I always think it's so lame when people say stuff like "The FDP wants financial stability". Like who the doesn't? Tell us instead what the FDP means by financial stability, by listing some of their policies for example.
I think in general that means less government spending, which came clashing against their coallition partners SPD and Grüne (especialy die Grüne) who wanted to spend to try and fix the country. I would also like to add that all parties want financial stability, but some are more willing then others to spend to try and fix the current percieved issues.
yeah the FDP isnt about financial stability... they are about shoveling wealth from the majority of the population to the rich minority... thats all they are about and THAT is massively destabilizing the economy
They are liberal to libertarian, so "financial stability" for a party of that ideology means privatizing state-owned enterprises, deregulating industry and less taxes for the top 5% (in the case of CDU/CSU) or the top 1% (in the case of FDP). Also cutting social benefits in order to lessen the negotiating power of the working class by making unemployment as punitive as possible - to the point of unconstitutionality, since the German constitution guarantees that every human deserves "dignity".
How one can call the party that is against adequately funding the maintenance and expansion of Germany's infrastructure the party of financial stability is beyond me.
The FDP wants financial stability, meaning they want to rob the government as hard as they can for their corporate masters so they can get cushy "jobs" (Aufsichtsratspositionen with 1m € salaries and no work) and be set for life.
He would probably form a coalition with AfD if that wouldn't quite literally destroy his party. Back when he said that working with AfD on the local level sometimes is okay, CDU members immediately rebelled against that statement and he did a 180° on it. He wants to, but he knows he can't.
Söder's energy policy: 2011: Let's shut down all nuclear energy, if we don't, I will resign! 2015ish he introduces restrictions for new wind turbines which requires distance to living areas of 10 times its height, so we still have very few wind power in Bavaria now. He also was fighting against new powerlines from northern to southern part of Germany. 2023 after the last nuclear reactors were shut down, he wants to build new ones again, but he don't want any nuclear waste buried in his Bundesland Bavaria!
I'm sorry, but I think your presentation of "The Left" was a bit too one-sided. (No misunderstandings: I am quite critical of them and won't vote for them, but we need to be fair.) Yes, they are in some ways a continuation of the old SED, but more than half of their current members don't share this past, and their program and practical policies are very different from the old communist views. Many of their members came from the left wing of the SPD, and Bodo Ramelow, the only left Minister President of a Bundesland yet (Thuringia), is a former worker's union man from western Germany and by no means a radical. Yes, the Left is seemingly unable to let go of some of its old ballast (especially its overly positive view of Russia, although even that has changed a bit), but its weird that people always define it by the SED past while nobody talks about the GDR block parties who fused with the CDU and FDP (like the NDPD, which was explicitly founded to be a harbour for former Nazis and which was swallowed by the FDP).
This. The West german FDP and CDU after 1948 was also quite a haven for nationalists, so let's not reduce the Left on this past forever. Most of their more recent members are simply anticapitalists or systemic critics on the more radical level.
The reason they can’t shake that image is because they have not really distanced themselves. And importantly Die Linke doesn’t really have a more left leaning party to offload problematic members to. The right wing nutters have long left the CDU, because there were parties like the NPD or are parties like the AfD, who are decidedly more right wing. So for Die Linke to shake their association to communist authoritarianism, there would have to be a much stronger commetiment to distance themselves from left wing authoritarianism and importantly another party to take all the left wing authoritarians currently being part of Die Linke.
@@BengVideo As far as I can tell, the party mainly consists of people who think the Nazis had some good ideas, and what is often called "useful idiots". And very few people that do not fit in either group. They didn't start out that one-sided, but every time the moderates tried to get rid of the radicals, the radicals instead for rid of the moderates. This can only end one way.
The FDP DID deliberately engineer the collapse of the coalition, the had a paper literally called "D-Day Paper" in which they planned all the steps - but Olaf Scholz beat them to it.
@@xaverlustig3581 It can be seen as an act of self sabotage, the 3 members agreed to a form a coallition to gorvern Germany until the next ellection, if one member (FDP) sabotaged the coallition, that is a break of trust and it would paint them (FDP) as irresponsible partners for a future coallition building. The coallition always had problems (the FDP and Grüne didn't see eye to eye on many issues), in the last few years (2023 and 2024) it became more obvious (with each party trying to rally it's own support rather then the government).
@@xaverlustig3581 Because they also tried to lie to the general population about it. Their paper basically said to make up a story. I don't know but lying to the people you are Governing for for your own gain is quit a questionable thing to do. Besides they actively handicapped the government in a time of many big problems.
@@gohanssj48 He’s not a Fascist by any means, he’s more like the Hindenburg or Hugenburg or Von Pappen. Willing to do pretty much anything as long as it keeps him in power.
Mostly to avoid infighting. The time between the unplanned breakdown of the coalition and the election was too short to waste on a new leadership election instead of focusing on the election itself.
@@hermannschaefer4777 They are rising in the polls and weirdly closing the gap. Looks like it will probably be a grand coalition like the Merkel years... CDU-SPD.. I am OK with that. It's the most stable moderate option possible and hopefully that doesn't mean political stagnation, though I would venture to say that's probably what will happen...
They've gotten 6% in the regional election there in 2022, which if repeated could be enough for a second seat even. And tbh, they'd deserve it, they're good people.
@@timolino567The latest polls we know is from late 2023 without about 6% so I’d argue they’re probably sitting at around high 5% currently,in 2021 they got like 55k voters and 1 seat in the SW elections they got like 79k voters 2 seats so I expect then to get 1 seat sadly even tho 2 would be great, but you need like 80-120k voters to get one second vote seat I believe so they will only get 1
A lot of people I know who voted for the SSW won’t do it again. Not because they’re unhappy, more because they’re strategically voting for parties reflecting their interests and are capable of being part of the government and to prevent the AfD
@@RealThoresmaller parties have their role. Sure they probably won’t govern the country but they can advocate for specific things that will improve life for their constituents especially if they represent regions or ethnic minorities
Yeah. Unlike some countries (cough America), politics in Germany isn’t as polarised or toxic. There are the occasional spammers but not as much as you would think.
For context on Merz: When in 1997 the parliament was asked to decide whether the rape of a woman by her husband should be persecuted he voted against the law. Merz in 1997 thought that it was fine for a woman to be forced to have sex with a man, because she at one point had agreed to marry him. This is not the only thing that makes him a bad choice, but it is very much sufficient to me.
It's actually slightly different, and even worse. Originally, Merz agreed to a CDU proposoal which would ban marital rape, but with specific extras. The later proposal didn't have those extras, and so Merz did no reject the proposal for its content, but for what's been no longer in that proposal. What kind of extras have been missing from the second edition: originally, the CDU wanted to outlaw marital rape by making it a crime. Additionally, they also wanted to have a clause which would allow the plaintiff to withdraw from their accusation at any time. The CDU feared that in a broken marriage, couples could start threatening each other with criminal accusations when there was not such case, which would lead to lengthy investigations and could overload the courts. To counter that, the CDU wanted to introduce a loop hole for this specific type of crime, allowing the plaintiff to withdraw from this type of criminal complaint. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see various problems with that approach: for example, the wife might accuse her husband with marital rape, but then the husband could threaten her until she withdraws her criminal complaint. Effectively, such a law could be very ineffective. And Merz (along with his party) rejected the second edition, as it didn't include the CDU-favoured loophole anymore. But luckily, about any other party voted in favor of that law, making marital rape a crime. And guess what: the courts and prosecutors aren't overloaded from made-up allegations. Because, well: allegations of a crime without an actual crime is already outlawed. So if you're filing a criminal complaint against anyone, you're serious about it - and there's no way back
"the parliament was asked to decide whether the rape of a woman by her husband should be persecuted" That's bullshit!!! It was always persecuted, it just wasn't called a rape, if it happend between wife and husband.
Markus Söder will do what benefits Markus Söder. He always has and always will, so I'm pretty sure that he will agree to a coalition with the Greens if that is the only option (excluding the AfD).
@ well you can believe what the afd, cdu and fdp tell you or you can just watch his interviews. Robert Habeck is by far the best-spoken candidate there is right now. He does what no other party does, he admits if he was wrong, says what has to be said and is actually caring about the problems we are facing instead of the next election.. He is by far the most knowledgeable of the candidates and his facts are rarely not true and if they are its mostly geniuen mistakes. The AFD and CDU just lie all day long. They just tell their voters what they want to hear not whats actually true. Just look at weidel saying hitler is a communist...
Whether you like the LINKE or not, the characterisation is not quite fair. It's true that one of the parties that merged into the LINKE was the PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism), i.e. the successor of SED. However, the other was WASG (Electoral Alternative for Work and Social Justice), a Social Democratic group split of from the SPD. None of the current leadership on the federal level ever were members of PDS. It's commitment to overcoming capitalism is not very prominent, and not that radical in the German historical context. Until 2009, SPD's programme contained the following statement: "It is the fundamental historical experience of the workers' movement that fixes within capitalism are insufficient. What is needed is a new way of ordering economy and society". The rest of the programme makes it clear that they are talking about "Democratic Socialism". Granted there are probably a few more people in the LINKE who take this seriously than there were in Schroeder's SPD, still this doesn't mean they share the ideology of SED. There were many politicians in the SPD who were stauch anti-communists and equally serious about overcoming capitalism in the long-term, e.g. Willy Brandt. I don't think the voters abandon LINKE because they suspect them of wanting a GDR-style dictatorship. They see them as ineffectual idealists with no competence on economic issues. They worry that a government with the LINKE would deepen economic problems, not end democracy.
I agree. The Linke is basically the SPD of the second half of the 20th century now while anyone who says the SOD fights for the workers is stuck in those decades.
@Rewboss - While everything you are saying about Die Linke is technically correct, I think that brevity and omission are doing your mission of information a disservice here. Their proposals are mostly far from radical and are broadly in line with what the SPD was about 30-40 years ago.
In fact, the SPD was technically committed to 'overcoming capitalism' until 2009. From the Berlin Programme: "It is the fundamental historical experience of the workers' movement that fixes within capitalism are insufficient. What is needed is a new way of ordering economy and society"
@@rogink Great question. Actually, the SPD had a much broader spectrum before reunification, including people that would later become part of Die Linke/PDS such as Oskar Lafontaine. The Communist party did exist, but its importance was outside of parliament with social movements and intellectuals.
Don't they still have policies on immigration that are now pretty radical, considering the 1 million refugees that came in 2015 and the bad results? And considering it costs the German taxpayer a lot of money and housing? Note that the German Govt doesn't create money by keystrokes (& then tax the same currency they create to give it value), like the US, Australian, and many other countries do. So they really are much more financially constrained. Sarah Wagenknecht is left wing without that kind of stuff, i like her a lot. Not sure what she thinks though about havinf a Sovergien currency though.
The left party has continuity with the SED, but around 89/90 most of the old marxist-leninist hardliners left the party and were replaced by reformers who immediately completely changed the outlook of the party towards democratic socialism, rebranding as PDS (party of democratic socialism), they established themselves for most of the 90s and early 00s as the niche interest party for east germans, until in the mid 00s they merged with an SPD offshoot from West Germany, the WASG, whose main face at the time was Oskar Lafontaine (Former SPD finance minister who left the SPD over disagreements with Gerhard Schröders attack on the welfare state. After the merger, the new left party is definitely not just a follow-up of the SED, it contains old reformers, as well as tons of west german socialist leaning folk, and by now (the 2020s i remind you!) they have gone through another split: The BSW split from the left party, taking with it most of the concerningly GDR sympathizing folk. The Left party today has gone through so many renewals, including a surge of new young members after the BSW exodus, that its dishonest to say they are an SED follow-up. They have convinced voters otherwise too, only the bottom of the barrel news outlets still harp on this (BILD-Zeitung, you know em, i'm sure). Their current party leadership is a west german (Jan van Aken) and a young east german woman who was barely a year old when the wall came down. So much for that.
