CDU leadership election

[G-Man]

Voting age lowered to 16... I don't want to be grumpy granddad, but I wouldn't trust a 16-year-old to order wisely from a menu, never mind electing a government. Of course, I wouldn't trust most people to elect a government, but do they need to extend the pool of fools?

Of course, some 16-year-olds are politically engaged. I was when I was 16. But what proportion of their cohort actually are?

[ursus arctos]

Give me sixteen year olds over sixty eight year olds everyday of the week and twice on Sundays.

I don't expect it to pass, either.

[ad hoc]

Give me sixteen year olds over sixty eight year olds everyday of the week and twice on Sundays..

This

[DCI Harry Batt]

I don't expect it to pass, either.

Do you mean you don't expect votes at 16 to pass? And if so, what would it need to pass that you think it won't?

Some decent LGBTQI+ legislation proposed as well. Shows what a shitty shithole this country is.

[Sporting]

Voting age lowered to 16... I don't want to be grumpy granddad, but I wouldn't trust a 16-year-old to order wisely from a menu, never mind electing a government. Of course, I wouldn't trust most people to elect a government, but do they need to extend the pool of fools?

Of course, some 16-year-olds are politically engaged. I was when I was 16. But what proportion of their cohort actually are?

I trust my son to order food wisely and vote responsibly.

[ursus arctos]

The voting age is established in article 38, paragraph 16 of the German constitution. Any attempt to change it requires a change in the constitution, for which a three-quarter majority in parliament is necessary. The prospective ruling coalition would have to secure support from other parliamentary factions for this to happen. While it can rely on votes from the leftwing Die Linke, this would not be sufficient. The far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) is completely opposed to the idea and the conservative CDU/CSU alliance is largely against it.

Even as recently as May, when the Greens and FDP proposed a law change on the issue, the SPD voted against it in what was seen as an effort to keep its increasingly fractious partnership with the conservatives intact.
Germany election: worst ever result momentarily silences CDU

Thorsten Frei, the deputy leader of the CDU parliamentary group, said this week he was “very sceptical” about lowering the age and did not think conservative parliamentarians could be won over. “Without a doubt, there are many young people with a strong political interest,” he told the newspaper Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. “But rights and obligations have to be in alignment, and the question is whether it makes sense, on the one hand, to be able to partake in decision-making about the future of our country, but on the other, to not be able to sign a mobile phone contract or watch certain films at the cinema without parental consent? I have my doubts.”

[Sheep]

That sounds as if electorally, it might be a prudent move for the coalition to put it to a vote. Make the opposition parties vote against it, so that they thoroughly anger the youth vote for the next election cycle.

[ursus arctos]

I am quite confident that that exact scenario has occurred to a number of the proponents

[DCI Harry Batt]

Thanks ua

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Give me sixteen year olds over sixty eight year olds everyday of the week and twice on Sundays.

Well, on political questions, sure. Not on spacing after full stops though. Voting on that should be strictly reserved to people born before 1980 (and, when all such people are dead, the old rule entrenched in law enforced by terminator robots).

[ursus arctos]

Full stops, full schnops

[DCI Harry Batt]

Evariste Euler Gauss are you one of those double-spacing types? And if so, how come you don't do it on here? Or does the software here fix the error for you?

[sw2borshch]

Voting age lowered to 16... I don't want to be grumpy granddad, but I wouldn't trust a 16-year-old to order wisely from a menu, never mind electing a government. Of course, I wouldn't trust most people to elect a government, but do they need to extend the pool of fools?

Of course, some 16-year-olds are politically engaged. I was when I was 16. But what proportion of their cohort actually are?

And these young adults are old enough to drink in pubs.

[S. aureus]

Having just looked through a few of my posts, I think the software must be removing one of my spaces, as I habitually put two in and they all have one.
I suppose I could test this here. Or maybe here. Two, then one.

[S. aureus]

Both set to one after posting the reply.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Well done, software.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Two spaces till I die, TonTon. I'd sooner start being a Man Utd fan than voluntarily do single spacing. If there's evil software on here that removes a second space, obviously I'm a helpless victim of that.

[Discordant Resonance]

https://twitter.com/denisstaunton/status/1463518224557957127

[Duncan Gardner]

https://twitter.com/denisstaunton/status/1463518224557957127

Is that commitment really that significant? The German Government was hardly going to replace the GFA- the Brexiteers' antics in setting up the sea border has already rewritten it

[Discordant Resonance]

So, the CDU react to the German electorate moving to the centre-left by installing Merz as their new leader - expect much more talk about "German cultural values", as he tries to kill off the AfD, but leaches votes to the FDP in the process.

[G-Man]

Well, let's hope Ampel does a decent job of it. Bundeskanzler Merz is scary thought.

[Discordant Resonance]

Exit polls in the Saar suggest either a solo SPD government, or only requiring Green support. Die Linke's collapse is due to a split into pro and anti-Lafontaine factions, while one can only hope that AfD slip below the threshold during counting:

https://twitter.com/Wahlen_DE/status/1508112045559984138

[G-Man]

That is a hell of a swing from four years ago. Can that be read as an endorsement of Scholz's performance, or is most of that picking off Linke votes?

[Discordant Resonance]

More the latter, though the local Socialist leader seems popular in her own right - the Greens have missed the threshold by 23 (!) votes, and so win nothing:

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

According to Wiki as of right now, the *preliminary* results indicate that sadly the AfD scum have clearly overcome the 5% threshold (with 5.7%) but all other parties other than CDU and SPD have not. - in the Greens' case by the narrowest of margins, as their vote is apparently 5.0% when rounded to two significant figures (up from 4.9 in DR's data above).

Quite an extraordinary situation to have over 20% of the votes for parties who fail to clear the 5% threshold, with the result that the SPD's 43.5% vote share gives them a comfortable majority of seats (edit: prelim results say 29 of 51 seats, as in DR's data above) in a PR system.

2022 Saarland state election - Wikipedia