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September 18, 2005

Fabelhaft!

The Good News: Angela Merkel of the "Christian Democratic Party" (CDU - a "conservative" party by European standards; think Kennedy Democrats) has apparently defeated Gerhard Schroeder:

BERLIN - Exit polls showed conservative challenger Angela Merkel's party in the lead and Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder's seven-year-old government voted out, as Germans on Sunday chose between different visions of their country's role in the world and how to fix its sputtering economy.
It's not all good, of course - it rarely is in European parliamentary elections:
The exit poll from ZDF public television showed Merkel's Christian Democrats at 37 percent, worse than expected and uncertain of winning a majority with her preferred coalition partners, the pro-business Free Democrats. Schroeder's Social Democrats and Greens were at 33 percent and 8.5 percent respectively.
That last bit is troubling, of course, if you care about Germany's future, and I do. Germany - afflicted with out-of-control social welfare combined with an ageing population, huge problems in assimilating immigrants and the former communist East, desperately needs to unload the baggage of the Sozialdemokraten.

David's Medienkritik has, naturally, excellent analysis.

Posted by Mitch at September 18, 2005 11:22 AM | TrackBack
Comments

The CDU only won by 2 percent, they're going to have a LOT of trouble governing (and they might not yet (I think...) because of the parlimentary system the SDU might be able to hold on to a large enough coalition. I think I've read the Greens are on the outs with them, but could anyone really see them turn down a shot at playing kingmaker or cosying up with the CDU?

I'd have doubts about Merkel at any rate, however: she is a real ice queen, and just does not have the charisma and people skills to do the things politicians need to do on a regular basis. With the right candidate they really could have taken it, Schroeder is a real f*** up. Typically, engineers make great engineers but lousy politicians.

There is a slight rebound after five years of recession, and I think this election was less about international poltics (which didn't keep Shroeder from implying the Bush=Hitler card) than it was about personalities, the economy, and political inertia. What scares me more is the SDU's open hostility to some aspects of capitalism - when you make the business community an enemy they go elsewhere, and with the opening of the border I think Germans just have to get used to the concept of perpetual "labor flexibility". They can still be on top of the heap if they lust learn to be less rigid, and open to the "probability" of a good life as opposed to the "certainty" of a good life in constant decline.

What scares me most, however, is the situation with the Turks. I just don't see anything on either side that suggests a future assimilation.

Posted by: Bill Haverberg at September 18, 2005 07:33 PM

German election results just keep reminding me that Europe is dead and will become a dying land that will eventually be "muslimized". The Germans and French will not face facts the world is passing them by as they tax their people out of existence and not reproduce a European race.

Europe is weak and they know it. If I was a EU subject, I would be looking to emigrate to U.S. or Australia in the next 5-10 years.

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