Die Linke is about as much a continuation of the SED as the CDU/CSU/FDP are a continuation of the NSDAP - with the small caveat that all of the early CDU/CSU/FDP leading personnell were actually members of the NSDAP.
Even as a German I find that I can learn a lot from your videos, fir example I wasn't aware that the BSW was considered important enough to potentially make into the Bundestag. Also a good reminder to everyone who is eligible to vote to brush up on the party programs and remind themselves to vote in February. Democracy lives and dies by elections so if you want to shape your government vote.
everyone over 5% makes it in and even though they won't win any direct mandate seats they will be probably only 1 of 5 parties (maybe 6 depending on how many direct mandates die linke win in east Berlin) represented in Bundestag which increases their importance
@@shinyagumon7015 they are only polling at 6% on politico but it will be just enough , although I doubt they will win any district mandates just overall vote will be enough to get in , and as fpd and linke look likely not to get in at all it would mean less seats in Bundestag and 6% of direct vote seats become more precious than if more parties got in
The BSW has consistently been between 4-8% in the federal polls for the last months. Even now, depending on the institute that made the polls, it ranks between 4-6%. And that's just representative polls, they definitely have a chance of making it into the Bundestag. I mean, they are already present in three state parliaments with between 11-15% of votes and participate in two state governments. They are definitely an important party.
Bavaria is always special. Söder would like to be Chancellor. But Bavarian politicians from the CSU are not really liked outside Bavaria. Way back in time Strauss, the hot blooded ruler of Bavaria was nominated by the Union but miserably failed. I'm afraid Scholz has the same problem. Germans from the North are considered somewhat boring but still waters run deep. Good overview which shows none of the parties is without issues.
He's right though, or the position he is claiming is. The problem is, that these grand coalitions slowly destroy the political power of the individual members of that coalition over time. You have to stand out, you have to have opposing positions, you can't be directly compatible with every rival party. If a coalition of CDU, SPD and Greens will form the next government, but the people grow sick of them and demand change for the next election, they can't vote for any of those parties again, because every single one of them means a continuation. So they can only choose Linke, FDP, BSW or AFD. You can see what all of those past grand coalitions did to the importance of the SPD, but they also changed all of those parties as well, by making them more similar, more compatible in their positions and ideologies. Which is really bad. He chose to also antagonize the Greens, to cash in on AFD voters and on everybody who doesn't want to follow their path anymore. But if they break this promise and betray these voters, they will choose AFD next time. Unless the short-term memory effect of the voters is helping them out, of course.
It's the Alberta of Germany quite literally... Sister states/provinces... Right down to the ODD/Oppositional Defiance Disorder leadership. Their only way of feeling special and important to be a rebel leader against the federal government. Without it? They have no identity of their own...
As a German who is neither a voter nor a supporter of DIE LINKE, I would still strongly disagree with how they were described. While many former SED voters and members merged into DIE LINKE, it is still a completely different party. I would also describe it as socialist and democratic. They also focus heavily on issues such as climate change and quality of life, often on a smaller, more regional scale. Their foreign policy has a somewhat peculiar relationship with Russia, largely due to the legacy of the former SED. However, since the split with the BSW (Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht), this aspect has become less controversial. Previously, some alleged that DIE LINKE was financed by Russia, nearly similar to claims about the AfD or now the BSW.
People complaining about the CDU for 16 years and than instantly running back to them because fucking Scholz was to radical for them is fucking insane. Like, Scholz could be put on the left flank of the CDU and it wouldnt look weird.
While it's not a bad overview, I think this video has quite a few inaccuracies. Like, anyone still claiming SPD and Greens as left wing must clearly take the manifestos by their word instead of looking at their political actions. And it's really confusing why die Linke is the only party that with whom the GDR connection is made, when a) a lot of what is now die Linke came from the WASG, an SPD-offshoot in the 2000s, b) most of the people who hold actual SED views are in the BSW now and c) the East German sections of CDU and FDP also grew out of the GDR parties, just as much if not more so, than the east German sections of die Linke.
Your video could not be more bias, instead of mentioning things breafely you opt for leaving out key information about parties like for example: any information about the Linke policies, any information about the migration policy of BSW, Addressing the green party, at 1:36 by saying some members have conceded you are outing your bias towards believing this information, when it is only a claim "that it (the party) has failed to listen to and communicate to the voters". The FDP, BSW and the Left can still win seats through direct mandates if they dont make it above 5%. At the end you didnt make it very clear that the coalition will (most likely) EITHER be between the Union CSU/CDU and the Greens OR the Union CDU/CSU and the SPD (far more likely), and that the CDU/CSU is leaving options open even though it prefers the SPD because it needs room to negotiate with the SPD on conditions of governance.
I'm sorry but I don't think your characterization of Linkspartei is fair and balanced here. "Overcoming capitalism" may be an aspiriational statement (though it's hard to find any mention of it on their website), but it is certainly not what Linkspartei politicians have done in the many state governments that they were a part of or what their current platform is. For most of the other parties, I think your presentation is more balanced, highlighting both points that attract some voters and those for which the parties are criticized.
Yes and no. One one hand, the former SED/PDS is long time gone, on the other hand, it is still strongest in those areas, where the former GDR was. Expected 2% in North Rhine-Westphalia but about 12% in Thuringia.
Yeah. I'm certainly not a fan of the Linke, but that was a really uninformed take. (Including the assertion that the GDR was a single-party state. It was in practice, but technically not.) The Linke ruled in Thuringia for 10 years as a form of slightly lefter-wing SPD, and though they still have their fair share of crazies, that's probably where they mostly stand nowadays.
Until 2009, the SPD was committed technically committed to overcoming capitalism.... From the Berlin Programme: "It is the fundamental historical experience of the workers' movement that fixes within capitalism are insufficient. What is needed is a new way of ordering economy and society"
@@hermannschaefer4777 Though, this probably has as much to do with the comparatively shallow roots of the originally West German parties in these areas than with a continuity with the SED. Also note that the Thuringian LINKE in particular was shaped by Bodo Ramelow, a West German Trade Unionist who was never a member of the SED.
I think you should have spoken differently about the BSW. You could have concisely said that "this party is economically left wing, and socially right wing / conservative", but instead we got the vague "oddly similar to AFD policies". I think the way I described it is better because it's more informative and less vaguely insidious. Other than that I think the video is about as well balanced as you could make it (there is no perfect unbiased video etc etc.)
Sais A LOT about the #Scholzomat, the ЗПД and the Grüne VollkornCDU when they now seem as the most competent of the bunch... But as the old saying goes, "who doesn't want to listen must feel it" - they couldn't provide a better, more credible alternative to #AfDer and #BSWagenknecht, so now, the one-eyed are becoming the chancellors amongst the blind.
Pretty decent summary for people unfamiliar with German politics, although I think it would have been better if it included a description of the 5% Hürde rather than saying the FDP is unlikely to gain any seats. It should also be mentioned that the Left is also struggling with that and indeed failed last time and just got in due to a special rule about Direktmandate which has since been removed.
Die Änderung am Wahlrecht ist rechtlich nur unter der Bedingung durchgegangen, dass die Direktmandatsregel bleibt. Die gibt es also immer noch und darauf setzt die Linke auch dieses Mal
@ricardo.fontanelli This is what I commented on the video. Hopefully you understand. But please remove your biases from your comment, the BSW won't get much more or less votes then "die Linke": Your video could not be more bias, instead of mentioning things breafely you opt for leaving out key information about parties like for example: any information about the Linke policies, any information about the migration policy of BSW, Addressing the green party, at 1:36 by saying some members have conceded you are outing your bias towards believing this information, when it is only a claim "that it (the party) has failed to listen to and communicate to the voters". The FDP, BSW and the Left can still win seats through direct mandates if they dont make it above 5%. At the end you didnt make it very clear that the coalition will (most likely) EITHER be between the Union CSU/CDU and the Greens OR the Union CDU/CSU and the SPD (far more likely), and that the CDU/CSU is leaving options open even though it prefers the SPD because it needs room to negotiate with the SPD on conditions of governance.
I guess the real problem for our democracy will come from two sides: A) the number of lost votes because people just abstain or vote for parties which will not make the 5% threshold and B) the parties, no other party want to have talks with or form a coalition with will gain a big share of the votes - so, no matter what, the next government will represent far less than half of the eligible voters of the country and will become the center of criticism from day one on. The early Weimar situation repeated. I don't accept the allegation that citizens who do not vote or vote for minority groups have only themselves to blame! We have had a situation that no matter who you voted for you got a half-right or a half-left coalition, in the end a parody of the UK two party system, just worse as these coalitions always had an inbuilt systemic infight.
I think it’s good to see both sides of an argument and look at political parties from a diplomatic standpoint. A lot of people disagree or even hate the AfD, myself included, but it’s still good to give a deep dive on them from an unbiased perspective.
@@manjushagongale can't speak for OP but collectively hating on immigrants, threatening to deport anyone who hasn't been 100% German for the past eleventy million generations, trying to throw Germany into economic peril by leaving the EU (see UK for reference, they're not doing well), being the source for a lot of misinformation (HiTlEr WaS a CoMmUnIsT) and allowing confirmed fascists to remain in their party (yes, Höcke is a fascist, as confirmed by court) would be some pretty good reasons to hate on them
@@manjushagongaleYou know, when even the Reassemblement National and Fratelli D'Italia REFUSE to work with you, you might be a little too far to the right
You do an excellent job of explaining the parties without making your personal prejudices obvious. I can’t do that. 😅. I am guessing that my personal prejudices are diametrically opposed to yours and I really am glad you can do that
Just for accuracy's sake, you missed one party which is almost certainly guaranteed a seat, but then again no more than one seat. The SSW, the party of the Danish minority in Germany, which is exempt from the 5% hurdle. Its political viewpoint is a bit over the place, but it should be fair to say that it would be willing and able to work with any of the democratic parties (Union, FDP, SPD, Greens), though it should never come down to that because a 1 seat majority would just be too risky.
I usually vote for Volt. Here in the Rhine-Main metro area they are well known and established in the local governments of our three largest cities (Frankfurt, Wiesbaden and Darmstadt). They also recently had one of their most important election victories yet, winning 5 seats across europe in the past european elections and 3% of all votes in Germany. However, this election I won’t be voting for them, even though I am a member of the party. I feel like their biggest lever isn’t the Bundestag election, but the european elections. And although I don’t like tactical voting, I do feel as though it will be more important to support established leftist parties in Germany this time. With more success at the european level the time for Volt in the Bundestag will come eventually (or so I hope), but they will have to become more successful on the european level first, before entering more national parliaments. And yes, people will hate me for saying that I will vote leftist because I’m stupid and it’s not in fashion anymore. But you can say what you want - this is what I believe in and I will stand by it.
I agree to that. I am not a member of Volt, but I voted for them in the european election, too. As they don't stand a chance in the national election, voting for them would be a waste of my vote from the tactical point of view. With more and more countries in europe and the rest of the world turning to right wing populists, every vote countering that movement is important. So although I was not happy with how little the last government achieved at all, from a tactical point of view, I'll have to vote for the SPD or the Greens. As the SPD seemingly ghosted us for the last three years almost entirely...
Well, to be hoenest people who "hate on you" for saying you will vote leftist are a little bit dilousional. The leftish parties are the only parties that have a financially working election programm :D
I never really got the point of Volt (though by the time they were setting up, the UK was heading out of the EU and I never understood EU parliament elections anyway). My issue with Volt is they feel like they don't have any policies besides a vague pro-Europeanism.
@@ThamiorSilberdrache I guess that the Voting System in Oz is different to that in Germany. Out here the Preferential System essentially means you get to vote against candidates who you would least like to see in government. Thus you might not get your favourite up but your vote is still valuable in keeping out someone you might particularly dislike. We also have compulsory voting so nobody should sneak in under the radar via voter laziness.
"And yes, people will hate me for saying that I will vote leftist because I’m stupid and it’s not in fashion anymore. But you can say what you want - this is what I believe in and I will stand by it." You're not the only one, comrade.
