

[Middle-aged Europe]

Ah, the penny has dropped... PUTP must be Pick Up The Phone with whom you had some weird feud going on that I won't getting myself involved in right now.


Anway, as a follow-up to today's Ukraine numbers from Forschungsgruppe Wahlen that I had just posted in the Ukraine megathread (https://talkelections.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=469771.msg8552854#msg8552854) here is the voting intention and approval ratings (approvals on a scale from +5 to -5) from the same poll.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1512676951391191042

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Anne Spiegel, Green Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, Youth and Gender Affairs, has just resigned over her incompetence and refusal to work and her gendering fanaticism during the Ahrweiler flood disaster, during which she was Environment Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate.

https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1513502446424780801

[President Johnson]

Anne Spiegel, Green Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, Youth and Gender Affairs, has just resigned over her incompetence and refusal to work and her gendering fanaticism during the Ahrweiler flood disaster, during which she was Environment Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate.

https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1513502446424780801

That escalated quickly.

Stepping down was certainly the right thing to do, although the vacation - despite bad optics - wouldn't necessarily qualify for resignation in my opinion. However, she claimed in public that she attended state cabinet meetings remotely which turned out to be a lie. This and the text messages about covering up her missmanagement, however, are a different story.

Still ridiculous Fritze "gehobener Mittelstand" Merz and the Union have the guts to complain about this story and demand resignation, when they allowed a Federal Minister for Traffic to stay in office after wasting over 500 million euros in taxpayer money and other instances of gross incompetence.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Anne Spiegel, Green Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, Youth and Gender Affairs, has just resigned over her incompetence and refusal to work and her gendering fanaticism during the Ahrweiler flood disaster, during which she was Environment Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate.

https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1513502446424780801

That escalated quickly.

Stepping down was certainly the right thing to do, although the vacation - despite bad optics - wouldn't necessarily qualify for resignation in my opinion. However, she claimed in public that she attended state cabinet meetings remotely which turned out to be a lie. This and the text messages about covering up her missmanagement, however, are a different story.

Still ridiculous Fritze "gehobener Mittelstand" Merz and the Union have the guts to complain about this story and demand resignation, when they allowed a Federal Minister for Traffic to stay in office after wasting over 500 million euros in taxpayer money and other instances of gross incompetence.

On the other hand, NRW Grüne chairwoman Mona Neubaur clearly exhibited her double standards by scolding (former) Environment Minister Ursula Heinen-Esser (CDU) for her resignation, whereas she keeps shutting up when it comes to Anne Spiegel, even though she had been on vacation for four weeks, unlike Heinen-Esser, who had been off for a mere nine days! 🤬

https://twitter.com/MonaNeubaur/status/1512678420068585472

Who do you think will succeed her? Anton Hofreiter is being under debate. But I don't think the Green party executive would allow this suggestion, since it's statutorily-regulated that sex gender has to override competence when it comes to personnel matter.
Speaking of which, I've also read Tessa Ganserer's name on Twitter. Ens would not only write history as the first trans*minister - since ens has become the Querdenkers' new darling last week, ens could act as an arbiter between the Schwurbler and the Antifa wing of the Greens.
Or Ekin Deligöz, spokeswoman on family affairs of the Green Bundestag faction? She would become the first female Turkish and first female Muslim federal minister of Germany.
But in the end, I think it will amount to Frau Göring... 🙄

[President Johnson]

Anne Spiegel, Green Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, Youth and Gender Affairs, has just resigned over her incompetence and refusal to work and her gendering fanaticism during the Ahrweiler flood disaster, during which she was Environment Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate.

https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1513502446424780801

That escalated quickly.

Stepping down was certainly the right thing to do, although the vacation - despite bad optics - wouldn't necessarily qualify for resignation in my opinion. However, she claimed in public that she attended state cabinet meetings remotely which turned out to be a lie. This and the text messages about covering up her missmanagement, however, are a different story.

Still ridiculous Fritze "gehobener Mittelstand" Merz and the Union have the guts to complain about this story and demand resignation, when they allowed a Federal Minister for Traffic to stay in office after wasting over 500 million euros in taxpayer money and other instances of gross incompetence.

