2012 Elections in Germany

[Sibboleth]

If we could have the second round map on the day after the first round is held, that would be particularly nice. -_-

I'll do my best, but you'll have to handle things at the practical end.

[Vasall des Midas]

You know, I found a voter notification card on the street for someone with a Romanian-sounding surname living in a building with lots of single room apartments and a largely transient population. The mailbox with his name on is overflowing and there's no doorbell with his name. I guess he's moved away and the apartment's not been re-let yet.

I was momentarily tempted to request a postal ballot sent to some friend's address with the thing (couldn't have used my own very well since I think that'd be a tad suspicious, being on the very next block and all) but I fought it down. And stuffed it right back into the full mailbox.

[Vasall des Midas]

lol@ internet userpolls.

On the FNP website...

Schmitt 44%
Fechter 20%
Feldmann 15%
Rhein 8%
Förster 5%
Wißler 3%
Heilig 3%

ahem.

Also, shame that Janine Wißler is not her second cousin Janina Wißler.

[Old Europe]

The NPD has nominated "historian" Olaf Rose as their presidential candidate. "Historian" because he mainly writes stuff about the great statesman Adolf Hitler and how he become a victim of evil Allied warmongering etc.

Seems we're complete now with the trio of Gauck, Klarsfeld, and Rose.

[Tender Branson]

I found this cartoon funny. It's called "Deutscher Stammtisch" and it's about Ex-President Wulff's recent demands and Greece:

[I left.]

200.000, die unser Staat wenigstens (größtenteils) auch hat

[Vasall des Midas]

Postal turnout up almost 50% on 2007. Mind you, that's on 2007.

[Tender Branson]

LOL.

FDP @ 1% in Saarland and 2% in Schleswig-Holstein ahead of the state elections:

http://www.wahlrecht.de/umfragen/landtage/saarland.htm

http://www.wahlrecht.de/umfragen/landtage/schleswig-holstein.htm

[DL]

Are articles starting to appear in German newspapers with headlines like "End of the Road for FDP?"? New parties pop up and old parties disappear...when the FDP is getting as low as 1 or 2% in some state elections and polling at 2 or 3% nationally - you have to wonder if that party could just DIE?

[Judäischen Volksfront]

Actually, why exactly has the FDP performed so terribly? Is party infighting *that* bad?

[Sibboleth]

1% is just... ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

[Old Europe]

Are articles starting to appear in German newspapers with headlines like "End of the Road for FDP?"? New parties pop up and old parties disappear...when the FDP is getting as low as 1 or 2% in some state elections and polling at 2 or 3% nationally - you have to wonder if that party could just DIE?

Not so much. The party is merely seen to be a constant state of crisis. Something most people have gotten used to it and accepted as "normal" by now.   Also, they're still represented in eleven state parliaments and five state governments (which is the same number of state governments Greens and Left have combined btw).

The narrative could change as soon as we're only a few months from the next federal election away and the party would still poll well below 5% nationally (so, around summer of 2013).

Actually, why exactly has the FDP performed so terribly? Is party infighting *that* bad?

What infighting?? That's the FDP, not the Left Party. The FDP is in a state of apathy, not in one of conflict. For starters, the FDP's senior personnel simply sucks. They've got a substandard chairman (Rösler) who's the successor of a another substandard chairman (Westerwelle). And the only reason why Rösler's still there is because his successor would probably be even worse.

[Formerly Californian Tony]

Fun note : the son of Beate Klarsfeld, Arno Klarsfeld, is a French right-winger close to Sarkozy. I assume the two are not in very good terms...

[Senator MaxQue]

Fun note : the son of Beate Klarsfeld, Arno Klarsfeld, is a French right-winger close to Sarkozy. I assume the two are not in very good terms...

No, she publically endorsed Sarkozy.

[Formerly Californian Tony]

Fun note : the son of Beate Klarsfeld, Arno Klarsfeld, is a French right-winger close to Sarkozy. I assume the two are not in very good terms...