@@JenNittahl gotta get die linke into the bundestag, really good strategy to make afd and other parties that support rightwing policies to have less seats since the linke takes a proportion. Unlike the afd and bsw they are the only party with a somewhat reasonable program that is very different from the rightward trend in the other parties.
If left wing parties see the AFD as extremists, this could be discounted. If center and right wing parties see the AFD as extremist, this could be seen as campaigning agsinst a üarty with similar voters. But the AFD is not in the same party group as the French or the Italian right wing party in the EU parliament. Both view the AFD as too extreme to work together.
@@Vuxchen Communists and Fascists are very similar. Stalin censored the press, Hitler censored the press, Stalin banned opposition, Hitler banned opposition, Stalin restricted public access to firearms, Hitler restricted public access to firearms, Stalin had political enemies killed and silenced, Hitler had political enemies killed and silenced, Stalin attacked nations unprovoked, Hitler attacked nations unprovoked, Stalin restricted religious freedoms, Hitler restricted religious freedoms... What really is so different? They say one is far left and communist, and one is far right and fascist, by their actions they seem like they have more in common than they have differing. It does not help that the name for Hitler's party was National Socialists which would tie it solely by name as being left wing. At the time, and even now restricting religious freedom of Christians, banning freedom of speech, instating mandatory public education (without exceptions for private, home, or religious education), instating mandatory state youth groups, restricted public firearm access, and suspending elections would not be seen as right wing... That government also promoted births regardless of marital status something not popular with conservatives. They also instituted public work projects to boost the economy much like the at the time progressive FDR was doing in the United States. It makes sense why people would equate Hitler as being left-wing while in reality, he was neither left wing or right wing.
@ nice long text. What you are describing is called dictatorship. And both Stalin and Hitler were dictators. Congrats. You know what makes Hitler a facist and right winged? Under his dictatorship communist, socialist and unionists were chased, arrested, placed in concentration camps and killed. now pls try to tell me that he was communist. And about the party beeing called "national socialist". Yes they were. But VW is also called "Peoples car" even so they are far from a peoples car by now. And even f*cking liver cheese has nothing to do with liver nor cheese. Like when was a name a proof for any contnt?!
@@Vuxchen Das Recht /Links System funzt nur wenn man sich auf einen einzelnen Aspekt konzentriert. Im Bezug auf Religion hat Hitler Linke Positionen vertreten, im Bezug auf Privateigentum ebenfalls sehr weit Links nur bei ser Frage ob alle Menschen gleich sind war er sehr weit Rechts. Wenn man die Frage stellt welche Eigenschaften eine Autoritäre Regierung hat und wo man da die größten parallelen findet wird ein Schuh daraus.
@@JonaWolf11 Das ist einfach falsch. Hitler hat nicht einmal mehr im 2. Weltkrieg unternehmen zur Rüstungsproduktion verstaatlicht. Das wäre ja die typisch aktion eines "linken" / "kommunistischen" diktators. Selbst als rechter faschist wäre das naheliegend. Er hat es nicht getan. Weiter weg von Kommunistisch kann man nicht sein. Wenn man wie der andere kommentierende z.B. Parallelen zu Stalin sucht findet man viele das ist korrekt. Alles Dinge die Diktatoren nun mal tun. Das hat nichts mit Rechts oder Links zu tun
As an Australian living in Cologne, all I can say is that Germany needs some leadership. I have only lived here for 3 years but it seems there air has changed in that time, even in 3 years areas that were once safe are now no go areas. Tougher immigration rules for sure. Will be watching with interest.
Here before clueless people call you a hypocrite, when clearly your immigration situation is nothing like an document-less possible criminal seeking asylum from the third world.
Well it kinda started in 2015 when Merkel took in 1.2 million refugees and then on the 15/16 New Year’s Eve there were mass sexual attacks (500 reported ) from North African and Arab men in cologne
Die Linke is actually a direct successor of the SED. In the run-up to the 1990 East German election, the SED changed its party name to the PDS, which carried on into the united Germany. PDS then merged with WASG to form Die Linke in 2007.
LINKE is a formal and legal successor of SED. PDS was SED's formal successor and PDS merged into LINKE. They took over all members, for example. Though legally, that also makes FDP the successor of the NDPD, an East German bloc party explicitly founded to gather former Nazis and Wehrmacht officers.
Volt and FW are both polling way below the neccesary qourom. The SSW might get a single seat again as they are exempt from the 5% qouta due to representing a protected minority
These days, the word "fascist" is so overused it changed its original meaning. If the mainstream calls something fascist today, stay sure it's not really into Fascism, and will probably be a good thing. Now it's almost a compliment. It means you are inconvenient to the establishment.
@2:00 That is not true. The FDP have not left the government. Olaf Scholz formally dismissed Christian Lindner (Head of the Federal FDP) leaving the FDP with little to no choice but its remaining ministers except for one to resign. Painting a picture of the FDP leaving out of the blue is not right - even in a reduced scope of portraying the respective German parties. „Voters seem to agree“ That is not accurate also. The polls for the current parliament have basically not changed for the FDP since Lindner was dismissed by Scholz.
actually very little. most SED hardliners left in the 90s, the PDS (direct successor) merged with another party, the WASG, and since then they only has reformist policies. after the split with Wagenknecht most of the old GDR nostalgics and friends of Russia now sit in her camp
I suspect the next government will be a traditional "grand coalition" between CDU/CSU and SPD and probably Greens. Germany is one of the few countries that seems to do well with coalitions between their main center-left/right parties. Merkel spent most of her tenure in grand coalitions with SPD. Without FDP in the coalition they should be able to bend the rules on the debt brake to get much needed projects done. AfD will likely lead the opposition, though I doubt any of the other opposition parties will give them the time of day. And there's no "alleged" with AfD being Fascist, they are fascists through and through, they moderate their rhetoric to just the bare minimum to not fall afoul of Germany's anti-totalitarian laws, but the reality is, they are thinly veiled Nazis.
Söder is just Söder, he ruined previous union candidates dream of becoming chancellor and he will make sure it will be difficult for merz to become chancellor. That is his hobby, because he wants to become „Chancellor instead of the chancellor“
Die kriegen zwar evtl. einen Sitz, sind aber trotzdem nicht relevant - wahrscheinlich. Wenn am Ende das resultat ist das Schwarz-Rot-Grün noch genau einen Sitz braucht wäre das sehr witzig.
@megaing1322 Der SSW könnte bei sechs Prozent - knapp das letzte Landtagswahlergebnis - zwei Sitze erlangen und Herr Seidler vom SSW war im Bereich Minderheitenpolitik, bspw Grenzkontrollenkritik DE-DK oder Namensrecht doch recht fleißig (bin bei der FDP - ist das gerade alles peinlich...😭)
Probably not. It's a union that only works if the heads of both CDU and CSU agree on something. One option would be to split up the union, but that would mean to lose lots of votes for the CDU - and the CSU (that only exists in bavaria) would need to look vor votes in the rest of germany to get enough to not be defeated by the 5% hurdle.
Nothing is impossible, but this is very close to impossible. The Union is sort of a German-wide Conservative party with a special Bavarian wing (CSU). Söder is the Bavarian MP, and leader of that party. It would be more likely that he resigns, but that is also practically impossible but ever so slightly more plausible than a breakup.
It is possible, but unlikely. It's not clear if the CDU alone will get enough seats for such a coaltion. Even if they do, forming a coaltion without the CSU would mean breaking up the union between the two parties. That would arguably be the biggest shift in the German party system since it became settled in the early 50s. It would mean that the CDU would run in Bavaria in future elections, and the CSU in the rest of the Germany. Thus, the centrist-conservative vote would be split in two. It's unlikely that either the CDU or the CSU would be prepared to take that risk. If a coalition with the Greens is inevitable its likely they'll find some other way to save face.
Just saw your similar 2021 guide 😂 Is the FDP the closest to the libertarians? BSW sounds like the "Petro Poroshenko Block" party in Ukraine... Well, at least they rebranded it into the national-democratic/neocon/patriotic "European Solidarity," and, I guess, the SaraWagenknechtites will see something of a similar vein
FDP has a wing that is borderline liberatarian yes, and Christian Lindner's rhetoric sometimes sounds like he's libertarian himself. The BSW is, as the name gives away, a personality cult around Sahra Wagenknecht that is also pro-Russian, anti-immigration and generally a bit unpleasant (at least in my opinion). Some might say it's everything that was bad about Die Linke. There's also been a lot of infighting already. It's not going to last long, probably.
@generaltom6850Getting rid or lowering the threshold. Especially with a lot of smaller parties emerging, 5% is simply too high to represent the voters well
@generaltom6850 Ideally using a single transferable vote. You can vote for your ideal party (in OP's case that would be Volt), and for a second party. If your first vote doesn't make the threshold, your second vote will come in effect. This gets rid of most tactical voters (eg people that prefer Volt, but don't vote them because it's a waste) while keeping their voices heard.
McCarthy was right all along. Current age needs a red scare. The only red scare I see is from leftists who claim the red, white, and blacks are coming back.
Chancellor Scholz forced Pistorius (not publicly) to do without a candidacy. Pistorius would have meant significantly more votes for the SPD. Scholz was not clear to me three and a half years ago because of his "forgetfulness" in relation to his meetings with the criminals from Warburg-Bank. Scholz would fit better to be a CDU or FDP candidate. No way to vote for CDU or SPD. Especially not FDP or BSW/AfD. Grüne I don't like personally. Unfortunately, there is not much left. Either I choose a party that is likely to not make it through the 5%hurdle or I will stay at home right away 😞
die Linke will probably enter the Bundestag through getting 3 direct mandates with Bodo Ramelow in Erfurt, Gregor Gysi in Berlin-Treptow -Köpenick, and Dietmar Bartsch in Rostock. they are all very popular in their respective political districts. the Grundmandatsklausel says that in that case the left's percentage of votes would be respected when distributing the seats so your vote wont go to waste. imagine a Bundestag without a leftist opposition, we cannot afford that in these times. your vote wont go to waste
@LarthV I actually haven't seen it that way yet. Should Pistorius be smart enough to let Scholz go first to lose the election? I think your idea is brilliant. That would also mean that we'll be rid of Scholz in February until further notice. Hurrah.
What I dont like about this summary: Towards the end, you just use the main-stream (cdu-built) narrative of Merz being the next chancellor. Its not set in stone at all. Tomorrow, a fireball could hit the earth and then, maybe a few more people would rather vote for an experienced politician instead of for a populist that lived off economical relationships and making rich people richer.
In theory, of course, anything can happen (hurricanes, fireballs, meteor strikes, nuclear war, alien invasion...). But as the election date nears, the less likely it is that something unexpected will completely overturn expectations. As always when making tentative predictions like this, the unspoken caveat is: "...assuming nothing changes." I made sure I used phrases like "it seems likely..." to clearly signal that I _don't_ think it's set in stone. Currently, the Union is polling at around 30%, with the AfD at around 20%. It's possible -- probably even likely -- that the AfD will gain some and the Union lose some, but I doubt enough to give us an AfD chancellor (if all the other parties remain opposed to cooperating with the AfD, the AfD would need to win more than 50% of seats in the Bundestag, something that has so far only ever happened once in the Federal Republic -- hopefully our politicians have learned from Austria). The SPD under Scholz is extremely unlikely to lead the next government -- Pistorius would probably have had a better chance, but he dropped out so the SPD is saddled with a chancellor candidate who has failed to convince the electorate. On the balance of probability, then, the smart money is on a Merz-led coalition. Merz, by the way, isn't actually a populist. Populism is a very specific political ideology that maintains that a small and evil elite is oppressing the virtuous ordinary folk, and that the latter needs to rise up and destroy the elite. That's the narrative of parties like the AfD, not the Union which traditionally represents the interests of capitalists and landowners -- i.e., the elite. Making the rich richer is the exact opposite of populism: it's a manifestation of what its supporters call "supply-side economics" and its critics call "trickle-down economics" -- the belief that wealthy people will spend their money, stimulating the economy and benefitting everyone. At least, that's the theory: so far, it doesn't seem to have worked very well. Of course, we have recently seen "populist" movements like the Trumpist Republican Party instantly go back on their word the moment they're elected and set about implementing tax cuts for the wealthy; it'd be interesting to see what an AfD government would do and how much they would be willing to sacrifice their own principles to keep, for example, Elon Musk on side.
