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PhotographyWhen big elections are about to be held, I usually collect promises of prominent party members and compare them to what they actually do after the elections. This year, there’s not much point doing it.
The guys at Wahlversprechen.info had the same idea, and do it in a more professional way – please support them, it’s a very good thing really.
Let me give you a few examples for broken promises before big elections:
- Angela Merkel promised 2005 that there wouldn’t be a coalition with the SPD – she broke that promise, as we all know.
- The SPD promised at that time that they would not raise the VAT – and supported the conservatives in doing so just a few months later.
- The green party promised in 1998 that they would strictly vote against all military missions, including missions to “enforce peace”.
Interesting promises for this election:
- The SPD promised that they will not work together with the left party.
- The FDP promised not to work together with any party except for the conservatives.
- The FDP promised that they will not accept internet-censorship.
- Both CDU and CSU promised not to build new nuclear power plants.
To be continued …
September 21st, 2009
September 23rd, 2009 at 05:08
Ah thanks, didn’t know about the Greens explicitly vowing not to accept “peace missions”. They were allegedly forced into it by Fischer and the takeover at 9/11 anyway, but the switch of standpoints from then to nowadays is astonishing to say the least.
Concerning FDP, I bet they will forget their disdain for censorship as soon as they are in. There are not a lot of Leuth-Schn. to stand up for civil rights. Their coalition “pledge” is clever imho because it actually is the best tactics to vote for them if you want a CDU-FDP-led government. They will not break their promise after the election, so if it’s not enough for that, it will be “Great” Coalition once again.
And for their anti-red campaign: If SPD and Greens truly wanted to join with the Left Party, they could have done it any time the last 4 years. Only fools can imagine them doing it after the election for some obscure reason that magically was not present for the last 4 years.
What I consider most interesting about the promises is the reception in the media, especially after the election, when the truth is revealed. I would bet that the CDU will break some major ones and no paper will make a big deal out of it, same for FDP. Ypsilanti effects only occur in the SPD (at least in the mainstream media). I hope I’m mistaken on that one, so I eagerly await the outcome.
September 23rd, 2009 at 10:16
We’ll watch closely. And keep in mind: the CDU most probably will have an extremely bad outcome of this election, regarding 60 years history as “people’s party”.
The weirdest thing at the moment is that the CSU is promising lowering the taxes, and the CDU is like “hmmmmm maybe later”.
Imagine … the CSU shrinking to only 30% in bavaria in the next years, and the CDU going like “ah, well, we don’t need you anymore, FDP is enough” :p …