Experienced EU member countries tend to keep their lists rather short since they know that when it comes to the term presidency, the first two and last two months are not very useful. Small and inexperienced states, however, due to overexerting their lists and putting too much emphasis on the term presidency, tend to be unsuccessful.

Germany is intending to utilize this Council presidency for the federal Bundestag elections that will be held in 2021.

However, there is a problem. Are the elections that were intended to be held in 2021 really going to be held in 2021? The answer to this question is not clear because of serious problems with the federal government. Chancellor Angela Merkel is not going to be a candidate for chancellor in 2021. German Defense Minister and new Christian Democratic Union (CDU) President Annegret Kramp-Karenbauer, who is the candidate Merkel has envisaged, has already “gotten old.” The number of CDU and Christian Social Union (CSU) members that are unwilling to see her as chancellor is increasing with every passing day. This situation is not ordinary for CDU voters.

The Social Democratic Party (SDP), which is the partner of the federal government that is getting smaller by losing voters every day, is bothered by itself right now. At the beginning of December, for the first time in its history, it is not going to elect just one president but instead will elect co-presidents. To select the co-president candidates, one of whom is female and the other is male, a vote was held among 425,000 SPD members. In such an important election, only 53% of the members participated and none of the co-president duos received sufficient votes. Because of this, between two co-president duos that received the most votes, a new vote is being cast. The 425,000 SPD members now have the opportunity to elect their co-presidents by voting on Nov. 19 and 30. The election results will be announced on Nov. 30. The delegates within the SPD congress that will be held after the vote must confirm this result. In reality, the co-president election is also an election for whether the party should continue with the coalition or move to the opposition. After electing its co-presidents, the SPD, in any case, has to sit down and bargain with CDU and CSU based on its party base’s disposition, since the majority of the SPD base is already against the coalition. If the coalition is to be continued, there is the expectation of fresh negotiations on terms for the coalition.

In this case, it seems there is going to be a governmental crisis. The CDU and CSU will not find a warm reception in having to negotiate a signed coalition agreement which is valid until the 2021 elections. However, there is another reality: if there is an early election, centrist parties like the CDU, CSU, and SPD know very well that they are going to lose. Perhaps because of this, these three parties know very well that they have to cooperate to remain in government.

The CDU held its party congress in Leipzig last weekend. The new president of CDU, Kramp-Karrenbauer, in an unaccustomed fashion had to ask “the question of trust” to CDU delegates. Only by this question could she manage to receive the applause of all the delegates after her speech, which was longer than expected. Former Federal Assembly group president during the 2000-2004 period, Friedrich Merz, who is her rival in both the presidency and the chancellorship races, also cooperated with Kramp-Karrenbauer this time. The suggestion of electing the chancellor candidate by a vote of all members in the CDU congress has been rejected. Both Kramp-Karrenbauer and Merz remained faithful to the decision that the chancellor candidate should be determined in 2020.

While all of this was happening, CSU President and Bavaria Province President Markus Söder – who would not surprise us if he made a sudden move in 2020 into the chancellorship race as the joint candidate of CDU and CSU – received significant attention when he arrived at the CDU congress as if he were the CDU president. Let us take this detail as a side note for now. If the presidential candidate of CDU and CSU comes from CSU in 2020, nobody should be surprised.

However, due to all of the above developments that we have noted, Germany’s EU Council presidency that will begin in July 2020 is not a very popular subject for now. However, for the CDU and CSU, it seems it is going to play a very important role.

Merkel’s failure in the latest federal elections diminished her influence within the EU. In order for the new chancellor of Germany to be influential and powerful again, the chancellor first must become successful in Germany. However, for them to win the elections in Germany, the term presidency of the EU Council has to be successful.

In short, it will be possible to detect the performance of Germany’s new chancellor candidate through the EU Council presidency.

Source: https://www.dailysabah.com/columns/ozan-ceyhun/2019/11/25/who-is-going-to-be-germanys-chancellor-in-2021

The post Who is going to be Germany’s chancellor in 2021? first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Angela Merkel’s future in doubt as Germany’s coalition partners hold crisis talks first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The sun sets over the River Main in Frankfurt, Germany, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) – Michael Probst

BERLIN — European politics just now is a story of how one decision by a pastor’s dutiful daughter has made life miserable for a vicar’s dutiful daughter.

Two of the world’s most important conservative parties are involved in an unintended tutorial on a cardinal tenet of conservatism, the law of unintended consequences, which is that the unintended consequences of decisions in complex social situations are often larger than, and contrary to, those intended.

