2012 Elections in Germany

[Old Europe]

From the point of view of current party chairman Philipp Rösler, it doesn't really matter whether the FDP makes it past 5% in the NRW election or not. I assume there will be calls for Christian Lindner to take over party either way.

If the FDP ends up below 5% in NRW it will attributed to Rösler's failed leadership and they will call for his resignation. If the FDP ends up above 5% it will attributed to the fact that Lindner is the only one left in party who's able to win elections and so they will call for Rösler's resignation sooner or later.

[Vasall des Midas]

How lackluster does FDP leadership have to be, for their party to barely beat the Nazis for seventh place? I thought the Liberal Party of Canada set the world record for terrible party leadership.

It doesn't help that these snap elections were caused by the complete breakdown of the FDP parliamentary party in the state.

[Vasall des Midas]

I like this picture.

[Vasall des Midas]

Frankfurt, absentee result Feldmann 50.5%, day vote result Feldmann 59.0%.

Basically the same people cast absentee votes in the runoff as in the first round - simply because most people who requested an absentee ballot did so for both rounds at the same time. (All you had to do was check a different box.) And indeed, fewer of the requested postals came back for round two than round one - though the decrease was less than in the day vote, meaning the share of the total vote that was absentee was marginally up further.

Oh, and here's that table again.



Lol.

[Tender Branson]

I like this picture.

The right one looks like a Pirate, no ?

[Vasall des Midas]

He is, he is. The other two are Maas and Kramp-Karrenbauer.

[Tender Branson]

He also looks a bit like:



Maybe they should cast him, if they ever make a real-life South Park movie ...

[Tender Branson]

Feldmann is Jewish ?

He's apparently the first Jewish mayor of Frankfurt since 1933.

Btw, Lewis could you please make your cartoon signature smaller ?

[Old Europe]

Schleswig-Holstein poll (Infratest dimap)

CDU 34%
SPD 32%
Greens 15%
Pirates 5%
SSW 4%
FDP 4%
Left 4%

[Californian Tony]

FDP 4%

FDP surge !

[Tender Branson]

FDP 4%

FDP surge !

Bradley Effect !

[Tender Branson]

vs.

[Old Europe]

I wonder whether the FDP is in full self-destruct mode now since they actively sabotaged the Schlecker bailout. How long will the CDU be willing to take this crap?

In any case, Rösler's current strategy to "save" the party seems to be: Be as unpredictable as possible.

[Vasall des Midas]

Piratesurge!

Emnid: CDU 36, SPD 27, Greens 13, Pirates 9, Left 7, FDP 3
Forsa: CDU 35, SPD 25, Greens 13, Pirates 12, Left 9, FDP 3

Maybe the SPD should tolerate a Green-Pirate-Left minority coalition after the federal elections.

[Californian Tony]

Piratesurge!

Emnid: CDU 36, SPD 27, Greens 13, Pirates 9, Left 7, FDP 3
Forsa: CDU 35, SPD 25, Greens 13, Pirates 12, Left 9, FDP 3

Maybe the SPD should tolerate a Green-Pirate-Left minority coalition after the federal elections.

That would be way preferable to a grand coalition, yeah...

[DL]

Why don't the Greens and the Pirates merge - I can't imagine that they are all that far apart on the issues and they must both appeal to a similar segment of the population.

[Old Europe]

Why don't the Greens and the Pirates merge - I can't imagine that they are all that far apart on the issues and they must both appeal to a similar segment of the population.

Yeah, sure, if you can come up with a plan how the Pirates are gonna accept a gender quota for all party positions (or how the Greens are gonna accept abolition of the quota) that doesn't result in murder, mayhem, and man-made megadeaths.

The Greens have a women's quota of 50%, the SPD has a quota of 40%, and the Pirates have none. The Greens think that the SPD's quota is unacceptedly low and not pursued rigorously enough. Figure out the rest.

Besides, what is the point of the Pirates' existence (from the Pirates' point of view), if they're gonna merge with a "mainstream" party at the earliest opportunity? If a Pirate had wanted to join the Greens he had already done so instead of joining the Pirates.

[Bro-mentum]

awkwardfamilyphotos.com

[Vasall des Midas]

Why don't the Greens and the Pirates merge - I can't imagine that they are all that far apart on the issues and they must both appeal to a similar segment of the population.

Somewhat similar. Certainly the Pirates wouldn't have emerged if the Greens were still the 80s Greens.

[Old Europe]

Why don't the Greens and the Pirates merge - I can't imagine that they are all that far apart on the issues and they must both appeal to a similar segment of the population.

Somewhat similar. Certainly the Pirates wouldn't have emerged if the Greens were still the 80s Greens.

Depends on how you define "80s Greens" though. If the Greens were really still the 80s Greens they would pursue a staunch anti-computer/anti-Internet stance. For instance, their somewhat neo-luddite 1987 campaign platform is pretty funny read in that respect. Therefore the Pirates would probably exist and poll at 20% right now.

[Vasall des Midas]

Well yeah, I mostly meant the whole joining the establishment (or rather being joined by people who want to make a career in establishment politics) thing.

[Tender Branson]

For the first time in 2 years, Black-Yellow has overtaken Red-Green - says a new Emnid poll:

36% CDU/CSU
26% SPD
13% Greens
10% Pirates
  7% Left
  4% FDP
  4% Others

40% Black-Yellow
39% Red-Green

There's a 49-43 majority for SPD-Green-Pirates.

[Californian Tony]

Wait, is the FDP really going up ? How comes ?

[I left.]

For the first time in 2 years, Black-Yellow has overtaken Red-Green - says a new Emnid poll:

36% CDU/CSU
26% SPD
13% Greens
10% Pirates
  7% Left
  4% FDP
  4% Others

40% Black-Yellow
39% Red-Green

There's a 49-43 majority for SPD-Green-Pirates.

Red-Green is pathetic.

[Old Europe]

Yeah, from 2013 onwards we're gonna have another Grand coalition under Merkel. We already knew that.

Maybe Sigmar Gabriel would be ballsy/crazy enough to actually do a SPD/Green/Pirate coalition, but Steinmeier and Steinbrück like to play it safe. And this means coalition with the CDU.