CDU leadership election

[Discordant Resonance]

How the FPTP constituency element of the election is shaping up:

https://twitter.com/Wahlen_DE/status/1430180304933773314

[ursus arctos]

I wish there was some indication of just which seats are expected to change hands

[ursus arctos]

https://twitter.com/marceldirsus/status/1432360372019793924?s=21

[G-Man]

And look at those machiavellian fucks of the FDP. There were times when they struggled to get to 5%. I wonder if there's any prospect of a red, yellow, green coalition.

[ursus arctos]

Bolivia?

[tee rex]

Was the CDU/CSU ever blue? Perhaps that's more false memory - I've been in Germany during a couple of election periods and would have said their posters and general bumf was blue, but Google suggests more grey. Which might be more fitting, but leaves an open goal for the AfD.

[ursus arctos]

The CSU uses Bavarian blue, but the Union has been black for as long as I have been paying attention.

The AfD's prominent use of a red arrow is a demonstration of how they try to play all sides of the street.

[Sheep]

And look at those machiavellian fucks of the FDP. There were times when they struggled to get to 5%. I wonder if there's any prospect of a red, yellow, green coalition.

If a few more debates pan out like the last one, they might not need the yellow. A Burkina Faso coalition?

[G-Man]

The CSU uses Bavarian blue, but the Union has been black for as long as I have been paying attention.

The AfD's prominent use of a red arrow is a demonstration of how they try to play all sides of the street.

Looks more like an Internet store logo. "Amazon for Dickheads. We deliver!"

[ursus arctos]

Would AKK really have done worse?

https://twitter.com/europeelects/status/1433842991936983042?s=21

[caja-dglh]

I dealt with ageing out of my never-to-happen sporting career but seeing political leaders who are my age is rather humbling about what I have chosen to do with my life.

[tee rex]

They've gone blue again. British Colour Imperialismus.

[ursus arctos]

I think that Europe Elects assign colours based on European Parliament affiliations.

So the UK Lib Dens are yellow rather than orange, for instance.

[tee rex]

On the poll itself, I'm quite impressed by the range of answers (to the hypothetical question of directly electing a leader). In New Zealand we adopted MMP, the German electoral system with a few tweaks, but the Westminster mindset prevails. So questions about the preferred PM nearly always produce either/or results, the incumbent versus the leader of the opposition, and minor party leaders barely get a look-in. (Current polling skews that somewhat, Ardern vs the rest, but it's historically true).

Some of the plausible coalitions in Germany are a non-starter here - for better or worse.

[ursus arctos]

Germans have gotten quite comfortable with coalitions.

I don't think that there are many other countries in which the CDU/CSU split would have endured, and the adoption of the flag model for names has also helped them seem more appealing. Who wouldn't want to consider a Jamaika Koalition?

[sw2borshch]

It's also that thing where black was the colour of the (Catholic) Zentrum party before WW2 and the CDU is the unofficial continuation (and extension into Protestantism) of that party, even though they still exist as a rump and now use blue. To aid with clarity, the CDU's official colour is orange.

[DCI Harry Batt]

I think that Europe Elects assign colours based on European Parliament affiliations.

So the UK Lib Dens are yellow rather than orange, for instance.

The Liberals (aka "UK Lib Dems") are yellow though, aren't they? We call them "yellow Tories". And "piss diamonds".

[sw2borshch]

I have never heard piss diamonds before, but it does capture something of their essence.

[DCI Harry Batt]

I have a mate who always uses it and it never fails to raise a smile.

[sw2borshch]

I read tonight in the Guardian (apologies, I have taken drink) that Laschet has the unfortunate thing of lasch meaning lackadaisical (a quick search also supplied lax, limp, feeble and flaccid) and I wonder if there's a thread in terrible politician names that isn't just about Dick Spring, which at least has a bit of dynamism.

[G-Man]

It's more that his image confirms the moniker. Merkel's name rhyming with "Ferkel" didn't harm her electoral prospects, Helmut Cabbage and Franz-Josef Ostrich (or Franz-Josef Bunchofflowers) got votes despite possible puns on their names.

[beak]

I wonder if there's a thread in terrible politician names

'Terrible' isn't the word I'd use, but any excuse to mention the present mayor of Heemskerk, who revels in the name Sicko Heldoorn.

[Discordant Resonance]

It makes a certain degree of sense, in that there will always be a proportion of immigrants who will wish to demonstrate their integration by "othering" those who arrive more recently than them (see the Irish who voted for Brexit, and the increased Mexican vote for Trump in 2020), and even on the superficial level, Ataturk wished to suppress the Islamic elements of Turkish culture, and throughout the course of his career, created an ethnic state that crushed all minority interests, so similarities with modern fascism are certainly noticeable.

[ursus arctos]

The Brendan Rodgers version was much less sinister

[ad hoc]

It makes a certain degree of sense, in that there will always be a proportion of immigrants who will wish to demonstrate their integration by "othering" those who arrive more recently than them (see the Irish who voted for Brexit, and the increased Mexican vote for Trump in 2020), and even on the superficial level, Ataturk wished to suppress the Islamic elements of Turkish culture, and throughout the course of his career, created an ethnic state that crushed all minority interests, so similarities with modern fascism are certainly noticeable.

No, it's a straight up lie. And a pretty obnoxious one at that