🇩🇪 German elections (federal & EU level)

[TheSaint250]

Did Frauke Petry’s party run in the European elections? Also, is there any other news about them, such as with the election in Saxony?

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Did Frauke Petry’s party run in the European elections? Also, is there any other news about them, such as with the election in Saxony?

Petry submitted a party list, but she later withdrew it.
The only relevant news I could find about the party's state election campaign is that they haven't nominated any direct candidates due to paucity of support.
That's it. Her party is as dead as Lucke's LKR.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Rumoured to be new defense minister (replacing VdL): Jens Spahn

Rumoured to be new health minister (replacing Spahn): Annette Widmann-Mauz, Commissioner for Migration and Integration

[Tender Branson]

Rumoured to be new defense minister (replacing VdL): Jens Spahn

Rumoured to be new health minister (replacing Spahn): Annette Widmann-Mauz, Commissioner for Migration and Integration

How absurd is that please ?

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Rumoured to be new defense minister (replacing VdL): Jens Spahn

Rumoured to be new health minister (replacing Spahn): Annette Widmann-Mauz, Commissioner for Migration and Integration

How absurd is that please ?

AKK is reported to become Uschi's successor.

[President Johnson]

Rumoured to be new defense minister (replacing VdL): Jens Spahn

Rumoured to be new health minister (replacing Spahn): Annette Widmann-Mauz, Commissioner for Migration and Integration

How absurd is that please ?

AKK is reported to become Uschi's successor.

LOL, she is a laughingstock. Didn't she intend to focus on the party or is she trying the remain in a job after being forced to resign in the fall after the Eastern state elections?

Actually Peter Altmeier has to leave now because two CDU politicians from the little Saarland are now in the cabinet.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Rumoured to be new defense minister (replacing VdL): Jens Spahn

Rumoured to be new health minister (replacing Spahn): Annette Widmann-Mauz, Commissioner for Migration and Integration

How absurd is that please ?

AKK is reported to become Uschi's successor.

LOL, she is a laughingstock. Didn't she intend to focus on the party or is she trying the remain in a job after being forced to resign in the fall after the Eastern state elections?

Actually Peter Altmeier has to leave now because two CDU politicians from the little Saarland are now in the cabinet.

That is likely to become a possible scenario, with the Saarland supremacy in the cabinet being a useful subterfuge.
Haven't several employers' association just recently scolded Altmaier as the weakest minister in the cabinet and as miscast?

[President Johnson]

Rumoured to be new defense minister (replacing VdL): Jens Spahn

Rumoured to be new health minister (replacing Spahn): Annette Widmann-Mauz, Commissioner for Migration and Integration

How absurd is that please ?

AKK is reported to become Uschi's successor.

LOL, she is a laughingstock. Didn't she intend to focus on the party or is she trying the remain in a job after being forced to resign in the fall after the Eastern state elections?

Actually Peter Altmeier has to leave now because two CDU politicians from the little Saarland are now in the cabinet.

That is likely to become a possible scenario, with the Saarland supremacy in the cabinet being a useful subterfuge.
Haven't several employers' association just recently scolded Altmaier as the weakest minister in the cabinet and as miscast?

Yeah, he is considered a terrible pick for the job. It's another functionary who needed a job regardless of his credentials and background.

AKK as Defense minister is equally ridiculous since the entire ministry and Bundeswehr is a total mess. We need someone 100% focused on the job and not running a major political party in the meantime. In addition, she has no credentials on defense policy or whatsoever. Nonsense like such moves is what's turning people off, and rightfully so. The CDU (and SPD to a degree) has been way too long in power and actually needs to go back into the opposition. Germany needs a new beginning with a bold agenda. Sadly, the alternatives have little to offer as well.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Yeah, he is considered a terrible pick for the job. It's another functionary who needed a job regardless of his credentials and background.

AKK as Defense minister is equally ridiculous since the entire ministry and Bundeswehr is a total mess. We need someone 100% focused on the job and not running a major political party in the meantime. In addition, she has no credentials on defense policy or whatsoever. Nonsense like such moves is what's turning people off, and rightfully so. The CDU (and SPD to a degree) has been way too long in power and actually needs to go back into the opposition. Germany needs a new beginning with a bold agenda. Sadly, the alternatives have little to offer as well.