In 2015, Angela Merkel, the Federal Republic of Germany’s first chancellor from what was East Germany, chose to welcome into Germany about 1 million people, many of them Syrians, fleeing Middle Eastern carnage. This influx stoked European anxieties about immigration threatening social cohesion, anxieties that contributed to the 52 percent-48 percent vote in Britain’s 2016 referendum directing the government to extricate the United Kingdom from the European Union.

In 2019, Theresa May, who was not yet Britain’s prime minister when the referendum occurred and who voted to remain in the EU, is leading, or trying to lead, a fractious party that cannot govern because there is no majority for any plan to effectuate what in 2016 was, but might not still be, the voters’ Brexit desire.

For many years, Merkel has been the closest approximation to an answer to the famous question attributed to Henry Kissinger: If I want to talk to “Europe,” who do I call? She also has embodied Germany’s primal desire for stability, a desire that is the great national constant since Konrad Adenauer served as the Federal Republic of Germany’s first chancellor from 1949 to 1963.

Britain is perhaps, or sort of, exiting the EU. France’s “yellow vest” protesters recently commented on President Emmanuel Macron’s policies with a Gallic vigor (burning cars, smashing shop windows) sufficient to change governance in the predictable direction (taxes decreased, entitlements increased). So, stable Germany is even more important to Europe than it was when Kissinger said that Germany is too large for Europe and too small for the world.

The two greatest leaders of post-1945 Europe, Charles de Gaulle and Margaret Thatcher, opposed the aspiration of an ever-deeper political unification of Europe. Germany precipitated the post-1945 recoil against nationalism, which has been interpreted to dictate the dilution of nationalities by submersion of them into a transnational broth. For most Germans, tiptoeing through modern memory, disputing this interpretation still seems transgressive.

No European nation was as enchanted as Germany was by Barack Obama’s studied elegance and none is more repelled by Donald Trump’s visceral vulgarity. This especially matters at this moment when events are underscoring Germany’s necessary dependence for security on the United States: Germany lives in the neighborhood with two nations, Poland and Hungary, that have illiberal populist regimes. And not far over the horizon Vladimir Putin is destabilizing and dismembering Europe’s geographically largest nation, Ukraine. Germany’s dependence was inadvertently highlighted by Macron’s delusional statement that there must be a “true European army” to “protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States.”

Germany has two of the world’s great parties, the Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party, which in the 19th century invented social democracy that helped to drain the revolutionary steam from the left. Both are in flux.

The CDU is challenged from the right by Alternative for Germany (the subject of a subsequent column) and the SDP, which withered as the junior partner in Merkel’s coalition. The SDP is being eclipsed by the Green Party, whose support rivals that of the CDU, and which is the most popular party with German women.

Extremism, however, is quarantined by the civic culture that so values stability that a poll in this decade showed that more Germans fear inflation — the hyperinflation of 95 years ago was the ultimate destabilizer — than fear cancer or other serious illnesses.

Next year will be the 30th anniversary of German reunification. This will be an occasion for the world to acknowledge that, as has been truly said, today’s Germany is the best Germany the world has seen since it became Germany in 1871.

George Will is a columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group.

Source: https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/commentary/as-europe-struggles-germany-still-a-beacon-of-stability/article_feee80ec-1059-11e9-92f2-67ef63fdf9ad.html

The post As Europe struggles, Germany still a beacon of stability first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party wasn’t on the ballot Sunday, but an electoral challenge looms in two weeks as it defends its 19-year-hold on the governor’s office in Hesse, a central state that includes Frankfurt, on Oct. 28.

“My lesson from yesterday is that I, as chancellor of this ‘grand coalition,’ must do more to ensure that this confidence is there and that the results of our work are visible,” Merkel said. “And I will do that emphatically.”

The Social Democrats hope to win back Hesse but polls show them trailing and support for both parties is weak.

Sunday’s outcome rekindled speculation about whether the Social Democrats will leave Merkel’s federal government before its term ends in 2021. They only reluctantly joined Merkel’s coalition in March after a national election debacle last year.

Social Democrat leader Andrea Nahles brushed aside questions Monday about her party’s pain barrier.

“I don’t think that defining red lines is appropriate at this point,” she said. “Above all, we have an election in Hesse in two weeks in which we are now investing all our power. We are not going to waste our strength and time now on internal debates.”

As for the national government, “it is obvious that the whole style of our work together must change, and that hopefully was a message from this Bavarian election,” Nahles said.