Hello Andrew, thank you for your interesting videos. However, instead of becoming a member of your channel I would rather prefer to "buy you a coffee" occasionally instead. Maybe you can also offer this option? Vielen Dank für die unterhaltsamen, humorvollen und informativen Videos - immer wieder eine Erfrischung!
The AfD and BSW represent fundamentally opposing visions for economic fairness and societal progress. The AfD prioritizes the interests of the wealthy, advocating tax reductions for corporations and high-income earners while offering little to address growing inequality. Their policies often overlook the systemic challenges faced by workers and low-income families, focusing instead on rhetoric that diverts attention from these economic divides. This approach exacerbates social disparities and leaves millions vulnerable to economic instability. The BSW, on the other hand, places social justice at the heart of its agenda. It champions fair taxation, ensuring that the ultra-wealthy and multinational corporations contribute their fair share to society. The BSW’s policies also focus on empowering workers through higher minimum wages, stronger labor protections, and support for small and medium-sized enterprises-key drivers of economic stability and growth. While the AfD’s approach entrenches privilege and division, the BSW works to create a more equitable society, fostering solidarity and economic fairness for all. Comparing these two parties disregards the clear ideological divide: one serves the elite, the other fights for justice and shared prosperity.
Kind of leaving out the part where BSW's vision of fairness mostly exhausts itself in punishing asylum seekers, cutting down migration, and undermining LGBT protections.
Your description of Die Linke (The Left) is really biased and wrong. You make it sound like the left wants to bring back a dictatorship. While actually the left is the most pro democracy party in Germany. From its support to strengthening and protecting the supreme Court and democraticing local elections (some states don't vote on all local politicians) to its support of minority rights and women. Where ever you took your information from, please talk to some party members and or bring a more balanced view.
5:28 If German politics now are one thing, it is unpredictable. Merkel left us this. However, I don't think that Söder is a big problem for a coalition with the Green Whole-Grain CDU. In fact, his "war talk" is actively preparing coalition negotiations. All big parties have a problem with "kingmakers", Königsmacher. These are small parties that have a disproportionate influence on politics as they are irreplacable. Also, a chairman of a small party has to REALLY get something out of the negotiations so next election, more people vote for their party. A more modest chairman could well lead to his party being perceived as the "appendix" (Wurmfortsatz) of the bigger party, which was the problem the FDP had for A LOT of time, most poignantly during their last black-yellow tenure. The Green Whole-Grain CDU, on the other hand, tends to portray itself as the party for those suffering from the politics it itself voted for, eg the Hartz-reforms in the early 2000s. It doesn't help that a disproportionate number of publicists are Green-adjacent. When the FDP brought into the heating law that communes had to do an energy distribution plan before making homeowners change their heating, this was not seen as correcting a disastrous oversight, but "obstructionalism". Söder "knattern" against the Greens IMO is already a part of the negotiations. The CSU itself also is a "small party", so it can counter over-arching Green demands, and give Merz "plausible deniability" - "Well, I for myself would support a law to prescribe sunshine on international holidays... but, you see... the CSU won't stand for it."
American here and Im hoping the AFD over performs. The fact the two establishment parties are trying to ban them tells me they fear what the AFD will do to the status quo
@@coall5002 no bro they are not... allegedly Afd was accused of attending a meeting where talks of deporting Germans citizens with migration background was tabled....Trump has never talked about deporting US citizens,...,only illegal migrants were on table......if the rumor about Afd is false then maybe they are similar
My friend, the word "allegedly" still means that there’s no solid proof. As far as I recall, members of the CDU also participated in this private meeting. However, the CDU isn’t receiving much attention because the AfD tends to be the mainstream media's preferred punching bag.
7 from the 9 founders of the AfD were former Soviet Union citizens. In the beginning this party was financially supported with money that came to them from the Iranian ambassy. Well..
i am really impressed how civil this commentsection is. Sadly to me there is only one party that i can even consider. The greens are the only party with a finacially working election programm and are actually talking about the problems of our country and not only about migration politics. The AFD is just a nazi party to me. I mean weidel even went as far as calling hitler a communist. Wow girl he killed communist in concentration camps... Also in their election programm has a gap of 200 billion euro yet they want to keep our (dumb) low debt law. The Union / CDU / CSU sued the traffic light coalition because of a comparetivly small gap in their financial planning yet the program lacks 100 billion euros... While giving multiple dozen billions to he upper 10% in tax reliefs. The FDP and espeially Christian Linder deservers to never enter the Bundestag again. Literally sabotaging his coalition for his personal gain. And the SPD... i forgot and can remember.
the Union does Umverteilung to the richest of the rich and then claims we couldnt afford tax breaks for normal people (e.g. anyone under a gross income of 6.500€, as die Linke proposes)
Are you not considering voting Die Linke by any chance? Like B'90/Greens Die Linke has done the math in their Wahlprogramm, it's all well-financed; but unlike B'90/Greens Die Linke is not riding the populist train of "Remigration", their policies are meant to meaningfully combat climate change and unlike B'90/Greens they wouldn't put an even larger strain on working people. Also Die Linke would never elect Merz for chancellor, unlike the opportunists in the Green party.
My RUclips audience isn't a representative sample of the German electorate. But for mainstream conservatives, the Union is the only viable option, even if the moderates among them have to grit their teeth and console themselves with the thought that "at least Merz isn't Björn Höcke". The mainstream left-wing vote, on the other hand, is split more-or-less evenly between the SPD and the Greens. If the SPD and the Greens were to merge, they could (as things stand right now) end up as the biggest party in the Bundestag. But since they're two separate parties, it's going to be the Union that wins the most seats making Merz the natural choice for the chancellorship.
There is already a split in the BSW? This party just had its first birthday, how can there already be splits? (I'm not a fan of them, so in a way i am delighted, but this is really rather ridiculous.) (Sorry for two comments, but this felt better separate from my first comment.)
The BSW was founded by the - excuse my language - most idiotic members Die Linke had. None of them were liked by the people in Die Linke who actually worked on things. Accordingly, BSW has inherited all of that infighting for which Die Linke was ridiculed for years. Expect Sarah to start calling the BSW "Lifestyle-Linke" soon, too.
the AfD also had a split pretty early on, see the exit of Frauke Petry for reference. it's kinda normal because not everyone might be on the same page but they may be willing to work together to get started. it's later on when these issues emerge again and cause friction.
I always think it's so lame when people say stuff like "The FDP wants financial stability". Like who the doesn't? Tell us instead what the FDP means by financial stability, by listing some of their policies for example.
I think in general that means less government spending, which came clashing against their coallition partners SPD and Grüne (especialy die Grüne) who wanted to spend to try and fix the country.
I would also like to add that all parties want financial stability, but some are more willing then others to spend to try and fix the current percieved issues.
yeah the FDP isnt about financial stability... they are about shoveling wealth from the majority of the population to the rich minority... thats all they are about
and THAT is massively destabilizing the economy
They are liberal to libertarian, so "financial stability" for a party of that ideology means privatizing state-owned enterprises, deregulating industry and less taxes for the top 5% (in the case of CDU/CSU) or the top 1% (in the case of FDP). Also cutting social benefits in order to lessen the negotiating power of the working class by making unemployment as punitive as possible - to the point of unconstitutionality, since the German constitution guarantees that every human deserves "dignity".
How one can call the party that is against adequately funding the maintenance and expansion of Germany's infrastructure the party of financial stability is beyond me.
The FDP wants financial stability, meaning they want to rob the government as hard as they can for their corporate masters so they can get cushy "jobs" (Aufsichtsratspositionen with 1m € salaries and no work) and be set for life.
Merz's sole interest is to finally come to power. He would enter into a coalition with rabbits and aliens in order to succeed.
Welcome to the real world of politics!
@@roginkPolitics used to be about listening to experts and doing what's right for the country, not about doing what the mob/tabloids told you to do.
He would probably form a coalition with AfD if that wouldn't quite literally destroy his party. Back when he said that working with AfD on the local level sometimes is okay, CDU members immediately rebelled against that statement and he did a 180° on it. He wants to, but he knows he can't.
I am glad to hear politics is in as high regard in Germany as in my country.
What's wrong with the bunny party?
"Is Söder serious?" - well, that's been a weekly question for years...
daily*
Söder's energy policy:
2011: Let's shut down all nuclear energy, if we don't, I will resign!
2015ish he introduces restrictions for new wind turbines which requires distance to living areas of 10 times its height, so we still have very few wind power in Bavaria now. He also was fighting against new powerlines from northern to southern part of Germany.
2023 after the last nuclear reactors were shut down, he wants to build new ones again, but he don't want any nuclear waste buried in his Bundesland Bavaria!
I'm sorry, but I think your presentation of "The Left" was a bit too one-sided. (No misunderstandings: I am quite critical of them and won't vote for them, but we need to be fair.) Yes, they are in some ways a continuation of the old SED, but more than half of their current members don't share this past, and their program and practical policies are very different from the old communist views. Many of their members came from the left wing of the SPD, and Bodo Ramelow, the only left Minister President of a Bundesland yet (Thuringia), is a former worker's union man from western Germany and by no means a radical.
Yes, the Left is seemingly unable to let go of some of its old ballast (especially its overly positive view of Russia, although even that has changed a bit), but its weird that people always define it by the SED past while nobody talks about the GDR block parties who fused with the CDU and FDP (like the NDPD, which was explicitly founded to be a harbour for former Nazis and which was swallowed by the FDP).
This. The West german FDP and CDU after 1948 was also quite a haven for nationalists, so let's not reduce the Left on this past forever. Most of their more recent members are simply anticapitalists or systemic critics on the more radical level.
The reason they can’t shake that image is because they have not really distanced themselves.
And importantly Die Linke doesn’t really have a more left leaning party to offload problematic members to. The right wing nutters have long left the CDU, because there were parties like the NPD or are parties like the AfD, who are decidedly more right wing.
So for Die Linke to shake their association to communist authoritarianism, there would have to be a much stronger commetiment to distance themselves from left wing authoritarianism and importantly another party to take all the left wing authoritarians currently being part of Die Linke.
I imagine the pro-Russian Die Linke members have jumped ship to BSW.
I believe his description of AfD was really shallow
@@BengVideo As far as I can tell, the party mainly consists of people who think the Nazis had some good ideas, and what is often called "useful idiots". And very few people that do not fit in either group. They didn't start out that one-sided, but every time the moderates tried to get rid of the radicals, the radicals instead for rid of the moderates. This can only end one way.
The FDP DID deliberately engineer the collapse of the coalition, the had a paper literally called "D-Day Paper" in which they planned all the steps - but Olaf Scholz beat them to it.
Fact.
There is an entire video about this on this channel.
But why is that a bad thing?
@@xaverlustig3581 It can be seen as an act of self sabotage, the 3 members agreed to a form a coallition to gorvern Germany until the next ellection, if one member (FDP) sabotaged the coallition, that is a break of trust and it would paint them (FDP) as irresponsible partners for a future coallition building. The coallition always had problems (the FDP and Grüne didn't see eye to eye on many issues), in the last few years (2023 and 2024) it became more obvious (with each party trying to rally it's own support rather then the government).
@@xaverlustig3581 Because they also tried to lie to the general population about it. Their paper basically said to make up a story. I don't know but lying to the people you are Governing for for your own gain is quit a questionable thing to do. Besides they actively handicapped the government in a time of many big problems.
