Election Time In Germany

Guess you will always find some quote from somebody, taken out of context, that sounds horrible by itself. Applies to politicians of all parties. Then again, to hear somebody call the policy of the SPD/Green government "socialist", one has to go to the US, I assume. Why would a party "left" of the SPD get about 10% (according to most polls) if we had a socialist government?

As for the relations between the US and DE, well, lying to supposed allies when it comes to justifying a war certainly does not make such relations easier. (I do feel sorry for Colin Powell now.) And it takes both sides to improve bilateral relations. Currently the climate is ... well, not poisoned any more, I think, but still very difficult. Any change of government, on either side, would help bridging the gap. And rebuilding or stabilizing that bridge does make a lot of sense since in many regards our positions and interests are very similar.

Now Turkey is a difficult issue. Saying that "foreign" relations will not get much better if a CDU led federal government has a view that differs from the US administration's in this regard sounds quite discouraging. In my opinion, official EU membership negotiations with Turkey should start this year. But it has to be made very clear from the very beginning that these negotiations do not have a built-in automatism. If the membership criteria are not met (we are talking about a time span of 10+ years here), then the country's membership should be deferred.

(edit) By the way, about 200,000 people in Dresden, Saxony, will not vote until 2 October. So the "final" election result that we will learn about in a little more than one week won't be absolutely final ...

Christian

 

This is a popular misrepresentation of the facts, mostly promoted by the western left and Middle Eastern tyrants. There were a lot of lies flying around prior to the second Iraq War, but G.W. Bush was not the liar. The United Nations Oil-For-Food program provides graphic evidence as to why it was so difficult for the United States (or George Bush) to assess the true nature of Saddam's efforts to acquire WMD assetts. Inept UN inspections, political delays, wholesale lies, and bags full of cash flying over European transoms precluded an accurate assessment of the situation. To this day, the truth is clouded with world-political BS.

If you really think that the Iraqi component of a world terror threat was not real, at least based on information available at the time, just hang on and see what happens with North Korea and Iran. Intelligence revelations will be forthcoming, and the West will not like the consequences.

One man, or one large Nation, can not be left holding the bag. Europe seems to view Islamic terrorism as an American problem and a European inconvenience. That will inevitably change with time.

 

Guess I won't have to remind you of the terrorist attacks in Madrid and London. As for "who lied when", I was primarily referring to Mr Powell's interview yesterday, and that painful blot he mentioned when talking about his speech at the Security Council. No idea who was the source of those false allegations, and we may never know.

Christian

 

I am very glad that we can have conversations about difficult subjects here. Individuals with contrasting opinions can be very emphatic in their presentations, but I suppose it does little good to mask true feelings in complex discussions. Nothing is learned when political correctness muffles the dialog. So far, I really respect most of the opinionated posters on this website. There is a lot of collective knowledge and experience around here, and the conversations are useful to me.

 

I have found the English version of www.spiegel.de at http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international is a good place to keep on top of German issues. Sure like any other large media company they spin the news but at least I have an idea of what is going on.

 

Another place that could be interesting is Deutsche Welle's web site. This is the English language version:
http://www.dw-world.de/english

Chris-"German-is-easier-to-read-for-me-than-English"-tian

 

Election Day

all campaigns are done, today is election day (by the way, always a sunday)

no doubt, the new chancelor will be ANGELA MERKEL (CDU)

its just a question with which coalition party, FDP or the schroeder party SPD

last pre-poll:

CDU 42 %
SPD 33 %
FDP 7,5 %
Green Party 6,5 %
Left Wing Party 7,5 %
others 3,5%

a coalition needs at least 50%, currently CDU/FDP have 49,5%

as you can see, its gonna be a very exciting day....

cu later,
Daniel

 

I hope that the German people get a good government when all is said and done. They deserve it!

 

I guess Merkel won.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/18/D8CMP4EO0.html

 

the election has not finished yet!!!

CDU 35%
SPD 24%
FDP 10%
Green 8%
Left 8%

but: one constituency (Dresden) has to vote in two weeks (because somebody from the NPD-party died two weeks ago)

so dresden will be responsible for the result (200.000 votes!!!)

furthermore, schroeder said, he wont create a coalition with the CDU!!!
but he also said, he wont create a coalition with green and left or fdp...

 

"What this country needs are more unemployed politicians." - Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995)