Much of the blame for the squabbling has been pinned on the CSU leader, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, who has continued a three-year feud over migration with Merkel. He nearly brought down the ruling coalition in June with a demand to turn back small numbers of asylum-seekers at the German-Austrian border.

Those tactics turned off Bavarian voters on both the right and left, and polls suggested that migration was some way down on voters’ list of priorities.

Seehofer appeared to have no intention of stepping down after his party received 37.2 percent of the vote, down from 47.7 percent five years ago, for its worst showing in Bavaria since 1950.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel leads a Christian Democratic Union party’s leaders meeting at the party’s headquarters a day after the Bavarian state elections, in Berlin, Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber) (AP)

“I won’t hold a discussion about my position,” the 69-year-old said, insisting that his party still has “a special role in Germany’s political landscape.”

The big winners in Bavaria on Sunday were smaller parties. The environmentalist Greens came second while the far-right Alternative for Germany for the first time entered its 15th of Germany’s 16 state parliaments. A regional conservative party, the Free Voters, will likely become the CSU’s coalition partner in Bavaria.

“What’s happened in Bavaria is something that’s been the case in the rest of the country for some time: the weakening of major parties due to changes in society,” said Juergen Falter, a political science professor at the University of Mainz.

Bavaria has become more secular, weakening the CSU, while workers no longer automatically choose the Social Democrats, he said.

The CSU is likely to become “a bit tamer” in the national government because it has seen that constant infighting doesn’t help, Falter said. However, he expects the Social Democrats to try and make more of a mark — and possibly use a planned midterm evaluation next year to leave the federal government.

If that happens, Merkel, 64, could try to revive efforts aborted last year to form a government with the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats, or Germany could head toward a new early election.

Merkel, Germany’s chancellor since 2005 and the leader of the CDU since 2000, has seen her authority weakened over recent months, but has indicated that she plans to seek another two-year term as party leader at a gathering in December.

A bad performance in Hesse could complicate those plans, but there’s no sign yet of a credible challenger.

“Merkel has no serious rivals,” Falter said. “None of those who might pose a risk to her have come out of cover.”

---

Source: http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2018/10/15/merkel-regional-ally-vows-work-stability-berlin/

[Disclaimer]

The post Merkel vows to restore Germans’ confidence in government first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The world was watching on Nov. 9, 1989, when east Berliners climbed over the Berlin Wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate, reuniting a country long divided. But it was about a year later, on Oct. 3, that Germany officially became one again.

On Wednesday, the 28th anniversary of German Unity Day was celebrated with the unveiling of a large-scale photo collage installed by the French street artist known as JR.

The images depict Germans celebrating atop the wall, the word “freedom” scrawled below them, while border guards look on, helpless to act. The gate is the backdrop of the city’s annual Unity Day celebration, which features food and entertainment in the heart of the city, and draws an average of a million visitors a year.

Although this year marks the first year where the wall has been gone for longer than it stood, the country’s divisions are not a thing of the past. Just a few blocks away from the main celebration, a right-wing demonstration with the motto, “Day of the nation,” drew at least several hundred participants while a counter-demonstration nearby attracted a larger crowd, complete with musical performances and plenty of peace flags.

With the repercussions of violent, anti-migrant demonstrations in the East German city of Chemnitz last month still playing out in the highest levels of government, such demonstrations serve as a reminder that Germany, despite its history, is not immune to the social and political fragmentation that many of its European neighbors — and the US — are also experiencing right now.

The far-right nationalist Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) became the first far-right party to enter Parliament in more than half a century last September. It is especially popular in former East Germany — above all, in Saxony — where it garnered more votes than Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

Its popularity is on the rise: a poll released on Monday indicated that across the country, the AfD is now the country’s second most popular party, albeit by a single point — 18 percent compared to the Social Democratic Party’s 17 percent. The party ran on an anti-Islam platform and its politicians have sparked outrage with anti-Semitic statements — elements that do not bode well for those in Germany who strive for social unification.

Reuters, FILE  In this file photo, East Berlin border guards stand atop the Berlin Wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate, Nov. 11, 1989.

(MORE: 6 arrested for allegedly forming right-wing terror cell in Germany, planning armed attack on foreigners)

Right-wing protests and a counter-demonstration highlight division in Berlin

At around 2 p.m. on Unity Day, a far-right nationalist group called “We are for Germany,” an offshoot of the anti-Islam citizen’s movement, PEGIDA, gathered in front of Berlin’s central train station to march for border controls and a referendum on Germany leaving the EU, among other demands, according to the Facebook event page.