Labeling Merz 'a little bit more right than Merkel' is quite an understatement
As someone who complains about the banalization of "fascist" and nazist" labels in today discourse, I agree with you.
@@gohanssj48 He’s not a Fascist by any means, he’s more like the Hindenburg or Hugenburg or Von Pappen. Willing to do pretty much anything as long as it keeps him in power.
I never understood why people classified Merkel as rightwing. She always seemed as leftwing as your average democrat or socialist
Merkel definitely wasn't a Socialist
Why is the SPD even running with Scholz again?
@@soundscape26 Because he's the sitting chancellor and nobody else wants to take the L.
Mostly to avoid infighting. The time between the unplanned breakdown of the coalition and the election was too short to waste on a new leadership election instead of focusing on the election itself.
Because they can. They will not win anyway, so it really doesn't matter much.
@@hermannschaefer4777 They are rising in the polls and weirdly closing the gap. Looks like it will probably be a grand coalition like the Merkel years... CDU-SPD.. I am OK with that. It's the most stable moderate option possible and hopefully that doesn't mean political stagnation, though I would venture to say that's probably what will happen...
@@stickynorth Scholz won't be anything then, that's why they can take him now. Or do you think Scholz will be... just a minister under Merz? No way.
I'm still not mentally prepared for Merz to be chancellor :/
Neither is Germany.
@@SomePotatoah yes because traffic light government went so well 🤣
vote against this clown then
@@SDDT1they did better than the CDU ever did over the years
@@SDDT1 People can be unhappy with a Blackrock manager, and unhappy with a Cum Ex criminal. I know, shocking.
I predict that the SSW will keep it's 1 seat in the Bundestag, and just sit over in the corner mumbling in Danish and playing with Lego.
They've gotten 6% in the regional election there in 2022, which if repeated could be enough for a second seat even. And tbh, they'd deserve it, they're good people.
@@timolino567The latest polls we know is from late 2023 without about 6% so I’d argue they’re probably sitting at around high 5% currently,in 2021 they got like 55k voters and 1 seat in the SW elections they got like 79k voters 2 seats so I expect then to get 1 seat sadly even tho 2 would be great, but you need like 80-120k voters to get one second vote seat I believe so they will only get 1
A lot of people I know who voted for the SSW won’t do it again. Not because they’re unhappy, more because they’re strategically voting for parties reflecting their interests and are capable of being part of the government and to prevent the AfD
@@RealThoresmaller parties have their role. Sure they probably won’t govern the country but they can advocate for specific things that will improve life for their constituents especially if they represent regions or ethnic minorities
Comments will be nice and civil
🤣
They probably will, actually. Rewboss's community is usually pretty chill.
😇
You are sarcastic but the comments here are usually civil.
Yeah. Unlike some countries (cough America), politics in Germany isn’t as polarised or toxic. There are the occasional spammers but not as much as you would think.
For context on Merz: When in 1997 the parliament was asked to decide whether the rape of a woman by her husband should be persecuted he voted against the law. Merz in 1997 thought that it was fine for a woman to be forced to have sex with a man, because she at one point had agreed to marry him.
This is not the only thing that makes him a bad choice, but it is very much sufficient to me.
It's actually slightly different, and even worse. Originally, Merz agreed to a CDU proposoal which would ban marital rape, but with specific extras. The later proposal didn't have those extras, and so Merz did no reject the proposal for its content, but for what's been no longer in that proposal.
What kind of extras have been missing from the second edition: originally, the CDU wanted to outlaw marital rape by making it a crime. Additionally, they also wanted to have a clause which would allow the plaintiff to withdraw from their accusation at any time. The CDU feared that in a broken marriage, couples could start threatening each other with criminal accusations when there was not such case, which would lead to lengthy investigations and could overload the courts. To counter that, the CDU wanted to introduce a loop hole for this specific type of crime, allowing the plaintiff to withdraw from this type of criminal complaint. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see various problems with that approach: for example, the wife might accuse her husband with marital rape, but then the husband could threaten her until she withdraws her criminal complaint. Effectively, such a law could be very ineffective.
And Merz (along with his party) rejected the second edition, as it didn't include the CDU-favoured loophole anymore. But luckily, about any other party voted in favor of that law, making marital rape a crime. And guess what: the courts and prosecutors aren't overloaded from made-up allegations. Because, well: allegations of a crime without an actual crime is already outlawed. So if you're filing a criminal complaint against anyone, you're serious about it - and there's no way back
@AndersHenke thx for the summary
Please post that as a standalone comment to avoid giving credence to disinformation like the original comment @@AndersHenke
Yeah, and a few years before that the Green Party wanted to legalizize f*king children. Lock it up under "grüne Pädophilie-Debatte".
"the parliament was asked to decide whether the rape of a woman by her husband should be persecuted"
That's bullshit!!!
It was always persecuted, it just wasn't called a rape, if it happend between wife and husband.
Markus Söder will do what benefits Markus Söder. He always has and always will, so I'm pretty sure that he will agree to a coalition with the Greens if that is the only option (excluding the AfD).
Yeah that exluding the AFD is the big question on wether they'll hold to it or not once the votes are cast.
well since Robert Habeck totally destroyed him in a podiums discussion im not so sure about that anymore :D
@@Vuxchen Habeck actually managed to form a coherent sentence? That seems made up.
@ well you can believe what the afd, cdu and fdp tell you or you can just watch his interviews.
Robert Habeck is by far the best-spoken candidate there is right now. He does what no other party does, he admits if he was wrong, says what has to be said and is actually caring about the problems we are facing instead of the next election..
He is by far the most knowledgeable of the candidates and his facts are rarely not true and if they are its mostly geniuen mistakes.
The AFD and CDU just lie all day long. They just tell their voters what they want to hear not whats actually true.
Just look at weidel saying hitler is a communist...
@@mergele1000 "gold to it"?
Whether you like the LINKE or not, the characterisation is not quite fair. It's true that one of the parties that merged into the LINKE was the PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism), i.e. the successor of SED. However, the other was WASG (Electoral Alternative for Work and Social Justice), a Social Democratic group split of from the SPD. None of the current leadership on the federal level ever were members of PDS. It's commitment to overcoming capitalism is not very prominent, and not that radical in the German historical context. Until 2009, SPD's programme contained the following statement: "It is the fundamental historical experience of the workers' movement that fixes within capitalism are insufficient. What is needed is a new way of ordering economy and society". The rest of the programme makes it clear that they are talking about "Democratic Socialism". Granted there are probably a few more people in the LINKE who take this seriously than there were in Schroeder's SPD, still this doesn't mean they share the ideology of SED. There were many politicians in the SPD who were stauch anti-communists and equally serious about overcoming capitalism in the long-term, e.g. Willy Brandt. I don't think the voters abandon LINKE because they suspect them of wanting a GDR-style dictatorship. They see them as ineffectual idealists with no competence on economic issues. They worry that a government with the LINKE would deepen economic problems, not end democracy.
Did John Cleese's "Reg" from Life of Brian have a hand in writing that Manifesto?
I think the reason LINKE declined in polling support is because There's that new party that split from it.
@@Sebman1113 Except the split came after.
The only way one can be anti-capitalist but not socialist, is being fascist or monarchist or something.
I agree. The Linke is basically the SPD of the second half of the 20th century now while anyone who says the SOD fights for the workers is stuck in those decades.
@Rewboss - While everything you are saying about Die Linke is technically correct, I think that brevity and omission are doing your mission of information a disservice here. Their proposals are mostly far from radical and are broadly in line with what the SPD was about 30-40 years ago.
Exactly. Also die Linke ist the only party that believably stands by unconditionally upholding human rights.
Wasn't there a far left party in the west before unification? What became of that?
In fact, the SPD was technically committed to 'overcoming capitalism' until 2009. From the Berlin Programme: "It is the fundamental historical experience of the workers' movement that fixes within capitalism are insufficient. What is needed is a new way of ordering economy and society"
@@rogink Great question. Actually, the SPD had a much broader spectrum before reunification, including people that would later become part of Die Linke/PDS such as Oskar Lafontaine. The Communist party did exist, but its importance was outside of parliament with social movements and intellectuals.
Don't they still have policies on immigration that are now pretty radical, considering the 1 million refugees that came in 2015 and the bad results?
And considering it costs the German taxpayer a lot of money and housing?
Note that the German Govt doesn't create money by keystrokes (& then tax the same currency they create to give it value), like the US, Australian, and many other countries do.
So they really are much more financially constrained.
Sarah Wagenknecht is left wing without that kind of stuff, i like her a lot. Not sure what she thinks though about havinf a Sovergien currency though.
The left party has continuity with the SED, but around 89/90 most of the old marxist-leninist hardliners left the party and were replaced by reformers who immediately completely changed the outlook of the party towards democratic socialism, rebranding as PDS (party of democratic socialism), they established themselves for most of the 90s and early 00s as the niche interest party for east germans, until in the mid 00s they merged with an SPD offshoot from West Germany, the WASG, whose main face at the time was Oskar Lafontaine (Former SPD finance minister who left the SPD over disagreements with Gerhard Schröders attack on the welfare state.
After the merger, the new left party is definitely not just a follow-up of the SED, it contains old reformers, as well as tons of west german socialist leaning folk, and by now (the 2020s i remind you!) they have gone through another split: The BSW split from the left party, taking with it most of the concerningly GDR sympathizing folk. The Left party today has gone through so many renewals, including a surge of new young members after the BSW exodus, that its dishonest to say they are an SED follow-up. They have convinced voters otherwise too, only the bottom of the barrel news outlets still harp on this (BILD-Zeitung, you know em, i'm sure). Their current party leadership is a west german (Jan van Aken) and a young east german woman who was barely a year old when the wall came down. So much for that.
Die Linke is about as much a continuation of the SED as the CDU/CSU/FDP are a continuation of the NSDAP - with the small caveat that all of the early CDU/CSU/FDP leading personnell were actually members of the NSDAP.
Even as a German I find that I can learn a lot from your videos, fir example I wasn't aware that the BSW was considered important enough to potentially make into the Bundestag.
Also a good reminder to everyone who is eligible to vote to brush up on the party programs and remind themselves to vote in February.
Democracy lives and dies by elections so if you want to shape your government vote.
everyone over 5% makes it in and even though they won't win any direct mandate seats they will be probably only 1 of 5 parties (maybe 6 depending on how many direct mandates die linke win in east Berlin) represented in Bundestag which increases their importance
@SDDT25 Still didn't they had that much pull
@@shinyagumon7015 they are only polling at 6% on politico but it will be just enough , although I doubt they will win any district mandates just overall vote will be enough to get in , and as fpd and linke look likely not to get in at all it would mean less seats in Bundestag and 6% of direct vote seats become more precious than if more parties got in
The BSW has consistently been between 4-8% in the federal polls for the last months. Even now, depending on the institute that made the polls, it ranks between 4-6%. And that's just representative polls, they definitely have a chance of making it into the Bundestag. I mean, they are already present in three state parliaments with between 11-15% of votes and participate in two state governments. They are definitely an important party.
BSW is part of the government in Brandenburg currently, together with the SPD. They have more seats than the CDU.
Who would imagine a Party named as the same name of it's president would be a personality cult?
Bavaria is always special. Söder would like to be Chancellor. But Bavarian politicians from the CSU are not really liked outside Bavaria. Way back in time Strauss, the hot blooded ruler of Bavaria was nominated by the Union but miserably failed. I'm afraid Scholz has the same problem. Germans from the North are considered somewhat boring but still waters run deep. Good overview which shows none of the parties is without issues.
He's right though, or the position he is claiming is. The problem is, that these grand coalitions slowly destroy the political power of the individual members of that coalition over time. You have to stand out, you have to have opposing positions, you can't be directly compatible with every rival party. If a coalition of CDU, SPD and Greens will form the next government, but the people grow sick of them and demand change for the next election, they can't vote for any of those parties again, because every single one of them means a continuation. So they can only choose Linke, FDP, BSW or AFD. You can see what all of those past grand coalitions did to the importance of the SPD, but they also changed all of those parties as well, by making them more similar, more compatible in their positions and ideologies. Which is really bad.
