To be fair, he and his government have been working tirelessly for this. They’ve been
- lying about the necessity of new debt (then immediately taking up unprecedented amounts of it)
- promising reforms that never came
- calling the working part of the population lazy bums, all the while preparing tax breaks that will disproportionally benefit large companies and the top 10%
- fucking up and slowing down the transition towards renewables amid yet another fossil fuel energy crisis
- copying the disgusting populism of the far right all the while claiming to be trying to contain them (instead of doing the obvious and initiating a constitutional review of the party by the Supreme Court)
What annoys me more than the man himself is the fact that everyone paying even a modicum of attention could have seen this coming from a mile away. And they voted for his party anyway.
Pretty much Lets not forget “Reiche”
I’m glad for every second I do
Hence I specifically wrote “he and his government”. But let’s also not forget: ultimately, it was he who put that poorly camouflaged lobbyist into her seat.
Can’t we call it “corruption” ? Words do have a meaning.
Pretty spot on.
And now that they’re disappointed with him, polls move further to the right, so they still don’t get the problem.
I fear they aren’t trying (or likely) to “get” anything. I think we need to come to terms with the fact that for right-wingers, there’s nothing rational about their political decisions. Yes, they will rationalise it after the fact when pressed by pollsters, claiming they’re mostly concerned about migration or the economy. But if you really drill down, you’ll find that many of them live in parts of the country where there are hardly any migrants, and that the economic policies of their favoured right-wing parties would hurt them more than anyone else.
But if you really drill down, you’ll find that many of them live in parts of the country where there are hardly any migrants, and that the economic policies of their favoured right-wing parties would hurt them more than anyone else.
For example, most migrants live in cities. Many cities have strong Green and little AfD votes.
Precisely! Where do we see the highest percentages of AfD? Rural areas in Eastern Germany, which have been
a) hit hard by the economic shifts of reunification
b) have suffered from severe population drain because young people follow opportunity, and that does lie in the cities rather than in the countryside. c) hardly see any migrants due to a) and b), but are full of people willing to listen to a good scapegoat story that gives them somebody to hate for the conditions they live in.
for right-wingers, there’s nothing rational about their political decisions.
I agree. But what we’re seeing is voter migration from e.g. the social democrats to the fascists. Those can’t all be “hardened” right wingers (yet) who are lost to democracy. Otherwise, why would they ever have voted social democrat before? There’s a lot of people who are disappointed with politics and feel that no government ever did anything for them. But they turn to the people who openly tell them that they’ll fuck them over even worse.
This should be our song for the ESC!
Already proposed it for the lemmyvision song contest, at least:
!lemmyvision@feddit.org
He was the third choice even in his own party and I understand why.
They didn’t even elect him chancellor in the first round; I think that was a first in German history. None of his fellow politicians like him. The only ones who vote for him do so only because he holds power, not because they like him.
Yep.
The best thing Merkel ever did was box him out.
And only elected as chancelor in the second round, which as far as I know was a first, so he’s got that going for himself.
I just can’t understand how anyone could possibly vote for the CDU—given its racism and anti-social policies—but I also can’t understand those who consider it competent. This party somehow has a reputation for being competent in economic matters, yet its shameless schemes are largely to blame for Germany’s current dire economic situation.
Until 2003, the country was a global leader in photovoltaics, but the CDU cut funding to benefit its fossil fuel cronies, causing this now multi-billion-dollar industry to go to the dogs.
The internet infrastructure is abysmal because the Kohl administration chose to lay copper instead of fiber-optic cables to accommodate their cronies in the cable TV industry at the time. The problem persists to this day and has cost the country billions.
The CDU decided to phase out nuclear power without an alternative, presumably yet another favor for the fossil fuel cronies. Electricity in Germany is now more expensive than in almost any other industrialized country.