When ABC News arrived on the scene, several hundred mostly male demonstrators had gathered in an area cordoned off by police. Many held German flags, while some had signs attacking Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is a primary target of many right-wing groups that criticize her migration policy. “Chemnitz is everywhere in Germany,” read one sign, perhaps a reference to the anti-immigrant sentiment present during last month’s events in the eastern German city.

Across the police barrier, a small group of counter-protestors held up handmade signs, occasionally chanting “We lost the war” and “There is no right to Nazi propaganda.” At a certain point, the country’s divisions seemed on full display as right-wing demonstrators turned to face the protestors, chanting, “We are many.” Both sides were equally impassioned.

A much larger counterdemonstration showed its own display of strength a short walk to the east, where protesters outnumbered their right-wing counterparts. A diverse range of participants had gathered, many holding rainbow-colored peace flags and “Refugees Welcome” signs, taking in a schedule of performances and speakers before the march began. The demonstration was organized by the Neighborhood Initiative for Civil Courage Against Right-Wing Extremism and “Berlin against Nazis,” and it’s one of several anti-right-wing extremism demonstrations slated to take place in Berlin over the next few weeks.

Jorg Carstensen/dpa Photo via Newscom

(MORE: Right-wing protests fueled by anti-immigrant sentiment continue in Germany)

The memory of Chemnitz

In the east German town in Chemnitz last month, tens of thousands of right-wing demonstrators, from the AfD and various extremist citizen’s groups, such as “Pro Chemnitz,” took to the streets to protest Chancellor Merkel’s handling of immigration policy after the death of a German man at the hands of an Iraqi and Syrian. Large-scale protests — met with equally formidable counter-protests — came after several days of violent protests earlier in the week, where right-wing extremists, mobilized by rumors circulating online, chased after foreigners and hurled xenophobic insults. The events were strongly condemned by Chancellor Merkel.

The demonstrations in Chemnitz revealed divisions at the highest level of government. Hans-Georg Maassen, then the chief of Germany’s federal domestic security agency, challenged the chancellor’s position on Chemnitz in the German newspaper, BILD. In an interview, he questioned the veracity of a video circulating on social media that showed men attacking foreigners, suggesting it may have been fake. While the comments ultimately cost him his position, German media speculated that it had sent a clear message of support to right-wing extremists. Maassen’s motives came under further suspicion when German public broadcaster ARD announced he had shown AfD politicians parts of an agency report before it was officially released.

Despite these divisions, on German Unity Day, JR’s work might still be seen as a reminder that despite having different views, a country can still come together as one.

---

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/International/protest-counter-demonstrations-german-unity-day-highlight-countrys/story?id=58254881

[Disclaimer]

The post German Unity Day marked by divisions as protests take place in Berlin first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Even in the face of a rising tide of anti-immigration feeling in Germany that threatens her party’s continued rule, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has actually worked out a deal with the legislative partners of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to attract even more foreigners into the country.

In Germany, as in other multi-party parliamentary systems, it is rare for one political party to hold enough seats to govern without seeking a coalition with other parties. Merkel’s CDU works with the Bavarian CSU and the center-left SPD, and she was able to come to an agreement with them to import more immigrants into Germany.

The reason given for this new policy is to alleviate Germany’s worker shortage.

Merkel’s pro-immigration policy, however, is opposed by the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has risen to become the party with the second-highest number of seats in the Bundestag, now holding more than 90 seats. Opposition to the increased number of immigrants coming from outside the European Union (EU), mostly from Middle Eastern countries, has led to speculation that Merkel’s coalition may eventually lose control, mainly over this issue.

AfD leader Alexander Gauland accused the government of mixing policies on immigration with policies on how to deal with those seeking asylum. He argued that the new policy has only “greatly expanded” the ability of the asylum seekers to avoid expulsion.

The deal provides that foreigners without residency permits who are seeking asylum to stay in the country may now get to stay if they are employed and can demonstrate that they have assimilated into German society. In addition, those from outside the EU can immigrate to take jobs if they can speak German.

However, these job-seekers would be forbidden from taking advantage of Germany’s generous social welfare system.

Hubertus Heil, the German employment minister, defended the new policy as a “pragmatic solution that reflects reality,” adding that he did not want to be “sending the wrong people back.” Germany’s economy is expanding, and the German Economic Institute in Cologne claims that over 300,000 jobs have gone unfilled in September.

What has caused the shortage of available workers?

More than anything else, the Germans, like most Europeans, are having few children. Abortion is widely used as a means of birth control, and the population is rapidly ageing. In contrast, the immigrant population is growing not only through the influx of new immigrants, but also because the mostly Muslim immigrants have more children than native Germans. If this trend continues, the population of Germany will no longer be ethnically German, but rather Middle Eastern and Muslim. The social consequences of this can be enormous.