He chose to also antagonize the Greens, to cash in on AFD voters and on everybody who doesn't want to follow their path anymore. But if they break this promise and betray these voters, they will choose AFD next time. Unless the short-term memory effect of the voters is helping them out, of course.
@@dnocturn84 Of course the short term effect is helping out. People were fed up with the CDU and now it's leading in the polls.
It's the Alberta of Germany quite literally... Sister states/provinces... Right down to the ODD/Oppositional Defiance Disorder leadership. Their only way of feeling special and important to be a rebel leader against the federal government. Without it? They have no identity of their own...
As a German who is neither a voter nor a supporter of DIE LINKE, I would still strongly disagree with how they were described. While many former SED voters and members merged into DIE LINKE, it is still a completely different party. I would also describe it as socialist and democratic. They also focus heavily on issues such as climate change and quality of life, often on a smaller, more regional scale.
Their foreign policy has a somewhat peculiar relationship with Russia, largely due to the legacy of the former SED. However, since the split with the BSW (Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht), this aspect has become less controversial. Previously, some alleged that DIE LINKE was financed by Russia, nearly similar to claims about the AfD or now the BSW.
Bingo...
People complaining about the CDU for 16 years and than instantly running back to them because fucking Scholz was to radical for them is fucking insane. Like, Scholz could be put on the left flank of the CDU and it wouldnt look weird.
While it's not a bad overview, I think this video has quite a few inaccuracies. Like, anyone still claiming SPD and Greens as left wing must clearly take the manifestos by their word instead of looking at their political actions. And it's really confusing why die Linke is the only party that with whom the GDR connection is made, when a) a lot of what is now die Linke came from the WASG, an SPD-offshoot in the 2000s, b) most of the people who hold actual SED views are in the BSW now and c) the East German sections of CDU and FDP also grew out of the GDR parties, just as much if not more so, than the east German sections of die Linke.
It is of course impossible to give an overview in such a compromised form, but you did a pretty good Job
sigh **opens comments**
0:41
SPD in Germany: 🙂
SPD in Czechia: 💀
He is waaaay to nice to the SPD (and FDP and Greens to some extent) in Germany - probably his party of choice if I had to guess
@fischX No, but like, the Czech SPD is essentially our dumb down version of the AFD
@@fischX This. The SPD is a generic corrupt rich people party like the CDU that's pretending to be a left wing social party for the working class.
Now, after watching the "guide", I'm buying popcorn and waiting for the upcoming elections.
Hast du noch einen Sitz auf dem Rettungsboot und ein bisschen salziges Popcorn für mich?
@ Natürlich!
Your video could not be more bias, instead of mentioning things breafely you opt for leaving out key information about parties like for example: any information about the Linke policies, any information about the migration policy of BSW, Addressing the green party, at 1:36 by saying some members have conceded you are outing your bias towards believing this information, when it is only a claim "that it (the party) has failed to listen to and communicate to the voters". The FDP, BSW and the Left can still win seats through direct mandates if they dont make it above 5%. At the end you didnt make it very clear that the coalition will (most likely) EITHER be between the Union CSU/CDU and the Greens OR the Union CDU/CSU and the SPD (far more likely), and that the CDU/CSU is leaving options open even though it prefers the SPD because it needs room to negotiate with the SPD on conditions of governance.
I'm sorry but I don't think your characterization of Linkspartei is fair and balanced here. "Overcoming capitalism" may be an aspiriational statement (though it's hard to find any mention of it on their website), but it is certainly not what Linkspartei politicians have done in the many state governments that they were a part of or what their current platform is.
For most of the other parties, I think your presentation is more balanced, highlighting both points that attract some voters and those for which the parties are criticized.
@@mbsMunich Yeah, that SED stuff is getting long in the tooth.
Yes and no. One one hand, the former SED/PDS is long time gone, on the other hand, it is still strongest in those areas, where the former GDR was. Expected 2% in North Rhine-Westphalia but about 12% in Thuringia.
Yeah. I'm certainly not a fan of the Linke, but that was a really uninformed take. (Including the assertion that the GDR was a single-party state. It was in practice, but technically not.) The Linke ruled in Thuringia for 10 years as a form of slightly lefter-wing SPD, and though they still have their fair share of crazies, that's probably where they mostly stand nowadays.
Until 2009, the SPD was committed technically committed to overcoming capitalism.... From the Berlin Programme: "It is the fundamental historical experience of the workers' movement that fixes within capitalism are insufficient. What is needed is a new way of ordering economy and society"
@@hermannschaefer4777 Though, this probably has as much to do with the comparatively shallow roots of the originally West German parties in these areas than with a continuity with the SED. Also note that the Thuringian LINKE in particular was shaped by Bodo Ramelow, a West German Trade Unionist who was never a member of the SED.
Thank You for this great video!
Very concise for us viewers outside Germany.
I think you should have spoken differently about the BSW. You could have concisely said that "this party is economically left wing, and socially right wing / conservative", but instead we got the vague "oddly similar to AFD policies". I think the way I described it is better because it's more informative and less vaguely insidious.
Other than that I think the video is about as well balanced as you could make it (there is no perfect unbiased video etc etc.)
Seems like Olaf Scholz need his eye-patch back then.
Yeah, that accessory would be his only chance to stand out enough for voters to even remember him.
Merz and Söder, such clowns
Sais A LOT about the #Scholzomat, the ЗПД and the Grüne VollkornCDU when they now seem as the most competent of the bunch...
But as the old saying goes, "who doesn't want to listen must feel it" - they couldn't provide a better, more credible alternative to #AfDer and #BSWagenknecht, so now, the one-eyed are becoming the chancellors amongst the blind.
All these parties and no one to vote for..... Just like everywhere else. This world is a circus and it's run by the clowns!🤡🎪
Pretty decent summary for people unfamiliar with German politics, although I think it would have been better if it included a description of the 5% Hürde rather than saying the FDP is unlikely to gain any seats. It should also be mentioned that the Left is also struggling with that and indeed failed last time and just got in due to a special rule about Direktmandate which has since been removed.
Jews rule!
Jewish
The rule has not been removed
Die Änderung am Wahlrecht ist rechtlich nur unter der Bedingung durchgegangen, dass die Direktmandatsregel bleibt. Die gibt es also immer noch und darauf setzt die Linke auch dieses Mal
Very informative, thank you!
Watch out this video is full of misinformation and skips key details.i do not recommend 👎
@MrBaumGeo about which party? I see people complaining about Die Linke, but they're irrelevant nowadays, even Frau Sahra agrees 😅
@ricardo.fontanelli This is what I commented on the video. Hopefully you understand. But please remove your biases from your comment, the BSW won't get much more or less votes then "die Linke":
Your video could not be more bias, instead of mentioning things breafely you opt for leaving out key information about parties like for example: any information about the Linke policies, any information about the migration policy of BSW, Addressing the green party, at 1:36 by saying some members have conceded you are outing your bias towards believing this information, when it is only a claim "that it (the party) has failed to listen to and communicate to the voters". The FDP, BSW and the Left can still win seats through direct mandates if they dont make it above 5%. At the end you didnt make it very clear that the coalition will (most likely) EITHER be between the Union CSU/CDU and the Greens OR the Union CDU/CSU and the SPD (far more likely), and that the CDU/CSU is leaving options open even though it prefers the SPD because it needs room to negotiate with the SPD on conditions of governance.
I guess the real problem for our democracy will come from two sides: A) the number of lost votes because people just abstain or vote for parties which will not make the 5% threshold and B) the parties, no other party want to have talks with or form a coalition with will gain a big share of the votes - so, no matter what, the next government will represent far less than half of the eligible voters of the country and will become the center of criticism from day one on. The early Weimar situation repeated.
I don't accept the allegation that citizens who do not vote or vote for minority groups have only themselves to blame! We have had a situation that no matter who you voted for you got a half-right or a half-left coalition, in the end a parody of the UK two party system, just worse as these coalitions always had an inbuilt systemic infight.
Would it be possible for the CDU to join a Coalition, but the CSU stay out of it? Like how closely integrated are the two parties?
without the CSU and their votes they could not form a coalition
@@DylanSargesson I would like to know this too
It would be possible but it would never happen because both parties really like each other
your conclusion on the AfD is somewhat neutral, much better than most! Thank you rewboss
I think it’s good to see both sides of an argument and look at political parties from a diplomatic standpoint. A lot of people disagree or even hate the AfD, myself included, but it’s still good to give a deep dive on them from an unbiased perspective.
@@therealspeedwagon1451Why you hate AfD?
Can you provide me a reason.
@@manjushagongale can't speak for OP but collectively hating on immigrants, threatening to deport anyone who hasn't been 100% German for the past eleventy million generations, trying to throw Germany into economic peril by leaving the EU (see UK for reference, they're not doing well), being the source for a lot of misinformation (HiTlEr WaS a CoMmUnIsT) and allowing confirmed fascists to remain in their party (yes, Höcke is a fascist, as confirmed by court) would be some pretty good reasons to hate on them
@@manjushagongaleYou know, when even the Reassemblement National and Fratelli D'Italia REFUSE to work with you, you might be a little too far to the right
@ my issue is he spend half of the segment talking about outside opinions of the AfD, instead of what they want, their leaders, plans for Germany etc
As an American viewer, I found this quite informative! Now, I know what the main parties in Germany are.
Thanks for the video!
You do an excellent job of explaining the parties without making your personal prejudices obvious. I can’t do that. 😅. I am guessing that my personal prejudices are diametrically opposed to yours and I really am glad you can do that
Just for accuracy's sake, you missed one party which is almost certainly guaranteed a seat, but then again no more than one seat. The SSW, the party of the Danish minority in Germany, which is exempt from the 5% hurdle. Its political viewpoint is a bit over the place, but it should be fair to say that it would be willing and able to work with any of the democratic parties (Union, FDP, SPD, Greens), though it should never come down to that because a 1 seat majority would just be too risky.
I usually vote for Volt. Here in the Rhine-Main metro area they are well known and established in the local governments of our three largest cities (Frankfurt, Wiesbaden and Darmstadt). They also recently had one of their most important election victories yet, winning 5 seats across europe in the past european elections and 3% of all votes in Germany.
However, this election I won’t be voting for them, even though I am a member of the party. I feel like their biggest lever isn’t the Bundestag election, but the european elections. And although I don’t like tactical voting, I do feel as though it will be more important to support established leftist parties in Germany this time. With more success at the european level the time for Volt in the Bundestag will come eventually (or so I hope), but they will have to become more successful on the european level first, before entering more national parliaments.
And yes, people will hate me for saying that I will vote leftist because I’m stupid and it’s not in fashion anymore. But you can say what you want - this is what I believe in and I will stand by it.
I agree to that. I am not a member of Volt, but I voted for them in the european election, too. As they don't stand a chance in the national election, voting for them would be a waste of my vote from the tactical point of view.
With more and more countries in europe and the rest of the world turning to right wing populists, every vote countering that movement is important. So although I was not happy with how little the last government achieved at all, from a tactical point of view, I'll have to vote for the SPD or the Greens. As the SPD seemingly ghosted us for the last three years almost entirely...
Well, to be hoenest people who "hate on you" for saying you will vote leftist are a little bit dilousional. The leftish parties are the only parties that have a financially working election programm :D
I never really got the point of Volt (though by the time they were setting up, the UK was heading out of the EU and I never understood EU parliament elections anyway). My issue with Volt is they feel like they don't have any policies besides a vague pro-Europeanism.
@@ThamiorSilberdrache I guess that the Voting System in Oz is different to that in Germany. Out here the Preferential System essentially means you get to vote against candidates who you would least like to see in government. Thus you might not get your favourite up but your vote is still valuable in keeping out someone you might particularly dislike. We also have compulsory voting so nobody should sneak in under the radar via voter laziness.