And now imagine Altmaier will be replaced my Merz (who isn't even Rainer Dulger's favorite choice) That would result in every former CDU chairmanship candidate having been appointed to a cabinet post...

[Tender Branson]

What exactly are AKKs skills when it comes to Defense ?

What about the Migration woman’s skills about Health ?

That’s like asking a teacher to become your pilot to Mallorca ...

[urutzizu]

Also is this just a way to open the defence ministry for AKK?

Nooooooo!!! How dare you! I hope Merkel won't read your comment.

Well apparently Merkel is an active Member on this forum, Sorry for giving her ideas
It could be a good development though: It is a completely underfunded Ministry with huge long-term issues that she will never be able to solve until 2021. It will tarnish her reputation even further and the CDU will lose the next election if she runs. Maybe they wont even nominate her as Spitzenkandidat. Will be funny either way, but the CDU will be begging for Merkel to come back.

What exactly are AKKs skills when it comes to Defense ?

None. this is about Ämtergeschacher. She is more pro-american though, critical about Nordstream 2 and wants more defense spending. But she wont have the money to do so. 

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

None. this is about Ämtergeschacher. She is more pro-american though, critical about Nordstream 2 and wants more defense spending. But she wont have the money to do so. 

[urutzizu]

Indeed. If this were about merit then Peter Tauber or Markus Grübel would have got the job. But its not.

[Middle-aged Europe]

What about the Migration woman’s skills about Health ?

That’s like asking a teacher to become your pilot to Mallorca ...

She was a state secretary at the Health ministry from 2009 to 2018, and before that the CDU/CSU parliamentary group's spokesperson on health policy. Widmann-Kauz is probably more qualified to run the Health ministry than the incumbent Jens Spahn. Not that it matters since she will remain on her post as Commissioner for Migration in the Chancellery now.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Scuttlebutt is that they offered Spahn the job at defense first, but he turned them down. So AKK had to step in. Spahn probably figured that this would be a bad career move, given the state Von der Leyen leaves this ministry behind. I suppose that means AKK won't succeed Merkel as Chancellor after all.    Still sort of puzzling that she volunteered for the sh**t detail.

[Lechasseur]

AKK as Defense minister is equally ridiculous since the entire ministry and Bundeswehr is a total mess. We need someone 100% focused on the job and not running a major political party in the meantime. In addition, she has no credentials on defense policy or whatsoever. Nonsense like such moves is what's turning people off, and rightfully so. The CDU (and SPD to a degree) has been way too long in power and actually needs to go back into the opposition. Germany needs a new beginning with a bold agenda. Sadly, the alternatives have little to offer as well.

Agreed

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Indeed. If this were about merit then Peter Tauber or Markus Grübel would have got the job. But its not.

Apropos of Peter Tauber, I found another version of the meme I posted above, which is even more accurate.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Scuttlebutt is that they offered Spahn the job at defense first, but he turned them down. So AKK had to step in. Spahn probably figured that this would be a bad career move, given the state Von der Leyen leaves this ministry behind. I suppose that means AKK won't succeed Merkel as Chancellor after all.    Still sort of puzzling that she volunteered for the sh**t detail.

Especially after Spahn has become acquainted with his department.
Having been heavily scolded after taking up his post because he meddled in things that ought not be meddled in, he became a renowned minister just when he began doing what he is paid for by the tax payers: when he attended to his affairs. For instance, just yesterday he came back from Kosovo, where he recruited medical professionals.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier Steinmeier's deputy Bundesrat President Daniel Günther Schleswig-Holstein Governor Günther's deputy Berlin Mayor Michael Müller bestowed the certificate of discharge upon Ursula von der Leyen and proceeded to hand over the certificate of appointment to Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, plus he delivered a birthday greeting to Chancellor Angela Merkel.
While Müller delivered a fulsome speech for Uschi at Bellevue Palace, he had only some motherhood statements spare for AKK, which says it all.
AKK, however, hasn't occupied her new post yet, as she yet has to be sworn in by Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble in the Reichstag.