Germany has taken in 1.6 million migrants since 2014. Finding a solution to this migration crisis is necessary to the survival of the EU, Merkel recently told the German Parliament. “Europe faces many challenges, but that of migration could become the make-or-break one for the EU,” Merkel said. She added that Germany and other EU nations should be “guided by values and believe in multilateralism, not unilateralism.”

In contrast, some of the nations in eastern Europe, such as Poland and Hungary, see the solution as maintaining their separate national identities, rather than in the survival of the “multilateralism” held up as a “value” by the globalist Merkel.

At some point, Europeans, not just Germans, are going to have to decide which is more important — having more workers to do menial jobs, or their survival as separate nations having distinct cultural and ethnic identities. Many Germans have already decided that they want to remain German, and Merkel’s continued insistence on bringing in more “workers” who are largely antagonistic to the existing German culture will lead them to put someone else in power who will put a stop to this path to national suicide.

Certainly, “Germany” will continue to exist in some form, either as an administrative unit of the EU, or as a place on the map, but it will be a far different Germany than has existed since the Middle Ages.

Americans, on the other hand, should understand that, with the incessant Taliban-like attacks upon our culture, the nation’s founding, and its Founders, we are only a generation or so behind the Germans.

Photo: Sven Mandel / Wikimedia Commons

Source: https://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/europe/item/30231-germany-s-merkel-favors-even-more-immigrants

The post Germany’s Merkel Favors Even More Immigrants first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The dispute has raised questions over Merkel’s future, as nationalist forces already in power elsewhere in Europe turn up the heat on the long-serving German chancellor for her welcoming stance toward migrants.

Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday said she expected German military expenditure to rise steadily in coming years, in line with Berlin’s pledge to meet a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation target of moving toward spending 2 percent of economic output by 2024.

Merkel argues that Germany must not take the sudden and unilateral step of rejecting asylum seekers at the border, which would add to the burden faced by frontline countries like Italy and Greece.

But Seehofer reportedly told her the European Union had failed to forge a common policy since the refugee crisis erupted in 2015 and it was hardly credible to think it would do so by the end of the month.A Bundestag session was interrupted for two hours on Thursday morning so Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party the CSU, to which Seehofer belongs, could hold separate emergency meetings.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing strong pressure to tighten her country’s refugee policies to avoid the collapse of her coalition government as the heated row over the handling of migration intensifies.

That would represent a reversal of Merkel’s open-doors migrant policy adopted in 2015, which fuelled a rise in support for the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) and caused rifts within her conservative bloc.

The scuffle forced plenary to suspend Bundestag on Thursday for most of day and both conservative parties – Merkel’s CDU and CSU – met exceptionally separately with emissaries running from one room to anor in building.

Merkel objects to part of Seehofer’s plan which allows German authorities to reject migrants who reach German borders, drawn by the country’s prosperity and stability if they have already registered in other European Union states to the south.

However, hardline Bavarian state premier Markus Soeder showed little sign of backing down, insisting Germany must start rejecting migrants at its borders and it was pointless waiting for a European solution.
The CDU and the Social Democrats (SPD) alone lack a majority in parliament. His plan would allow police to turn away migrants who have already sought asylum in another European Union nation.

“The task of governing our country isn’t an episode of Game of Thrones, but a serious matter”, Olaf Scholz said on Twitter.

For the chancellor, the only sustainable solution would be a Europe-wide agreement – a point she will likely push when she meets later Tuesday with Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, whose country would be hardest hit if Germany were to close its doors.

Merkel has the backing for now of the third party in her coalition, the Social Democratic Party.

Source: http://10thousandcouples.com/2018/06/hardline-eu-ministers-form-axis-of-the-willing-against/

The post Hardline EU ministers form ‘axis of the willing’ against illegal migrants first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The new German government is in operation since a few weeks now but there is trouble brewing afoot in Berlin. Unexpectedly, the right wing AfD is pretty quiet at the time.

The CSU remains the arsonist

Those who have hoped the CSU (the Bavarian sister party to the CDU of Angela Merkel) will concentrate on governing the country after the forming of the government are utterly wrong. With the elections ahead in Bavaria, Horst Seehofer wanted to gather his voters and attract those who have left CSU for the AfD with the powerful comment “The Islam does not belong to Germany”. He even doubled within this context by adding “People of Muslim Belief belong to our country”. Just like one could take his belief and values off before going out on the streets. It certainly appears Horst Seehofer is able to abandon his belief and Christian values scarifying them to preserve his own power.

