German President has exceeded his authority once again

[solarstorm]

German President Joachim Gauck has indirectly criticized the possible election of the Left Party politician Bodo Ramelow as the Minister President of Thuringia. "People who have experienced the GDR and who are my age will have a hard time accepting this", he said in "Report from Berlin".

The election decision is to be respected. However, there still remains the question: "Has the party which will determine the Minister President actually gone so far away from the notion that the SED once held when suppressing the people here that we can fully trust them?" Gauck himself answered his own question: "There are parts in this party, where I - like many others - have problems to develop that trust."

If the SPD in Thuringia, which is currently running a membership survey, will be clearing the way for a red-red-green coalition under the leadership of the party Die Linke could, Bodo Ramelow could be elected Minister President of Thuringia on December 5th. That would be the first time that a politician of his party would be the head of government in a Land. The possibility of an election of a Linke member as Minister President - also with an eye toward the forthcoming 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall - has generated strong criticism not only among conservative parties.

Gauck's utterance is to be seen in the light of his personal biography. The former East German civil rights activist (his role in the civil rights movement is highly controversial) used to be the first Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records from 1991 to 2000.

In his role as President that statement will invite contradiction among the Left Party, because the head of state normally behaves largely politically neutral.

However, the Federal Constitutional Court conceded in a recent decision, which refers to statements by Gauck about the far-right NPD, considerable freedom of expression to the President.

"How the President fulfills his representation and integration tasks with life, the officeholder principally needs to decide for himself", says the Constitutional Court. This also applies to a large extent of expressions by the head of state which affect the equality of opportunities of the parties. In a judicial review of the statements by the President about a party it is only a question of whether he has arbitrarily sided with one party under willful neglect of his integration tasks.

Prospective Minister President of Thuringia Bodo Ramelow	German President Joachim Gauck

[politicus]

Gauck continues to be a FF.

[Hifly]

Gauck continues to be a FF.

[MaxQue]

Well, not surprising from a right-winger. Germany should just stop to pretend than the President is neutral.

[Hifly]

Well, not surprising from a right-winger. Germany should just stop to pretend than the President is neutral.

Please stay away from Germany forever. We don't value you or your opinion. Thanks.

[politicus]

Well, not surprising from a right-winger. Germany should just stop to pretend than the President is neutral.

Gauck is not a right winger! He was an MP for Bündnis 90, the East German citizens movement that merged with the Greens in 1993 and he ran for President in 2010 supported by Greens and SPD. In 2012 he was backed by all major parties.

[Franzl]

Well, not surprising from a right-winger. Germany should just stop to pretend than the President is neutral.

Since when is Gauck of all people a right-winger?

[MaxQue]

Well, not surprising from a right-winger. Germany should just stop to pretend than the President is neutral.

Since when is Gauck of all people a right-winger?

Since he started complaining because it won't be yet another Grand Coalition. We all know it's the only alternative to Red-Red-Green.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

It's clear your knowledge about Gauck, as well as simple political labels. is next to nonexistent. Please stop embarrassing yourself and have a nice day.

[Franzl]

Well, not surprising from a right-winger. Germany should just stop to pretend than the President is neutral.

Since when is Gauck of all people a right-winger?

Since he started complaining because it won't be yet another Grand Coalition. We all know it's the only alternative to Red-Red-Green.

You don't think the man has good personal reasons to be sceptical of them other than right-wing beliefs?

[MaxQue]

Well, not surprising from a right-winger. Germany should just stop to pretend than the President is neutral.

Since when is Gauck of all people a right-winger?

Since he started complaining because it won't be yet another Grand Coalition. We all know it's the only alternative to Red-Red-Green.

You don't think the man has good personal reasons to be sceptical of them other than right-wing beliefs?

Yes, I'm not sold on Die Linke either, since they have quite unsavory elements, but the issue is the consequences of what he said. Condemning the Red-Red-Green coalition only leaves CDU and, so, it's a de facto endorsement of CDU, whether he realizes it or not.

[Hifly]

Well, not surprising from a right-winger. Germany should just stop to pretend than the President is neutral.

Since when is Gauck of all people a right-winger?

Since he started complaining because it won't be yet another Grand Coalition. We all know it's the only alternative to Red-Red-Green.

You don't think the man has good personal reasons to be sceptical of them other than right-wing beliefs?

Yes, I'm not sold on Die Linke either, since they have quite unsavory elements, but the issue is the consequences of what he said. Condemning the Red-Red-Green coalition only leaves CDU and, so, it's a de facto endorsement of CDU, whether he realizes it or not.

He doesn't care what you think.