The CDU is on the verge of blocking progress in electric mobility as a favor to the auto lobby. Clinging to a technology that is simply outdated will cost the country billions in the medium term, just so that car manufacturers—who are themselves to blame for having completely ignored the signs of the times—can continue to generate high sales until, at some point, they can no longer sell anything because nobody wants their products anymore
The CDU is one of the key forces responsible for the one-sided orientation toward the US, which makes Germany vulnerable to blackmail and causes enormous harm to innovation within the country.
These are just a few examples—this party lacks economic competence on a unfathomable level: They are just lining their own pockets and so they have been making decisions for decades that have caused extreme economic harm to the country and continue to do so.
A few additions:
The solar industry didn’t just lose subsidies, the government actively tried to prevent the installation of new solar panels.
The nuclear exit actually made a bit of sense; our existing NPPs were mostly old and extending their like was getting increasingly uneconomic. At the same time we had very few locations where new ones could be built. They actually had a solid economic case for the nuclear exit.
They even had a good plan for the exit itself, letting existing contacts run out and simply not renewing them. Then they decided to exit the nuclear exit, renewing all of the contracts. Then, after the Fukushima disaster, they decided to exit the exit from the nuclear exit and immediately terminated all contracts, having to pay large penalties for the early termination.
For twenty years they followed the “Black Zero” plan, which amounted to trying to incur no new debt on the federal level whatsoever, no matter what. As a result, they spent basically nothing on infrastructural upkeep and the army and then suddenly found themselves having to take on 100 billion euros in emergency debt because bridges were collapsing, trains had no usable tracks and the Bundeswehr is unable to actually fight.
The CDU/CSU are mind-bogglingly inept at handing the economy.
and immediately terminated all contracts, having to pay large penalties for the early termination.
That was actually a solid move to funnel large sums of money toward the big energy companies, which they had not received otherwise. So all according to plan.
Aside from such topics, they also regularly want/do cut freedom in various ways. Internet filter, anti encoding, you name it.
I mean funnily enough all examples lead to a shitty interpretation of being “conservative”: kill progressive technologies and stick to the old shit.
Nooo, Photovoltaic does scary shit with photons, that sounds dangerous. Nooo, electric cars don’t wrooom. Nooo, fiber optics contain too much fiber, we don’t know what ‘fiber’ or ‘optics’ even is.
He was on his lowest after the vote and now is even lower. :D Anyway the poeple will vote him again because he is in CDU.
Sad but true.
What an achievement. Never would have thought he could become more unlikable than before he was a Chancellor. But here we are.
I would like to point out that Chancellor Merz has not become any more unpopular with me personally. That’s simply not possible.
FTZNFRTZ LCK 🥚
Has never been popular
Hm… who would have thought that insulting 99% of the population as lazy makes you unpopular? Hmm…
Afd a notch from being the 1st party. Maybe I should consider saving money to move out of Germany in a few years…
I that’s still a “maybe” in you mind, you have already missed the plot…
Its easier said than done.
And move where? I can’t think of any country that doesn’t have the same, similar or much worse issues.
So you might as well stay and add your voice to the fight against the global shuffle to the right, right here.So which other country has nazis + “we are the center and totally normal, yet copy everything the nazis say to the dot” + “we will support any insanity if we just get a part in government” combined at a 2/3+ majority in polls (also two of those in power since forever)… by votes only, even more massive by seats? I’ll wait…
Also @Jako302@feddit.org 👋
Its not like moving out would solve the problem considering that most of the EU is moving to the far right. You at best buy yourself a few years with that while leaving your entire life behind.
Checks out. No matter the political ideology, I can’t imagine why anyone would like Merz.
There’s a problem with the Staatbild.
In reality both covernment parties combined have lost only around 5% in polls.
Because voters are totally brain-dead. They will cry and complain, then vote for them again anyway, repeat again and again and again… ad infinitum, ad nauseam.
There are no other comparably popular leader in the midst of rising far-right who could counter them.
Ah sheet, here we go again.