If you look into the history of Europe and Germany – and therefore Bavaria – you soon will discover Horst Seehofer wants to make the pure opposite of history to become reality. Whether by ignorance or on purpose is hard to determine, however based on facts the Bavarian Blusterer simply is wrong – “fake news” might the right term. During the early Middle Age Arabs and the academic people from their countries brought an enormous amount of knowledge to the backwardly European countries. People actually have to thank the Muslims for the following flourishing or Europe. They benefitted from countless innovative products and a vast knowledge transfer from the Occident into the countless by monarchs oppressed, socially underdeveloped and by a faint educational system inhibited countries of Europe. A startling detail: the majority of the academics originate from Chorasan – an expanded Afghanistan – and Iran, namely from the former intellectual stronghold Bagdad.

Angela Merkel took a clear position, criticised and rectified Horst Seehofers statement – who received it thin-skinned but did no longer make such unqualified statements.

Settlements within CDU still not finished

Angela Merkel has many areas with the need for improvement within her own party, too. While the Chancellor tries to convey she has understood the vote and is working on improvements her Health Minister Jens Spahn is backstabbing her. It took him just three appearances – perceived by the people concerned as big-headed and ice-cold calculated arrogance – to destroy Angela Merkels recently planted crop of hope. “Hartz IV does not mean poverty” was his first statement causing backlashes from many sources but also support by those who do not like governmental interventions (Hartz IV is the German unemployed support and welfare system introduced by the SPD in earlier times and a constant annoyance since it does not cover the rapidly increasing cost of life). With his second appearance Jens Spahn talked against the liberalisation of the abortion law unveiling his lack of knowledge and tact. Just a few days later he wanted to comply with his promise to create 8000 new jobs in health care and wanted to speed up the homologation of education certificates of nurses and doctors from other European countries. Again, the Health Minister unveiled he is unprepared since today it already is impossible to convince more than 1000 nurses from EU countries per year to come to Germany – also due to the questionable working conditions and much too low salaries in Germany.The situation is critical since many German nurses and doctors leave for better jobs in other countries like Switzerland. Based on these facts counting on foreign nurses and doctors seems to be questionable on two levels: these people leave a vacancy in their home countries and the problem in Germany becomes the burden of the foreign workers – the question is how long this can be done. Even more problematic is the continuous decrease of the quality in nursing which gradually becomes life-threatening, particularly with cheap foreign workers. Voices rise Jens Spahn is pulling wool on people’s eyes.

Even CDU exponents oppose the young politician and reveal there’s much to learn for Jens Spahn. At least, with his thoughtless, unemotional and erroneous appearances Jens Spahn is keeping all these issues prominently on top of the agenda of the Grand Coalition.However, the local CDU parties and the local party members have not yet understood the troubles of the German society, thus their ignorance could become a bigger problem than expected. The CNT Alliance visited some Kreisveranstaltungen (party gatherings) of the CDU in first semester of 2018 and discovered the mostly elderly party members are interested only in issues securing their own wealth. Other issueswere just briefly touched by the politicians on stage.

All this is a bit more than a tendency towards right. Like the strategy paper presented the group “WerteUnion” (Union of Values) beginning of April with lots of criticism for Angela Merkel. With this paper the opponents request a re-positioning of the CDU from the middle towards the right and fiercely oppose Angela Merkels refugee policy. Within this conservative manifesto they request the “return to the core values” of the CDU. The main part of the manifesto focusses on the Islam and migration. Again, it seems much easy for the authors of this manifesto to leave their Christian values behind (refugees) and putting them back in the centre of attention (Family) by demand. It doesn’t come as a surprise Jens Spahn sending a greeting to the approximately 100 people of this manifesto.

Interest to enthuse new members and to focus on younger people or migrants does not exist – in the contrary: our questions regarding rejuvenating the CDU or to include new members originating from foreign countries were quietly, but definitely opposed even with some discomfort. It seems Angela Merkel does not recognize the “Small AfD” among their own people – or she tolerates them on purpose.

Little fuss from the SPD

The partner in the coalition, the SPD, did not stir issues up after they’ve started governing. During the coalition negotiations the SPD has secured the Ministries of Finance, Justice and the Foreign Ministry besides others, much to the displeasure of those people in CDU and CSU who were keen on these jobs as well. With these ministries the SPD owns quite some power and the ability to steer the government: an excellent success for the negotiators of SPD.