On the other hand, NRW Grüne chairwoman Mona Neubaur clearly exhibited her double standards by scolding (former) Environment Minister Ursula Heinen-Esser (CDU) for her resignation, whereas she keeps shutting up when it comes to Anne Spiegel, even though she had been on vacation for four weeks, unlike Heinen-Esser, who had been off for a mere nine days! 🤬

https://twitter.com/MonaNeubaur/status/1512678420068585472

Who do you think will succeed her? Anton Hofreiter is being under debate. But I don't think the Green party executive would allow this suggestion, since it's statutorily-regulated that sex gender has to override competence when it comes to personnel matter.
Speaking of which, I've also read Tessa Ganserer's name on Twitter. Ens would not only write history as the first trans*minister - since ens has become the Querdenkers' new darling last week, ens could act as an arbiter between the Schwurbler and the Antifa wing of the Greens.
Or Ekin Deligöz, spokeswoman on family affairs of the Green Bundestag faction? She would become the first female Turkish and first female Muslim federal minister of Germany.
But in the end, I think it will amount to Frau Göring... 🙄

Maybe one of the parliamentary state secretaries? Hofreiter is beyond doubtful, not just because he's a man, but he's not really suited for this job. He should have been Minister for Agriculture instead of Cem Özdemir, who represents one of the most urban districts (Stuttgart I). Özedemir would be better as Foreign Miinister (or Traffic). Well, I still hope he succeeds Kretschmann during this term (that old fool is long past his prime).

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Maybe one of the parliamentary state secretaries? Hofreiter is beyond doubtful, not just because he's a man, but he's not really suited for this job. He should have been Minister for Agriculture instead of Cem Özdemir, who represents one of the most urban districts (Stuttgart I). Özedemir would be better as Foreign Miinister (or Traffic). Well, I still hope he succeeds Kretschmann during this term (that old fool is long past his prime).

Lisa Paus is reported to become Spiegel's successor.
She has been a member of the Bundestag since 2009.
Paus claims to be a financial "expert" of the Green Bundestag group, and she is numbered among the "Fundi" wing of her party.

[President Johnson]

Plot by a bunch of right-wing extremists, Covidiots and other deranged individuals to overthrow the government and capture Health Minister Karl Lauterbach was foiled. Lauterbach, who has risen to national prominence during the pandemic, said he plans to stay course.

https://twitter.com/dw_politics/status/1514590041779015680

[NewYorkExpress]

Thousands protested the plan to raze the village of Lutezrath to expand a coal mine.

Thousands of people protested Saturday against plans to bulldoze a village in western Germany to expand a coal mine that environmental activists say should be shut down, not enlarged.

The German news agency dpa quoted police in the afternoon as saying that the demonstration in Luetzerath, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Cologne, passed by peacefully. About 2,000 people took part, dpa reported.




It came weeks after the village's last farmer sold his property to the utility company RWE after losing a court case against his eviction. The village is still inhabited by activists, some of whom have built tree houses in a bid to stop the nearby Garzweiler mine from being expanded.

Climate activists argue that the village and others nearby should not be demolished because burning the coal that's still in the ground undermines Germany's efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

[Astatine]

Scholz approvals at a record low, Baerbock and Habeck at a record high:



Also, Linke at 3% only:

https://twitter.com/Wahlrecht_de/status/1519717794371280896?t=B4Pj-3yACBKAg7_IgI...

[Estrella]

As my signature suggests, I admire the Social Democrats for taking a strong and clear position on Ukraine. Not just Scholz, but Giffey too:

https://mobile.twitter.com/olgatokariuk/status/1523655913936089089

Franziska then doubled down on this wonderful idea of hers, which at least gave us this hilarious title:



"Solidarity with Ukraine stands unrestricted"
Giffey defends the ban on Ukrainian flags at memorials in Berlin

[NewYorkExpress]

Lufthansa is in hot water after a bunch of Jewish travelers traveling from New York were denied passage in Frankfurt for a connecting flight to Budapest.

A German airline is apologizing after a large number of Jewish passengers were denied boarding on a connecting flight at a Frankfurt airport earlier this month because, the airline says, a "limited" number of them did not follow mask rules and other crew instructions.

Passengers told CNN they flew Lufthansa from New York's John F. Kennedy Airport to Frankfurt, intending to connect to a flight to Budapest for a religious pilgrimage on March 4.

Yitzy Halpern of New York said he was trying to board the flight when he and a number of other passengers recognizable as Jewish, who were not associated with his group, were told they would not be allowed to board.

Halpern said once the gate was closed, the airline announced their tickets to Budapest were canceled due to an incident that happened on the flight from JFK, which the airline told CNN included people not complying with mask rules or other crew member instructions.

Passengers told CNN that though they were not traveling as "a group," they were treated as such by Lufthansa.