"And yes, people will hate me for saying that I will vote leftist because I’m stupid and it’s not in fashion anymore. But you can say what you want - this is what I believe in and I will stand by it."
You're not the only one, comrade.
You did DieLinke dirty by not giving some detail on their stances.
I don't want Merz as chancellor bro😭😭😭
You're most like going to end up with him barring an act of god
Who are you voting for
@@eroldemiral9513 Idk yet, probably Die Grünen or Die Linke.
@@JenNittahl gotta get die linke into the bundestag, really good strategy to make afd and other parties that support rightwing policies to have less seats since the linke takes a proportion. Unlike the afd and bsw they are the only party with a somewhat reasonable program that is very different from the rightward trend in the other parties.
@@barny8159 Yeah, probably what I'm gonna do. I might not agree with everything they say, but I definitely agree less with all the right wing parties.
Viel Glueck AfD!! Wir warten auf dich hier in Amerika!!
Imagine being so hated you go from being in the government to being out of parliament entirely 😂😂😂😂😂 the FDP DEFINITELY didn’t play their cards right
If left wing parties see the AFD as extremists, this could be discounted. If center and right wing parties see the AFD as extremist, this could be seen as campaigning agsinst a üarty with similar voters. But the AFD is not in the same party group as the French or the Italian right wing party in the EU parliament. Both view the AFD as too extreme to work together.
imagine a chancellor candidate would say stuff like "Hitler was a left socialist and communist" and compare him to the spd 🙃
@@Vuxchen Communists and Fascists are very similar. Stalin censored the press, Hitler censored the press, Stalin banned opposition, Hitler banned opposition, Stalin restricted public access to firearms, Hitler restricted public access to firearms, Stalin had political enemies killed and silenced, Hitler had political enemies killed and silenced, Stalin attacked nations unprovoked, Hitler attacked nations unprovoked, Stalin restricted religious freedoms, Hitler restricted religious freedoms...
What really is so different? They say one is far left and communist, and one is far right and fascist, by their actions they seem like they have more in common than they have differing. It does not help that the name for Hitler's party was National Socialists which would tie it solely by name as being left wing.
At the time, and even now restricting religious freedom of Christians, banning freedom of speech, instating mandatory public education (without exceptions for private, home, or religious education), instating mandatory state youth groups, restricted public firearm access, and suspending elections would not be seen as right wing... That government also promoted births regardless of marital status something not popular with conservatives. They also instituted public work projects to boost the economy much like the at the time progressive FDR was doing in the United States.
It makes sense why people would equate Hitler as being left-wing while in reality, he was neither left wing or right wing.
@ nice long text. What you are describing is called dictatorship.
And both Stalin and Hitler were dictators. Congrats.
You know what makes Hitler a facist and right winged?
Under his dictatorship communist, socialist and unionists were chased, arrested, placed in concentration camps and killed.
now pls try to tell me that he was communist.
And about the party beeing called "national socialist". Yes they were. But VW is also called "Peoples car" even so they are far from a peoples car by now. And even f*cking liver cheese has nothing to do with liver nor cheese. Like when was a name a proof for any contnt?!
@@Vuxchen Das Recht /Links System funzt nur wenn man sich auf einen einzelnen Aspekt konzentriert. Im Bezug auf Religion hat Hitler Linke Positionen vertreten, im Bezug auf Privateigentum ebenfalls sehr weit Links nur bei ser Frage ob alle Menschen gleich sind war er sehr weit Rechts.
Wenn man die Frage stellt welche Eigenschaften eine Autoritäre Regierung hat und wo man da die größten parallelen findet wird ein Schuh daraus.
@@JonaWolf11 Das ist einfach falsch. Hitler hat nicht einmal mehr im 2. Weltkrieg unternehmen zur Rüstungsproduktion verstaatlicht. Das wäre ja die typisch aktion eines "linken" / "kommunistischen" diktators. Selbst als rechter faschist wäre das naheliegend. Er hat es nicht getan. Weiter weg von Kommunistisch kann man nicht sein.
Wenn man wie der andere kommentierende z.B. Parallelen zu Stalin sucht findet man viele das ist korrekt. Alles Dinge die Diktatoren nun mal tun. Das hat nichts mit Rechts oder Links zu tun
We’re fucked here
You have seriously mischaracterized and misrepresented Die Linke.
That former left lady is the best candidate by far . If I was a German I would vote for her.
I should perhaps mention that as top politicians go, the Green Robert Habeck seems the only one who actually sounds statesmanlike.
Der Vogel der das Jahr begonnen hat in dem er erklärt das Gesetze nur für andere gelten?
Maybe he is using Autotune
@@KaiHenningsen you mean the "Schwachkopf" fascist who literally has police search homes of people who make fun of him online
Also the only one who's not a pathological liar 😩
No he doesnt, he sounds very insecure of himself and shy if you understand german. Complete opposite of statesman like.
As an Australian living in Cologne, all I can say is that Germany needs some leadership. I have only lived here for 3 years but it seems there air has changed in that time, even in 3 years areas that were once safe are now no go areas. Tougher immigration rules for sure. Will be watching with interest.
Here before clueless people call you a hypocrite, when clearly your immigration situation is nothing like an document-less possible criminal seeking asylum from the third world.
Well it kinda started in 2015 when Merkel took in 1.2 million refugees and then on the 15/16 New Year’s Eve there were mass sexual attacks (500 reported ) from North African and Arab men in cologne
The crimes that are rising the most are the right-wing ones, everything else is pretty much the same.
I'm sorry if that doesn't match your feelings.
@@arnodobler1096me when I lie
I've lived in Cologne for 13 years until the end of 2024. In Mülheim to be precise. It's still very safe.
actual civil comments on this video, color me impressed!
well why is linke a continuation of the sed but afd is not a continuation of nsdap? von storchs have a traditional spot in both parties for example
Linke legally see themselves as that. Meanwhile AfD doesnt. They dont want to be seen as Neonazis, that could hurt their image
well the afd cant be a continuation of the nsdap because Hitler was a communist atleast according to weidel 😂
Cause the afd is for direct democracy and the sussy people who ruled during 1933-1945 weren't for direct democracy lmao 😂😂😂😂.
Die Linke is actually a direct successor of the SED. In the run-up to the 1990 East German election, the SED changed its party name to the PDS, which carried on into the united Germany. PDS then merged with WASG to form Die Linke in 2007.
LINKE is a formal and legal successor of SED. PDS was SED's formal successor and PDS merged into LINKE. They took over all members, for example. Though legally, that also makes FDP the successor of the NDPD, an East German bloc party explicitly founded to gather former Nazis and Wehrmacht officers.
guess anything not hating germans enough is racist
I vote for you.
every party has disqualified themselves except the green party. they are just ineffectual but not straight up bad for everyone
2:53 and the sped up closure of the nuclear power plants which was a critical element in the electricity/heating cost explosion
My compliments to you for laying this German convoluted political landscape out in 6 minutes.😊❤
Does anyone expect other parties to be successful and that they send people to the Bundestag? Volt? SSW? FW?
Volt and FW are both polling way below the neccesary qourom. The SSW might get a single seat again as they are exempt from the 5% qouta due to representing a protected minority
@@dichse2157 I don't expect Volt or FW to rise above 5% but measuring these small numbers in a poll is not easy :) So let's see what happens.
the left discription is wrong. it isn't simular to the sed. big diffenences.
Because Pistorius was too busy trying to figure out what the hell way even happening in the world, and just decided to give up
These days, the word "fascist" is so overused it changed its original meaning. If the mainstream calls something fascist today, stay sure it's not really into Fascism, and will probably be a good thing.
Now it's almost a compliment. It means you are inconvenient to the establishment.
@@lukevandone that is the danger. When a true facist party comes along people will assume that the press is crying wolf again
@2:00 That is not true. The FDP have not left the government. Olaf Scholz formally dismissed Christian Lindner (Head of the Federal FDP) leaving the FDP with little to no choice but its remaining ministers except for one to resign. Painting a picture of the FDP leaving out of the blue is not right - even in a reduced scope of portraying the respective German parties.
„Voters seem to agree“ That is not accurate also. The polls for the current parliament have basically not changed for the FDP since Lindner was dismissed by Scholz.
the FDP literally planned their exit months in advance
What does Linke still have to do with SED nowadays?
actually very little. most SED hardliners left in the 90s, the PDS (direct successor) merged with another party, the WASG, and since then they only has reformist policies. after the split with Wagenknecht most of the old GDR nostalgics and friends of Russia now sit in her camp
pretty much nothing - its been right wing propaganda and redscare tactics to discredit progressives...
nothing really. but its always good to bring it up because it sound so scary 👻👻
I suspect the next government will be a traditional "grand coalition" between CDU/CSU and SPD and probably Greens. Germany is one of the few countries that seems to do well with coalitions between their main center-left/right parties. Merkel spent most of her tenure in grand coalitions with SPD. Without FDP in the coalition they should be able to bend the rules on the debt brake to get much needed projects done. AfD will likely lead the opposition, though I doubt any of the other opposition parties will give them the time of day. And there's no "alleged" with AfD being Fascist, they are fascists through and through, they moderate their rhetoric to just the bare minimum to not fall afoul of Germany's anti-totalitarian laws, but the reality is, they are thinly veiled Nazis.
the greens wont join. the SPD and Union have enough to form a majority.
Right now, it looks as if the Union can form a coalition with either SPD or maybe even Greens alone, judging from the polls
Söder is just Söder, he ruined previous union candidates dream of becoming chancellor and he will make sure it will be difficult for merz to become chancellor. That is his hobby, because he wants to become „Chancellor instead of the chancellor“
A.F.D
Hope they do better than what the polls as saying. I think they will because it wouldn't surprise me if they have a ton of shy supporters
#NAZISRAUS
@@NeonColored # GTFO welfare caliphate
Söder changes his opinions more often than his underwear, so yeah probably.
@rewboss Du hast den SSW vergessen - Grüße aus Schleswig-Holstein 😁
Die kriegen zwar evtl. einen Sitz, sind aber trotzdem nicht relevant - wahrscheinlich.
Wenn am Ende das resultat ist das Schwarz-Rot-Grün noch genau einen Sitz braucht wäre das sehr witzig.
Ja klar, der SSW ist ja auch eine extrem wichtige Partei in Deutschland oder eine der, wie Rewboss es ausdrückte, "main parties involved". 😛
@megaing1322 Der SSW könnte bei sechs Prozent - knapp das letzte Landtagswahlergebnis - zwei Sitze erlangen und Herr Seidler vom SSW war im Bereich Minderheitenpolitik, bspw Grenzkontrollenkritik DE-DK oder Namensrecht doch recht fleißig (bin bei der FDP - ist das gerade alles peinlich...😭)
@@karhabra9682 Wir kriegen das noch hin, jetzt alles geben!
@@karhabra9682 leider nicht deutschlandweit relevant, außer sie schaffen es tatsächlich in die Regierung. Drücke euch aber die Daumen :)
Could the cdu form a coalition with spd an grüne without csu if söder doesnt change his mind?
Probably not. It's a union that only works if the heads of both CDU and CSU agree on something. One option would be to split up the union, but that would mean to lose lots of votes for the CDU - and the CSU (that only exists in bavaria) would need to look vor votes in the rest of germany to get enough to not be defeated by the 5% hurdle.
Nothing is impossible, but this is very close to impossible. The Union is sort of a German-wide Conservative party with a special Bavarian wing (CSU). Söder is the Bavarian MP, and leader of that party. It would be more likely that he resigns, but that is also practically impossible but ever so slightly more plausible than a breakup.
It is possible, but unlikely. It's not clear if the CDU alone will get enough seats for such a coaltion. Even if they do, forming a coaltion without the CSU would mean breaking up the union between the two parties. That would arguably be the biggest shift in the German party system since it became settled in the early 50s. It would mean that the CDU would run in Bavaria in future elections, and the CSU in the rest of the Germany. Thus, the centrist-conservative vote would be split in two. It's unlikely that either the CDU or the CSU would be prepared to take that risk. If a coalition with the Greens is inevitable its likely they'll find some other way to save face.
they will kick Söder before they break up the union
Germany is not ready for this election
AFD
Just saw your similar 2021 guide 😂
Is the FDP the closest to the libertarians?