At the other hand the SPD remains in a fuzzy situation not just within its own quest for identity. Several representatives of SPD do not find common ground regarding the welfare programme Hartz IV. Some people around vice president Ralf Steger for instance want to replace Hartz IV knowing the programme was introduced by the SPD but also is the reason for the downfall of the party. At the other hand, the Finance Minister Olaf Scholz wants to keep Hartz IV – since it is some kind of his own child from the time he worked for Chancellor Schröder, the facilitator of Hartz IV. The designated president of the party Andrea Nahles rarely shy of some “Kick-Ass”comments is very quit despite the discussion about Hartz IV and the job market being the opportunity for SPD to position itself clearly. She commented Jens Spahn’s intentional slip geared towards media with surprisingly soft voice, but straight into the face. Horst Seehofe and Jens Spahn are after the personal representation but missing out on their duties, and adds: “The primary job of the Chancellor is to sort out the act of government”.

Angela Merkel is flagging

Over the past years Angela Merkel became the symbol for political stability and predictability. She is popular in Germany and abroad but scratches in the paint become visible. Her political style is increasingly perceived as boring and leaden even by her own people. Usually, watched from distance she acts successfully and well balanced even for extensive problems. Angela Merkel is the chancellor of compromises and subtle but also of half-hearted decisions and stalling in front of complex problems. This works fine at the moment since economy runs excellent and tax revenues are on a steady high – both causing additional problems which she isn’t regulating. This stability increasingly is perceived as stagnancy which it actually is e.g. if looked at the Digital Offensive launched by the government many years too late.

Along with a certain fatigue in society towards Angela Merkel – a phenomenon previous chancellor Kohl encountered too – and her style the many postponed “building lots” become visible. Media often simplify the situation and explain the fatigue towards Angela Merkel merely with her misjudgment in the situation with the refugees and her catastrophic and negligent management of this issue. This, however, is just a small part of the real reasons for the poor results of the elections and the steep head wind Angela Merkel is facing. It is the combination of various diverse issues such as the state of emergency in nursing, poverty among the elderly, housing shortage, low wages and this in combination with contemptuousness and ignoring several population groups, particularly those at the far right of the political spectrum. The situation with the refugees therefore is just one part of the picture – but one people easily can discharge their hate and anger. Also because of the right wing party AfD right wing ideas and right wing protesting became “En Vogue” – even the voters of CDU/CSU are going towards the right. In this climate the uprising hostility against the Jews in the German society and the anti-Semitic activities of the past month are not unexpected. The internal policy of Angela Merkel was meant to be visionary and creative but it looks more like uncertain, delayed, reactive, and unveils many large problem.

Rumble at the right

The “old” parties still underestimate the right wing AfD. The equally underestimate the potential of right wing populism and the count of German citizen having conservative/right wing thoughts – even within CDU and CSU. For example, much disregarded by politics the right wing union “Zentrum Automobil” gained six mandates during the last works committee elections in March 2018 at the Daimler (Mercedes) plant in Untertürkheim (Stuttgart) – with the result of 13.2% they achieved a similar result like the AfD during the election last year, the Bundestagswahlen. The “Forschungsgruppe Wahlen“ stated approximately 15% of the members of the politically social unions did voted for AfD instead for SPD during the last Bundestagswahlen. A result pretty much replicated during the works committee elections at Daimler.

The statements by some of the exponents of the works committee of the IG Metall union: right wing ideas today are little visible but are spread subliminal throughout the whole company and, therefore, it’s expected to see a further rise of the “Zentrum Automobil”. The confronted union IG Metall got us evasive responses only.It seems this issue is hushed up. Time will tell whether Angela Merkel tactics to sit such problem out are the successful tactics for the unions. Looking at the general tendency in the country towards the right we believe Angela Merkel and the unions both are playing with fire.

Some more foreign policy?

During the past Germany was known for a little consolidated, imprecise and often lacking foreign policy. Domestic policy always was more important and it still is. The country focuses on economic foreign policy driven by the industry and its lobbyists, and otherwise relies on symbolic policy geared towards the media.

This image could slightly change. One of the first official acts by Heiko Maas, the new foreign minister, was his visit to Israel. His predecessor Sigmar Gabriel several times acted awkwardly and Angela Merkel didn’t want to become involved but Heiko Maas clearly, pragmatically and quietly put down some counterpoints.On top of it he clearly took position against the lighting up anti-Semitism.