During the announcement, which was captured on video, an employee said, "You know why it was," and passengers are heard yelling back, "No, we don't."

Lufthansa said it is contacting passengers and has apologized for "not only for the inconvenience, but also for the offense caused and personal impact." A spokesperson told CNN the airline is conducting an internal review.

[NewYorkExpress]

Olaf Scholz is in hot water after comparing climate activists to Nazis.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was accused Monday of comparing climate activists to Nazis, in allegations that his spokesperson said were "completely absurd."

Scholz was speaking at a Catholic Day panel event in the city of Stuttgart on Friday when protesters disrupted him, with one activist reportedly trying to get up on stage before being blocked by security staff.

"I'll be honest: These black-clad displays at various events by the same people over and over again remind me of a time that is, thank God, long gone by," he said in an exchange captured on camera.

His remarks went viral on Monday on social media, where a number of users expressed anger over his comments.
Scholz was speaking about the phase-out of coal-fired power generation and resulting jobs losses in open cast mining when he was interrupted.

Many Germans have taken the leader's words as a reference to the Nazis' SS black-uniformed corps.

Just some of the response:

https://twitter.com/NiranjanAjit/status/1531175212963840000

https://twitter.com/ClimateAdam/status/1531261960179929090

https://twitter.com/Luisamneubauer/status/1530985049046360064

[CumbrianLefty]

You increasingly wonder how he managed to keep this foot in mouth tendency in check when he was trying to get elected - I certainly don't recall this many gaffes from him back then.

[Middle-aged Europe]

You increasingly wonder how he managed to keep this foot in mouth tendency in check when he was trying to get elected - I certainly don't recall this many gaffes from him back then.

Silent Olaf had the advantage of not saying much about anything during the election campaign therefore coming from behind and eventually overtaking the more (publicly) scandal-ridden competitors Laschet and Baerbock. A much repeated criticism against him during his Chancelloship is that he has the habit to "disappear" from important debates actually.

A recent editorial on ZEIT ONLINE was headlined though: "The Scholzian boomer realism. Whether it is the Ukraine war or climate change: Olaf Scholz can only do it moderate. That's so radical that it threatens Putin's victory and the devastation of our living environment."
(https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2022-05/olaf-scholz-ukraine-krieg-klimakrise-politikstil)

Still better than Laschet would have been, presumably.

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

The bill to raise the minimum wage to 12 Euros an hour from October 1st has passed the Bundestag! 🎉

The CDU and AfD abstained in the final vote.


Thank you SPD! Thank you SCHOLZ!


The €100 billion package for the Bundeswehr to purchase modern equipment also passed today

[Lord Halifax]

You increasingly wonder how he managed to keep this foot in mouth tendency in check when he was trying to get elected - I certainly don't recall this many gaffes from him back then.

Silent Olaf had the advantage of not saying much about anything during the election campaign therefore coming from behind and eventually overtaking the more (publicly) scandal-ridden competitors Laschet and Baerbock. A much repeated criticism against him during his Chancelloship is that he has the habit to "disappear" from important debates actually.

A recent editorial on ZEIT ONLINE was headlined though: "The Scholzian boomer realism. Whether it is the Ukraine war or climate change: Olaf Scholz can only do it moderate. That's so radical that it threatens Putin's victory and the devastation of our living environment."
(https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2022-05/olaf-scholz-ukraine-krieg-klimakrise-politikstil)

Still better than Laschet would have been, presumably.

How do you think Söder would have handled Ukraine?

[Middle-aged Europe]

You increasingly wonder how he managed to keep this foot in mouth tendency in check when he was trying to get elected - I certainly don't recall this many gaffes from him back then.

Silent Olaf had the advantage of not saying much about anything during the election campaign therefore coming from behind and eventually overtaking the more (publicly) scandal-ridden competitors Laschet and Baerbock. A much repeated criticism against him during his Chancelloship is that he has the habit to "disappear" from important debates actually.

A recent editorial on ZEIT ONLINE was headlined though: "The Scholzian boomer realism. Whether it is the Ukraine war or climate change: Olaf Scholz can only do it moderate. That's so radical that it threatens Putin's victory and the devastation of our living environment."
(https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2022-05/olaf-scholz-ukraine-krieg-klimakrise-politikstil)

Still better than Laschet would have been, presumably.

How do you think Söder would have handled Ukraine?

