CDU leadership election

[treibeis]

I was wondering if she is going to try to hide or at least downplay what BSW stands for, with the focus being on the "Für Vernunft und Gerechtigkeit" and "common sense".

It's very rare for Sahra Wagenknecht to downplay anything connected to herself.

There was talk of Boris Palmer being her right-hand man. That would be ... interesting. And Gregor Gysi's name has come up more than once as well.

They'll be mentioning Ronald Barnabas Schill before long.

[G-Man]

Makes you nostalgic for the DDR.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

What a piece of work she is, crikey.

[Flynnie]

A shame this is taking down what's remaining of the German left with it. Linke would have been wiped out had Gysi and a few others not won their seats as they were under 5% in the last election. With the SPD disintegrating as well and the Greens turning into the most pro-war party in the Bundestag, what's left? Nichts.

[Discordant Resonance]

First poll featuring the new party:

https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1716476589465063813

[ursus arctos]

The range of existing parties that lose votes to BSW are a real indication of just how unclear her positions are.

Which is also why grey is an appropriate colour.

[Etienne]

It's also indicative that while AfD are a fascist party, they haven't got to 20% in the polls entirely from fascists.

[elguapo4]

I think if you vote for AFD ,whatever you thought you were before is gone, you're a fascist.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

I think if you vote for AFD ,whatever you thought you were before is gone, you're a fascist.

+1

I didn't agree with Etienne's conclusion either. To me that just says that 4 out of the AFD's previous 22 are a subset of fascists who also love Vladimir Putin.

[Nefertiti2]

No idea who I would vote for in Germany.

[G-Man]

What is interesting about German voting patterns is how fluid it is. Absolute party loyalty is less pronounced there than it is in some other countries. That is an obviously dangerous thing -- voter behaviour was similarly fluid in the Weimar Republic -- and does little for stability, which Germany had when there were the two big parties. OTOH, that fluidity also allows for the kind of correction which the US system, for example, is incapable of. Though in the current climate, such correction seems unlikely.

[Etienne]

If 20% of the German electorate are actual fascists then they have even worse problems than I thought.

[Discordant Resonance]

Both AfD and BSW appeal to national populists, similarly to UKIP or National Rally, so if the new party eat into the old one's base, particularly in the DDR, then the extent of fascism may be closer to 10-15% than 20%, not that that's much better in the broader scheme of things, also both draw on previous non-voters who react out of protest, rather than hardened ideology.

[Flynnie]

Considering the number of paid up Nazis all over the government for decades after the end of the war (mostly but not entirely from the CDU/CSU), I am a little wary of describing all AFD voters and only AFD voters as fascist. The truth is going to be much more complicated than that.

[elguapo4]

Considering the number of paid up Nazis all over the government for decades after the end of the war (mostly but not entirely from the CDU/CSU), I am a little wary of describing all AFD voters and only AFD voters as fascist. The truth is going to be much more complicated than that.

Ok, maybe I went too far, but if you vote for them, it means that you're comfortable with some very unpleasant policies.

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/40percentgerman/status/1719020013590340045?s=12&t=xvOireV8JOIS_CpbTtDBow

[G-Man]

Halemba sounds like a good old-fashioned German name. Müller, Meier, Schulze, Halemba, Schmidt...

[ursus arctos]

He has been in the sights of prosecutors from the city of Würzburg, where he was a student, since a police raid on the rightwing fraternity Teutonia Prag there in mid September. Würzburg prosecutors released details of the warrant — and the case against Halemba they are building — on Tuesday. In the fraternity’s guest book Halemba is alleged to have signed his name with the Nazi salutation “Sieg Heil!” In his bedroom at the fraternity, police found a printout of a historic SS order signed by Heinrich Himmler, the Nazi commander who was a leading architect of the Holocaust. Weapons, including a machete, batons, knives, a knuckle duster and a disarmed gun were also confiscated. A picture obtained by police showed fraternity members enjoying a bottle of “Hitler wine” — a product made until last year by the small Italian winery Vini Lunardelli, featuring the Nazi dictator on its label, which has become a fetish object for rightwing extremists across Europe. A bottle was most recently confiscated in Austria as part of a huge trove of Nazi memorabilia and weaponry in June.

[ursus arctos]

Mercy

https://twitter.com/wahlen_de/status/1732386300538372574?s=12&t=xvOireV8JOIS_CpbTtDBow

[Etienne]

Germany should partition again.

[ursus arctos]

Would have the old issue with Berlin. And none of Dresden, Leipzig ot Magdeburg would be content.

There are troubling parallels between the east of each of Germany and Polandthat make the more progressive regions of Poland stand out even more.

[ursus arctos]

More of the same

[Discordant Resonance]

Similarly, Wagenknecht's new party has made little impression on nationwide polling, so notable that it adds to the far-left seat tally in eastern Länder.

[ursus arctos]

Potentially

Given that we are 18+ months out from a state election there, it is perfectly possible that both she and die Linke end up below the 5 percent threshold

[Lang Spoon]

Hopefully.