No, she publically endorsed Sarkozy.

And she is Die Linke's candidate !

So, politics really make no sense.

[Sibboleth]

So, politics really make no sense.

Slow learner, bist?

[Formerly Californian Tony]

So, politics really make no sense.

Slow learner, bist?

No matter how much times I realize that, I always get stunned.

[Senator MaxQue]

Fun note : the son of Beate Klarsfeld, Arno Klarsfeld, is a French right-winger close to Sarkozy. I assume the two are not in very good terms...

No, she publically endorsed Sarkozy.

And she is Die Linke's candidate !

So, politics really make no sense.

Well, they oppose a well-known anti-commie by a well-known anti-nazi.

Ideology has taken vacations during that election.

[I left.]

At Frankfurt Hbf after having been in Bockenheim. The election seems to be running peacefully.

[Vasall des Midas]

At Frankfurt Hbf after having been in Bockenheim. The election seems to be running peacefully.

Yeah, I didn't see any other voters at a quarter to ten. Not surprising, mind.

Some fun stats on Booming Frankfurt (lol)

464k registered voters (up 28k on 2007)
of which 58k not German citizens (but citizens of another EU country; otherwise they would not be allowed to vote) (up 11k)
voters under 35 125k (up 20k)
voters over 60 134k (up 1k)
...and now for something that doesn't fit with the above...
voters 45-59 119k (up 13k)
voters 35-44k 86k (down 6k)
Now ask yourself: who's turned 45 since 2007? Ah, right. The last few actual baby boomers (who're younger than the people usually associated with the term, and in turn younger in Germany than in the US.)



EDIT: I'll learn quoting wikipedia images correctly yet. One day.

and some numbers on the foreigner increase...

from pre-2004 member states 36k (up 600), including 12k Italians, 5500 Greeks, etc pp
from the 2004 Ten 14k (up 2700) including 10k Poles (up 2000)
from Romania 4200 (up 2900), from Bulgaria 3700 (up 2800).

[Tender Branson]

Not just in Frankfurt.

It seems a lot of people from the East have come to all of (mostly southern Germany) and Austria in the past year to look for work, because the labor markets in GER/AUT were opened to the Eastern Europeans about 1 year ago.

But it's nothing compared to what the FPÖ predicted ("massive immigration tsunami of Eastern Europeans into Austria", "they take ouuuurr jooobs").

Maybe 10.000 or 20.000 have come here in the past year.

[I left.]

And I've left Frankfurt (and am going through that godawful state of R-P at present), but Frankfurt looked very quiet and gray on this Sunday morning.

Doesn't really matter, as a run-off seems certain.

[Vasall des Midas]

And I've left Frankfurt (and am going through that godawful state of R-P at present), but Frankfurt looked very quiet and gray on this Sunday morning.

Doesn't really matter, as a run-off seems certain.

Not warm, not cold, not rainy, not sunny. It's the kind of weather turnout operations hope for on a polling day, except that they basically don't exist in Germany of course.

Just checking my numbers and found what seemed like an error as the increase in foreign voters summed didn't add up with the numbers at the bottom. a) the breakdown by country, for either year, comes from a slightly different source with a slightly different timestamp. b) and this is the real reason, Romania and Bulgaria were admitted to the European Union less than 30 days before the 2007 election (27 days to be exact) and it seems that Romanians and Bulgarians were either not allowed to vote in that or - more likely given what I know of German voter registration law - actually were allowed to vote but for formal reasons could not be included on the preliminary register released 30 days before the election. Which is the 2007 comparison point because of course the 2012 figures are also from the preliminary register.

[Sibboleth]

Results will start coming in what sort of time?

[Tender Branson]

Results will start coming in what sort of time?

Polls usually close at 6pm in Germany (don't know if they do in Frankfurt as well in local elections).

That would be in about 2 hours.

Counting takes about 2-3 hours I guess.