After a torrid 100 days, Germany’s Friedrich Merz is mocked as a ‘dead man walking’. He must fight back
After a torrid 100 days, Germany’s Friedrich Merz is mocked as a ‘dead man walking’. He must fight back | John Kampfner
Kanzler der Herzen Schmerzen
So, knowing little of German politics, what're the main issues that the country faces?
Our conservatives, with the help of our so called social democrats, stopped almost all investments into infrastructure, housing, education, defense... basically everything, over the last 20 years. So now we have unaffordable housing, crumbling infrastructure, bad and expensive public transport and telecommunication, paired with sky high taxes and an overburdened and under-financed healthcare and retirement system. Income is taxed, wealth isn't. And because of demographics the only thing parties care about is raising retirement payments - adding fuel to the doomed system. The economy is slowing down, and nothing is done against it (tax cuts of course, and watering down the laws against tax evasion). The working class is disappearing because the only thing they ever can imagine is to raise taxes to finance these increasingly inefficient and unfair systems.
While some of their party members wasted literally billions of taxpayer money, they are now blaming some absolute minorities (unwilling unemployed, and foreigners of course), and try to squeeze money out of them.
They (Merz especially) have no plan for the country. . Like, at all. The only plan was to get into power.
Oh, and the Nazis are back, and our conservatives play "wait and see". Fucking happy times, everyone.
This same thing verbatim is exactly what conservatism and neoliberalism have achieved in almost every developed economy over the last 2-5 decades. The media act like some left of center party getting elected is some sort of reversal, when the trend remains undeniable, Overton window has shifted far right, and nothing changes, always reverting to the mean within a few years.
It's not a coincidence. Capitalism is "starving the beast" in a hundred different ways so it can relegate democracy and governments to absolute subservience. The concept of democracy, and especially socialist democracy, is the only true threat the oligarchy have ever faced. Fascist corporatocracy is the goal. There is no war but class war.
Sorry I need to get back to work, maybe someones else can go on please
For all the issues the others have already detailed, i'd like to look at two underlying issues (which come together with the wealth disparity):
The demographic shift of an ageing population requires fundamental reforms to social security, public infrastructure, taxation, housing, education, immigration... But instead of addressing the issue, which is known for more than 30 years, the can is kept being kicked down the road.
The German economy has moved from being innovation leader in many fields to being outshined by competitors as the economic structure is ageing alongside the population. Instead of letting younger people get a chance to develop, the wealth, political and economic power remains fast in the hands of the Boomers.
The main issue Germany faces is Axel-Springer Media.
That is an arm-long list!
Pension, health insurance, state of the military, infrastructure, immigrants, the right. Not necessarily in that order, but those are the top problems. There are many more on that list.
A lot of those issues are budget-related, so those problems could be solved by properly taxing the rich, or at least making sure the rich actually pay the little they legally have to contribute, but this is 100% against the grain of the CDU (and the liberals, called FDP, which were the cause of the former coalitions breakup).
While this is mainly a coalition between the CDU (conservatives, positioned where the US has the Democrats) and SPD (social-democrats, Imagine a party of Bernie Sanders), it also includes a very nagging third partner, the CSU, basically the CDU branch from one state, but more backward oriented and always happy of stabbing their own partners or anyone else in the back if they don't get their will. Imagine a three-year-old doing politics. This CSU is a "Our state first!" party, which lead to a traffic minister from that party signing away half a billion Euro for a project nobody cared for except the voters in their state, and which fell flat, because it was basically illegal under EU rules. The money was gone, though. The CSU is from Bavaria, which is basically our Texas&Florida, but without the beaches and the oil.
The AfD neo-Nazis (they are under constitutional protection agency observation because they have tendencies for overthrowinf the government) are comparable to the US Republicans, although less religious motivated. Many of their voters come from the former GDR who never really learned how to democracy.
No. He must resign.
Then we'll probably get blue-black.
Do you think that's avertible?
I think every day Merz is chancellor drives us closer to an AfD- Government.