[Franzl]

Well, not surprising from a right-winger. Germany should just stop to pretend than the President is neutral.

Since when is Gauck of all people a right-winger?

Since he started complaining because it won't be yet another Grand Coalition. We all know it's the only alternative to Red-Red-Green.

You don't think the man has good personal reasons to be sceptical of them other than right-wing beliefs?

Yes, I'm not sold on Die Linke either, since they have quite unsavory elements, but the issue is the consequences of what he said. Condemning the Red-Red-Green coalition only leaves CDU and, so, it's a de facto endorsement of CDU, whether he realizes it or not.

He doesn't care what you think.

Nobody here cares what you think either, and yet you still feel the need to display your brilliance as often as possible.

[Hifly]

I don't run around calling Joachim Gauck a right-winger, or saying that opposition to Ramelow = endorsement of the CDU, or other nonsense.

[MaxQue]

I don't run around calling Joachim Gauck a right-winger, or saying that opposition to Ramelow = endorsement of the CDU, or other nonsense.

I admit than my messages on this thread have been wrong and silly.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

I don't run around calling Joachim Gauck a right-winger, or saying that opposition to Ramelow = endorsement of the CDU, or other nonsense.

I admit than my messages on this thread have been wrong and silly.

Well, and i admit my own response was too harsh.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Well, not surprising from a right-winger. Germany should just stop to pretend than the President is neutral.

Gauck is not a right winger! He was an MP for Bündnis 90, the East German citizens movement that merged with the Greens in 1993 and he ran for President in 2010 supported by Greens and SPD. In 2012 he was backed by all major parties.

Joachim Gauck had left Bündnis 90 late in 1990 though. And many of the original B'90 people eventually ended up in the CDU (Vera Lengsfeld, for instance) or the SPD (Matthias Platzeck). The Bündnis 90's original "ideology" was that they were pro-democracy and there really was not much more what united them. While B'90 as an institution eventually merged with and was succeeded by the Greens, that surely didn't apply to all individuals.

It's also true that Gauck was the SPD's and the Greens's presidential candidate in 2010, but this was in fact an attempt to troll the CDU by deliberately nominating someone who was liked and respected by a lot of conservative politicians.

The bottomline is, Gauck's personal political views are located on the right side of the political spectrum. But he's also a non-partisan conservative and not a CDU hack. He's someone who speaks his mind and his mind is certainly more conservative than not. But he doesn't see it as his duty to publicly endorse the CDU. It's important to make a distinction between these two levels.

[Famous Mortimer]

Joachim Gauck also said Occupy protesters were stupid. He's not a left-winger.

That said, I have no opposition to him expressing his opinions, I just think his opinions are dumb.

It's best to just admit that though, don't pretend that the reason they upset you is because you so value the figurehead presidency. If he made an overtly political statement you agreed with, you wouldn't have a problem with it.

[Vosem]

Gauck continues to be a FF.

[ag]

Well, not surprising from a right-winger. Germany should just stop to pretend than the President is neutral.

I guess, anyone, who is to the right of Chairman Mao is a rightwinger for you.

[ag]

Germany, unquestionably, has a wonderful president.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

I think no one familiar with me would call me a "right-winger", but I must confess I have very mixed feelings about Die Linke, mostly for the same reasons as Gauck does.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Another thing is Gauck hardly did "exceed" his authority simply because German Presidents has very little political authority to begin with.

Which led us to the second point. While the office is ceremonial, it's hardly like the British Queen. Presidents of Germany has never pretended to be "neutral". In fact, speaking out their mind, addressing controversial issues is pretty much part of the job description and all of them did so. Most notably Heuss, Heinemann, Scheel, von Weizsäcker, Herzog, Rau and now Gauck. 

You may or may not agree with Gauck's position, but hardly "shocking" or "innapropriate" behavior.

[Famous Mortimer]

No one freaks out about Social Democrats allying with the Left Party in Sweden. Or the Socialist allying with the French Communist Party. Or various centre-left Italian governments relying on various on Communist parties. Yes, they were never in power but they probably would have done the same stuff the SED did if they were. Not to mention the actual former Communists in power all over Eastern Europe, actual ministers and crap, not the bunch of quasi-oppositionist quasi-reformed Marxist youth group members who make up Die Linke.

[Middle-aged Europe]

I think the main point the Left Party is criticized for today is their ambigious view of the former communist regime in East Germany, which could be summed up as "it wasn't all bad!".

Anyway, it's also worth pointing out that Bodo Ramelow - the designated minister-president of Thuringia - isn't even from East Germany. He's a West German who moved to Thuringia in 1990 and joined the then-PDS in 1999.