And to answer the most important question: Yes, all three women were sitting during Müller's speech.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Meanwhile, AfD politician Uwe Junge, member of the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate and former lieutenant-colonel, called for an "insurgency of the generals" a.k.a. military coup d'état. The hashtags #AufstandderGeneräle and #Militärputsch are trending on German Twitter right now.

https://twitter.com/Uwe_Junge_MdL/status/1151374857294286848

[urutzizu]

Meanwhile, AfD politician Uwe Junge, member of the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate and former lieutenant-colonel, called for an "insurgency of the generals" a.k.a. military coup d'état. The hashtags #AufstandderGeneräle and #Militärputsch are trending on German Twitter right now.

Thats one way to translate it i guess, but einen Aufstand machen can also mean complaining incessantly about something, not just a insurgency. I very much doubt he was actually calling for a violent Military coup, but who knows. In the latter case it is treason obviously.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Meanwhile, AfD politician Uwe Junge, member of the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate and former lieutenant-colonel, called for an "insurgency of the generals" a.k.a. military coup d'état. The hashtags #AufstandderGeneräle and #Militärputsch are trending on German Twitter right now.

Thats one way to translate it i guess, but einen Aufstand machen can also mean complaining incessantly about something, not just a insurgency. I very much doubt he was actually calling for a violent Military coup, but who knows. In the latter case it is treason obviously.

That's what the AfD is very good at: ambiguity. See Höcke's "Denkmal der Schande"...

[DavidB.]

Perhaps a difficult what-if question to answer, but to what extent do German posters here think that a Werte-Union kind of party would do better than the current AfD? There's a massive gap between CDU/FDP and AfD, though it's also a gap that's proven to be difficult to fill in other countries too.

[rob in cal]

Urutzizu, very intresting analysis.  Concerning Seehofer, I'm wondering about the new legal immigration law. Doesn't that represent a move to the left in that it calls for more immigration, albeit legal and regulated, its still more immigration when all is said and done.

[urutzizu]

Urutzizu, very intresting analysis.  Concerning Seehofer, I'm wondering about the new legal immigration law. Doesn't that represent a move to the left in that it calls for more immigration, albeit legal and regulated, its still more immigration when all is said and done.

The "Fachkräfteeinwanderungsgesetz", a nice german word , i.e. the Law intended to allow more qualified Immigrants to enter legally, was brought in at the same time as the changes to the deportation law. Basically Seehofer wanted the stricter deportation law and the SPD reluctantly agreed as long as they got the law for legal Immigration.
The idea of increasing legal immigration is not a clear cut left/right issue in Germany:
For more legal immigration:
Greens
FDP  
SPD
CDU

Sceptical of more legal immigration:
AFD
Linke
CSU

Interesting, right? The divide is not along left-right. No, the more liberal, affluent and globalist the supporters of the party are, the more supportive of legal immigration it is. Greens and FDP, who completely opposite to each other on illegal migration, were even pushing for a Canadian-style points system and no German language requirement to immigrate. On the other hand, Linke, which is for the most part very supportive of irregular/illegal migration, was very opposed to more legal migration. Overall the law itself was far from what many liberals and many in Business hoped for. It does allow for immigrants with a qualification to come to Germany temporarily even without a job offer and it abolishes the requirement for Businesses to show that no German could be employed instead. However it imposes strict German language and visa requirements, instead of a points system, before coming, so the amount of people coming will be limited, and english speaking countries like Canada/Australia/UK/US will continue to remain more attractive.
However the important part about it, is that it is a change in paradigm: from unskilled immigration from african/middle eastern countries to skilled immigration from South, East Asia. It is to a certain extent a tacit acknowledgement that the former has been plagued by integration, criminality and terrorism problems and that German immigration policy up to now has been a failure. In that it is a victory for the right.

Of course, most on the right would prefer less legal and less illegal migration. That is unrealistic however, as ethnic Germans are one of the white ethnicities with one of the lowest fertility rates in the world. Our public pension and health system (already in crisis) depends on young people, and if Germans dont procreate more then immigration becomes inevitable.