A few weeks ago elections were held in the German county Thüringen – which was governed by the Christian conservatives (CDU) for quite a while now. They lost 11.8% votes though and dropped down to 31.2%, and the left party (Die Linke) scored second with an outstanding outcome, leaving the social democrats (SPD) as third party far behind.

It was the choice of the SPD to make up their mind who would govern Thüringen from now on:

• CDU + SPD (48 out of 88 seats)
• SPD + Linke + Greens (51 out of 88 seats)

The ruler of the left party, Bodo Ramelow, even offered the SPD that he would pass on the office of prime minister (which is very unusual, because the left party would have been the biggest party in that coalition) to make it easier for the SPD.

But the SPD chose to form a coalition with the CDU (sic!), disappointing many many (many) voters by ignoring the possibility for a left coalition. The CDU was governing Thüringen alone for 8 years now, and it was the chance for the SPD to bring change to the country.

Now comes the interesting part: when a new coalition is formed, there is a statutory meeting in parliament where the delegates vote for the new prime minister – in this case Christine Lieberknecht, CDU. A simple majority is needed, and Lieberknecht failed twice this morning, receiving only 45 out of 88 votes.

I’m happy to see that there are still decent SPD delegates in this country – on the other hand it’s quite sad to see that there are only 3 out of 18 in Thüringen.

Anyway: thumbs up, guys. Keep going!

Update, one hour later:
Christine Lieberknecht (CDU) was confirmed as prime minister with 57 out of 88 votes. I assume that the FDP is responsible for that, because they are rather in the opposition against CDU + FDP than in the opposition against a left coalition.

(Sources: wikipedia.de for the chart, mdr.de for the content)

The new German ministers for the next 4 years have been announced, and our most beloved Mr. Schäuble will become minister of finance. The heads of the three coalition parties – Merkel (CDU), Seehofer (CSU) and Westerwelle (FDP) – gave a press conference today.

A Dutch reporter asked Merkel how she possibly came up with the idea to nominate “a person” as minister of finance who “forgot” about receiving 100.000 Deutsche Mark when questioned in the German parliament in 1999.
The background: Schäuble took 100.000 DM from an arms dealer in 1994, denied any financial transaction when questioned in 1999, and one year later admitted receiving 100.000 DM.

Merkel replied very shortly that she trusts “this person” (both actually avoid the name Schäuble). The reporter pretends to be confused and asks again, but Merkel just dodges the question, and the moderator goes on: “next question, please”.

• Video of the press conference (youtube, 1:13 minutes)
• background on wikipedia (unfortunately only in German)

(Source: fefe, wikipedia, spiegel)

Autor: Christian Gosse

Tja, offenbar sind die ersten Casting-Runden der alle vier Jahre stattfindenden Show “DSDOK” herum und die Auserwählten werden in den nächsten Wochen einige Workshops absolvieren und in mehreren Mottoshows im Bundestag und auf internationalen Konferenzen ihre Fähigkeiten unter Beweis stellen.
Die diesjährige Jury bestand als “Mama” Merkel, “Grinse”-Guido und “Heiland” Horst und wenig überraschend haben sich zwei der Jurymitglieder selbst ins Kabinett gewählt.

Hier also die voraussichtlichen Finalisten und ihre Ensemblerollen:

Angela Merkel: Bundeskanzlerin
Diese Rolle hatte sie schon die letzten vier Jahre gespielt, doch jetzt hofft sie, mit der neuen Bandbesetzung endlich die Misstöne abgestellt und ein paar harmonische Kantonisten verpflichtet zu haben. Merkels mütterlicher Charme hat sie schon in der letzten Staffel zum Liebling der Zuschauer werden lassen.

Ronald Pofalla: Kanzleramts-Minister
Sozusagen der Notenständer der Kanzlerin. Muss nicht singen, was vielleicht auch ganz gut so ist.

Guido Westerwelle: Außenminister
Singt die zweite Solostimme, vor allem bei internationalen Auftritten. Hat langjährige Bühnenerfahrung, aber gilt beim Publikum oft als ein bisschen selbstverliebt. Hört sich selbst gerne singen.

Wolfgang Schäuble: Finanzminister
Hat durch seine eigenwillige Interpretation des Innenministeriums viel Kritik beim Publikum einstecken müssen, und auch das Verfassungs-Komitee würdigte seine gesetzlichen Leistungen nicht in dem Maße, das er erhofft hatte. Aber chor-intern gilt er als Meister der schwierigen Töne, er singt Tonfolgen, die sich kein anderer traut, nicht mal Guido. Daher vielleicht eine gute Besetzung als Nachfolger für Peer Steinbrück, der ebenfalls sehr außergewöhnliche Tonlagen beherrschte, wie man in der Schweiz, Liechtenstein und Mali feststellte. Für seine neue Rolle hat er zumindest einige Erfahrungen mit Briefumschlägen sammeln können.

Thomas de Maizière: Innenministerium
Gilt als zuverlässiger Notenständer und -umblätterer. Soll seine Kenntnisse mit auch schwierigen Partituren nun im Innenministerium unter Beweis stellen. Das Publikum erhofft von ihm eine wesentlich verträglichere Interpretation des Gesetzesstoffes als sein Vorgänger pflegte.
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Minister of Interior Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU) said a few hours ago in an interview that the law to censor the internet in Germany – with the official reason of fighting child pornography – was passed in order to set the CDU apart from other parties in the final part of the election campaign, and that it contains mistakes and errors.