Despite his appearances sometimes being perceived as nicely stage-made he did not make his own life easier since expectations are high now. The quick and friendly meet up with the French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in Israel stirs up some hope Germany – after months of naval-gazing – finally will take over responsibility in Europe and the World. Moving from inactivity towards political creation with the friendly support by France.

The future of Angela Merkel

Foreign policy slowly picks up speed but Angela Merkel seems to have a hard time with her country. It no longer seems to be the Germany she knows. She seems to lose more ground contact the more she tries to understand the problems of society therefore losing more and more ground contact while facing fronts she has to fight. In the Bundestag CDU/CSU and SPD have to heavily deal with an number of parties, all of them having gained more than 5% of the votes. On top there is the AfD, the strongest party in the opposition owning an uncomfortable agenda – some of it even being attractive to her own party members.

With their vote for the Grand Coalition the SPD members have saved it and also saved the faces of SPD as well as the CDU/CSU. The SPD finds herself in a disruption and renovation process, even more so than the CDU. On top of it the parties of the opposition got stronger and this comes together with the incapability or the active reluctance of the governing parties to tackle the urging problems in the country in all consequence.

A forecast about the future of Angela Merkel and, therefore, of the German bipartisan system seems to be tricky. Though, the recent Grand Coalition steers towards the end of the factual bipartisan system in Germany. And people in Germany will be even more discontent for the next elections in 2021.The question how CDU/CSU and SPD will score is eligible. And whether the right wing AfD will establish itself as the third constant in the party landscape. The other question is whether the other parties will see the signs. Some media are singing the swan song for Angela Merkel forgetting she is not for nothing the most powerful woman in this world. It will be interesting to see how she will cope with the erosion on several fronts. It is not the end of Angela Merkel but she and her party are showing heavy signs of wear.

*Ajmal Sohail contributed to this article.

Source: https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2018/04/10/do-angela-merkel-and-germany-have-a-joint-future/

The post Do Angela Merkel and Germany have a joint future? first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Polls show Mrs Merkel is well on course to finish top of the polls but will have to negotiate a coalition with at least one other party.

Her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party had been in a grand coalition with the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SDP) but they are not keen on recreating the arrangement.

That could leave Mrs Merkel scratching around for support in the hope of forming a “Jamaica coalition” with the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the Greens.

But there has been hostility between the two potential coalition partners in recent days with the Greens accusing their pro-business rivals of being an “anti-party” that stands against all they hold dear.

Chief of the Greens, Cem Özdemir said recently: “The FDP is an anti-party — they’re anti-climate protection, against more tenants’ rights and social housing, anti-solidarity in Europe.

“I don’t see how we should come together with the FDP.”

They accuse the party’s leader Christian Lindner of populism, seeking the wrong solutions to environmental issues and being too hard line on refugees.

And Mr Özdemir’s Green co-candidate has also ramped up doubts about the potential coalition, saying: “I cannot imagine Jamaica.

“I cannot see how it would work at the national level.”

According to the latest polls, the CDU leads the race with 36 per cent, with the FDP on 10 per cent and the Greens on eight.

Despite the turmoil, the Greens have indicated they would be willing to work with Mrs Merkel, despite rejecting forming a coalition at the last election.

They have also insisted the Greens are “willing to negotiate with all parties except the Alternative for Germany (AfD)”.

The right-wing AfD has gained a surge in support that could well put it in third place behind the CDU and the SPD.

Mrs Merkel now faces the prospect of lengthy negotiations with both parties after the election in a bid to reach a compromise and form a coalition.

However, Mr Linder has also been quoted as saying he does not believe in a Jamaica coalition anymore.

A further obstacle could be caused by the FDP’s demands to get the finance ministry in exchange for joining a coalition.

It would also rule out support if Mrs Merkel supported French plans to deepen fiscal integration in the euro zone.

Current Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, of the CDU, has held the post since 2009 and is the most high-profile member of Mrs Merkel’s cabinet.

But Alexander Hahn, a member of the party’s executive, demanded the ministry should go to someone from his party.

He told the Bild: ”The FDP should enter no government in which it cannot name a finance minister.

On Sunday, Mr Lindner said setting the agenda for Europe was the most important issue for his party in any coalition talks with the conservatives after the September 24 vote.

He told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper: “I fear that Ms Merkel has already agreed to new funding mechanisms (for the EU) with Macron.

“Everything that goes in the direction of financial transfer on the European level, be it a euro zone budget or a banking union, is a red line for us”.

Source: http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/855585/German-election-Angela-Merkel-CDU-Cem-Ozdemir-Christian-Lindner

The post German nightmare – how Germany faces MONTHS without government if Merkel WINS election first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.