Söder standard modus operandi: Being tough on Russia as long as he feels it is popular with the electorate, being soft on Russia as soon as he feels it has become more popular with the electorate.

Which means he starts out as Poland and ends up being Hungary.

[NewYorkExpress]

One person is dead and six have life-threatening injuries after a man drove a car into a crowd of pedestrians in Berlin.

A 29-year-old man drove a car into a crowd of people in a busy Berlin shopping district on Wednesday, killing a teacher and leaving six others with life-threatening injuries, authorities said.

The driver, identified by police as a German-Armenian national, ploughed into pedestrians on a sidewalk around 10:30 a.m. near Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, a well-known Berlin landmark. The car then crashed into a shop window on an adjoining street, according to the city’s police and fire department.

Iris Spranger, Berlin’s top security official, said the woman killed was a teacher accompanying a group of high school students on a trip from the German state of Hesse.

Fourteen of those students are among the injured, Berlin police said, adding that their relatives have been informed.

Six people sustained life-threatening injuries and three others were seriously hurt, the Berlin fire department said. In total, 17 people have been injured, it said.

[NewYorkExpress]

Angela Merkel expressing no regrets for how she handled Vladimir Putin

Angela Merkel has said she feels no regrets for her handling of Vladimir Putin during her time in power, arguing that Russia’s president would have perceived a 2008 Nato membership plan for Ukraine that was blocked by her government as a “declaration of war”.

The former German chancellor also claimed that an oligarch-run and democratically immature Ukraine would have been less prepared for an invasion then than it is now.

“I would feel very bad if I had said: ‘There’s no point talking to that man [Putin]”, Merkel said in an onstage interview at the Berliner Ensemble theatre on Tuesday night – her first public appearance since leaving office half a year ago.

“It is a great tragedy that it didn’t work, but I don’t blame myself for trying,” she added in an unusually frank answer from a politician who rarely spoke freely while in office.

Asked about whether she regretted opposing the US-led membership action plan for Ukraine and Georgia in 2008, Merkel said: “Ukraine was not the country that we know now. It was a Ukraine that was very split … even the reformist forces [Yulia] Tymoshenko and [Viktor] Yushchenko were very at odds. That means it was not a country whose democracy was inwardly strengthened.” She said Ukraine at the time was “ruled by oligarchs”.


From the Russian president’s perspective, “it was a declaration of war”. While she didn’t share Putin’s perspective, Merkel said she “knew how he thought” and “didn’t want to provoke it further”.

[President Johnson]

Angela Merkel expressing no regrets for how she handled Vladimir Putin

Angela Merkel has said she feels no regrets for her handling of Vladimir Putin during her time in power, arguing that Russia’s president would have perceived a 2008 Nato membership plan for Ukraine that was blocked by her government as a “declaration of war”.

The former German chancellor also claimed that an oligarch-run and democratically immature Ukraine would have been less prepared for an invasion then than it is now.

“I would feel very bad if I had said: ‘There’s no point talking to that man [Putin]”, Merkel said in an onstage interview at the Berliner Ensemble theatre on Tuesday night – her first public appearance since leaving office half a year ago.

“It is a great tragedy that it didn’t work, but I don’t blame myself for trying,” she added in an unusually frank answer from a politician who rarely spoke freely while in office.

Asked about whether she regretted opposing the US-led membership action plan for Ukraine and Georgia in 2008, Merkel said: “Ukraine was not the country that we know now. It was a Ukraine that was very split … even the reformist forces [Yulia] Tymoshenko and [Viktor] Yushchenko were very at odds. That means it was not a country whose democracy was inwardly strengthened.” She said Ukraine at the time was “ruled by oligarchs”.


From the Russian president’s perspective, “it was a declaration of war”. While she didn’t share Putin’s perspective, Merkel said she “knew how he thought” and “didn’t want to provoke it further”.

She should have shown more self-awareness here. While some of her actions - and those of her predecessor while in office - were understandable at the particular point in time, 2014 was the very latest point German and European leadership should have corrected course. After Putin interfered in Donbas and annexed Crimea, it was pretty clear that he had no desire for a stable and peaceful relationship with the West. And after Russia massively extended cyberwarfare against Western countries including their institution (see 2015 Bundestag hacking attack). And when he continued the streak of political assassinations, including on foreign soil. Even at that time, Merkel and others continued to show weakness and emboldened Putin by approving Nordstream 2.

Of course this is speculative, but the war might not have happened if Putin didn't see weakness in Western leaders. He's a bully, and bullies only understand strength and determination.