As long as politicians lie, as long as they at least pretend to do things that are good for the people, they fear us, at least a tiny little bit. But as soon as they actually tell you that they don’t care at all, that they just did what they did because they wanted to be re-elected, as soon as a Dick Cheney actually admits that the US went to Iraq for oil it’s a sign that things not only not go very well, but that things are quite out of control.

Sueddeutsche.de writes:

Der Minister gab handwerkliche Fehler beim sogenannten Zugangserschwerungsgesetz für Stoppschilder im Internet zu. Das Gesetz zum Schutz vor Kinderpornografie sei im Endspurt des Wahlkampfes auch deshalb entstanden, um die CDU gegenüber anderen Parteien abzusetzen.

Unbelievable.

Introduction:

• This post will be updated regularly in the weeks to come
• Explanation of the parties: CDU/CSU are the two conservative, christian parties; SPD = social democrats, FDP = liberals, LINKE = left-winged party, GRÜNE = green party

Overall:

• 1) CDU/CSU: 33.8 (-1.4)
• 2) SPD: 23.0 (-11.2)
• 3) FDP: 14.6 (+4.8)
• 4) LINKE: 11.9 (+3.2)
• 5) GRÜNE: 10.7 (+2.6)
• OTHERS: 6.0 (+2.1)
• PIRATES, included in “Others”: 2.1 (+2.1)

Interesting facts:

• Only 70% of the German people went to vote (-7%)
• CDU/CSU+FDP: 332 / 622 seats (53.38%), a clear majority; it is obvious that our new government did not just win due to the difficult direct mandate system which was declared anti-constitutional a few months back
• FDP, LINKE and GRÜNE achieved the best results in the history of their parties, no need to talk about the SPD on the other hand
• In this election, the German Bundestag was voted. Oversimplified: they propose bills. The bills then go to the Bundesrat (the second chamber), which is the representation of the 18 German counties; in this chamber, SPD-LINKE-GRÜNE currently have the majority – they might just block laws from our new government

Voter migration: Read the rest of this entry »

(this post is a about a website of the German green party trying to get the votes from people who haven’t yet decided which party to vote for)

Noch drei Tage bis zur Wahl. Die Grünen haben eine nette Idee, sich um die unentschlossenen Wähler zu kümmern: Dreitagewach

Mehr als ein Drittel aller Wahlberechtigten entscheiden ganz kurzfristig, welcher Partei sie ihre Stimme geben. Darum sind wir während der letzten 72 Stunden vor der Wahl für alle Unentschlossen da – rund um die Uhr

Ich habe den Grünen mal zwei Fragen eingeschickt:
(1)

Für mich sind die Grünen unwählbar, weil sich über 30 % der Abgeordneten beim Zensursula Gesetz (Internet-Zugangs-Erschwerungs-Gesetz …) enthalten haben.
Wie konnte das passieren? Ich fand deswegen auch den Auftritt der Partei auf der Demonstration in Berlin “Freiheit statt Angst” daneben.

(2)

Die Grünen haben u.a. für folgende Gesetze gestimmt:
* Abschuss von Passagiermaschinen
* Biometrische Merkmale in Reisepässen
* Standortermittlung von Mobiltelefonen
* Wiedereinführung des großen Lauschangriffs
* Schleierfahndung
Wie passt das zusammen mit der Tatsache, dass Sie kurz vor der Wahl das Thema Internet- und Bürgerrechte für sich entdecken?

Antworten: Read the rest of this entry »

by Jana Jarecki

Three days ago, head of the German Ministry for Economic Affairs, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, once more outsourced creating a draft version for a law to the international law firm Linklaters. You might remember the debate whether he should have outsourced writing the draft version of a law regulating financial markets (Gesetz zur Ergänzung des Kreditwesensgeschäftes) to the very law firm or should rather have adviced a ministry to prepare it in house. I’d like to talk about the latter case.

It is common practice in Germany to involve external expertise in the drafting process of a bill. Nonetheless certain questions should be addressed concerning Guttenberg’s Ghostwriters for the financial market law: Did he observe the rules for public tenders? Is outsourcing necessary in this particular case? If so, is Linklaters a good institute to carry out the job?

(i) Very basic, the procedure of searching for a relevant agent to carry out the job has to meet the requirements for any public tender: make it accessible for as much companies as possible in order to get the job done by the most qualified as well as priciest institute. According to Guttenberg, his ministry had inquired several law firms. Not only offered Linklaters to take the job cheapest but also were some of the remaining law firms bound by contracts with other departments. He seemed to have fulfilled this requirement, although I do not see the argumentative value of his second argument.

Read the rest of this entry »

When 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 …

Or: why it does make sense to vote for the pirate party even if they don’t get 5%

This posting is mainly for people who …

• … want to know more about the German election system
• … find the pirate party interesting, but don’t think it’s very smart to vote for a party which most probably won’t make it into parliament

Two weeks ago I wrote that I find it highly unlikely that the pirate party will make it into the German parliament after the elections, as they will not be able to receive the 5% of the votes that are needed.

This is not entirely true, due to the fairly complicated election system is Germany.

I’ll try to shortly sum up the German election system, and then come to my conclusion – skip the introduction if you’re familiar with the system.

When we go voting on the 27th of September, we have a first vote and a second vote.
With the first vote, we vote for a politician in our region, with the second for a party.
Read the rest of this entry »