BSW sounds like the "Petro Poroshenko Block" party in Ukraine... Well, at least they rebranded it into the national-democratic/neocon/patriotic "European Solidarity," and, I guess, the SaraWagenknechtites will see something of a similar vein
BSW is more like Party of Regions.
FDP has a wing that is borderline liberatarian yes, and Christian Lindner's rhetoric sometimes sounds like he's libertarian himself.
The BSW is, as the name gives away, a personality cult around Sahra Wagenknecht that is also pro-Russian, anti-immigration and generally a bit unpleasant (at least in my opinion). Some might say it's everything that was bad about Die Linke. There's also been a lot of infighting already. It's not going to last long, probably.
Probably FDP is closest to libertarians indeed - their shtick are usually lower taxes and individual freedoms, so that roughly checks out.
Come on. The similarity between Die Linke and SED *today* is absolutely coincidental.
💙
Schön zusammen gefasst. Danke.
Shame Volt have 0 chance. They have a lot of policies I really like.
on EU level then
We really need an electoral reform
@@akaSmth I mean, how so? I would think that proportional representation is better than the alternatives.
@generaltom6850Getting rid or lowering the threshold. Especially with a lot of smaller parties emerging, 5% is simply too high to represent the voters well
@generaltom6850 Ideally using a single transferable vote. You can vote for your ideal party (in OP's case that would be Volt), and for a second party.
If your first vote doesn't make the threshold, your second vote will come in effect.
This gets rid of most tactical voters (eg people that prefer Volt, but don't vote them because it's a waste) while keeping their voices heard.
Hey! Maybe mention the Wahl-o-Mat?
Imagine doing red scare in 2025
still seems to work, we really didn't learn anything from the past
McCarthy was right all along. Current age needs a red scare. The only red scare I see is from leftists who claim the red, white, and blacks are coming back.
Reds are trying to be victims again 🤣
I like how the first comments are just normal ppl and then the wave of russian bots come
Chancellor Scholz forced Pistorius (not publicly) to do without a candidacy. Pistorius would have meant significantly more votes for the SPD. Scholz was not clear to me three and a half years ago because of his "forgetfulness" in relation to his meetings with the criminals from Warburg-Bank. Scholz would fit better to be a CDU or FDP candidate.
No way to vote for CDU or SPD. Especially not FDP or BSW/AfD. Grüne I don't like personally.
Unfortunately, there is not much left.
Either I choose a party that is likely to not make it through the 5%hurdle or I will stay at home right away 😞
Or you could overcome your personal dislike - whatever that means - and vote for the best of the country.
die Linke will probably enter the Bundestag through getting 3 direct mandates with Bodo Ramelow in Erfurt, Gregor Gysi in Berlin-Treptow -Köpenick, and Dietmar Bartsch in Rostock. they are all very popular in their respective political districts. the Grundmandatsklausel says that in that case the left's percentage of votes would be respected when distributing the seats so your vote wont go to waste. imagine a Bundestag without a leftist opposition, we cannot afford that in these times. your vote wont go to waste
Tbf if I were Pistorius, I would not have run either way - SPD is likely to loose to CDU/CSU regardless, and thus he would be burned as a candidate...
@@harmless6813Indeed. Nach der Ampel links ✊
@LarthV I actually haven't seen it that way yet.
Should Pistorius be smart enough to let Scholz go first to lose the election? I think your idea is brilliant. That would also mean that we'll be rid of Scholz in February until further notice. Hurrah.
Warum hatte Söder einen verdorrten Weihnachtsbaum?
- Er mag keine grünen.
What I dont like about this summary: Towards the end, you just use the main-stream (cdu-built) narrative of Merz being the next chancellor. Its not set in stone at all. Tomorrow, a fireball could hit the earth and then, maybe a few more people would rather vote for an experienced politician instead of for a populist that lived off economical relationships and making rich people richer.
In theory, of course, anything can happen (hurricanes, fireballs, meteor strikes, nuclear war, alien invasion...). But as the election date nears, the less likely it is that something unexpected will completely overturn expectations. As always when making tentative predictions like this, the unspoken caveat is: "...assuming nothing changes." I made sure I used phrases like "it seems likely..." to clearly signal that I _don't_ think it's set in stone.
Currently, the Union is polling at around 30%, with the AfD at around 20%. It's possible -- probably even likely -- that the AfD will gain some and the Union lose some, but I doubt enough to give us an AfD chancellor (if all the other parties remain opposed to cooperating with the AfD, the AfD would need to win more than 50% of seats in the Bundestag, something that has so far only ever happened once in the Federal Republic -- hopefully our politicians have learned from Austria). The SPD under Scholz is extremely unlikely to lead the next government -- Pistorius would probably have had a better chance, but he dropped out so the SPD is saddled with a chancellor candidate who has failed to convince the electorate. On the balance of probability, then, the smart money is on a Merz-led coalition.
Merz, by the way, isn't actually a populist. Populism is a very specific political ideology that maintains that a small and evil elite is oppressing the virtuous ordinary folk, and that the latter needs to rise up and destroy the elite. That's the narrative of parties like the AfD, not the Union which traditionally represents the interests of capitalists and landowners -- i.e., the elite. Making the rich richer is the exact opposite of populism: it's a manifestation of what its supporters call "supply-side economics" and its critics call "trickle-down economics" -- the belief that wealthy people will spend their money, stimulating the economy and benefitting everyone. At least, that's the theory: so far, it doesn't seem to have worked very well.
Of course, we have recently seen "populist" movements like the Trumpist Republican Party instantly go back on their word the moment they're elected and set about implementing tax cuts for the wealthy; it'd be interesting to see what an AfD government would do and how much they would be willing to sacrifice their own principles to keep, for example, Elon Musk on side.
Hello Andrew,
thank you for your interesting videos. However, instead of becoming a member of your channel I would rather prefer to "buy you a coffee" occasionally instead. Maybe you can also offer this option?
Vielen Dank für die unterhaltsamen, humorvollen und informativen Videos - immer wieder eine Erfrischung!
The AfD and BSW represent fundamentally opposing visions for economic fairness and societal progress. The AfD prioritizes the interests of the wealthy, advocating tax reductions for corporations and high-income earners while offering little to address growing inequality. Their policies often overlook the systemic challenges faced by workers and low-income families, focusing instead on rhetoric that diverts attention from these economic divides. This approach exacerbates social disparities and leaves millions vulnerable to economic instability.
The BSW, on the other hand, places social justice at the heart of its agenda. It champions fair taxation, ensuring that the ultra-wealthy and multinational corporations contribute their fair share to society. The BSW’s policies also focus on empowering workers through higher minimum wages, stronger labor protections, and support for small and medium-sized enterprises-key drivers of economic stability and growth.
While the AfD’s approach entrenches privilege and division, the BSW works to create a more equitable society, fostering solidarity and economic fairness for all. Comparing these two parties disregards the clear ideological divide: one serves the elite, the other fights for justice and shared prosperity.
Kind of leaving out the part where BSW's vision of fairness mostly exhausts itself in punishing asylum seekers, cutting down migration, and undermining LGBT protections.
In a multicultural society “social justice” is just taking money from the locals and giving it to immigrants. Hardly fair.
Can we stop the bs that the European left is for the working class. You guys literally tried to imprison farmer protestors not even 2 years ago
1:00 I don't know what scandals you are talking about.
I can't remember anything about it...
Your description of Die Linke (The Left) is really biased and wrong. You make it sound like the left wants to bring back a dictatorship. While actually the left is the most pro democracy party in Germany. From its support to strengthening and protecting the supreme Court and democraticing local elections (some states don't vote on all local politicians) to its support of minority rights and women. Where ever you took your information from, please talk to some party members and or bring a more balanced view.
5:28 If German politics now are one thing, it is unpredictable. Merkel left us this.
However, I don't think that Söder is a big problem for a coalition with the Green Whole-Grain CDU. In fact, his "war talk" is actively preparing coalition negotiations.
All big parties have a problem with "kingmakers", Königsmacher. These are small parties that have a disproportionate influence on politics as they are irreplacable. Also, a chairman of a small party has to REALLY get something out of the negotiations so next election, more people vote for their party. A more modest chairman could well lead to his party being perceived as the "appendix" (Wurmfortsatz) of the bigger party, which was the problem the FDP had for A LOT of time, most poignantly during their last black-yellow tenure.
The Green Whole-Grain CDU, on the other hand, tends to portray itself as the party for those suffering from the politics it itself voted for, eg the Hartz-reforms in the early 2000s. It doesn't help that a disproportionate number of publicists are Green-adjacent. When the FDP brought into the heating law that communes had to do an energy distribution plan before making homeowners change their heating, this was not seen as correcting a disastrous oversight, but "obstructionalism".
Söder "knattern" against the Greens IMO is already a part of the negotiations. The CSU itself also is a "small party", so it can counter over-arching Green demands, and give Merz "plausible deniability" - "Well, I for myself would support a law to prescribe sunshine on international holidays... but, you see... the CSU won't stand for it."
Calling the union right wing is just crazy.
But they are.
@@aardappelmethoed1151 They let all the refugees in, no right wing party would do that.
@88_Bananen ..... you know that there are also left anti migration parties, right?
denying that they are right wing is ACTUALLY crazy
Söder would be a better chancellor than Merz. But I just don't get Söder's weird obsession with the Greens
American here and Im hoping the AFD over performs. The fact the two establishment parties are trying to ban them tells me they fear what the AFD will do to the status quo
Greetings to your friend Donald! 👾
Well the AFD is very similar to to the republicans under Trump. Everybody can figure out for themselves if this is a good or a bad thing.
no...
@@coall5002 no bro they are not... allegedly Afd was accused of attending a meeting where talks of deporting Germans citizens with migration background was tabled....Trump has never talked about deporting US citizens,...,only illegal migrants were on table......if the rumor about Afd is false then maybe they are similar
My friend, the word "allegedly" still means that there’s no solid proof. As far as I recall, members of the CDU also participated in this private meeting. However, the CDU isn’t receiving much attention because the AfD tends to be the mainstream media's preferred punching bag.
0:55 When was the last time that SPD did (as opposed to "talked") something for workers?
3:00 "Syrian", good joke.
🚫 No to the AfD! 🚫
More people have been to the Bundestag than you have.
7 from the 9 founders of the AfD were former Soviet Union citizens. In the beginning this party was financially supported with money that came to them from the Iranian ambassy. Well..
i am really impressed how civil this commentsection is. Sadly to me there is only one party that i can even consider. The greens are the only party with a finacially working election programm and are actually talking about the problems of our country and not only about migration politics.
The AFD is just a nazi party to me. I mean weidel even went as far as calling hitler a communist. Wow girl he killed communist in concentration camps... Also in their election programm has a gap of 200 billion euro yet they want to keep our (dumb) low debt law.
The Union / CDU / CSU sued the traffic light coalition because of a comparetivly small gap in their financial planning yet the program lacks 100 billion euros... While giving multiple dozen billions to he upper 10% in tax reliefs.
The FDP and espeially Christian Linder deservers to never enter the Bundestag again. Literally sabotaging his coalition for his personal gain.
And the SPD... i forgot and can remember.
Wild take
@@htm000 Not really, it’s just that most people only say this about one party and usually in a less direct manner.
the Union does Umverteilung to the richest of the rich and then claims we couldnt afford tax breaks for normal people (e.g. anyone under a gross income of 6.500€, as die Linke proposes)
Are you not considering voting Die Linke by any chance?
Like B'90/Greens Die Linke has done the math in their Wahlprogramm, it's all well-financed; but unlike B'90/Greens Die Linke is not riding the populist train of "Remigration", their policies are meant to meaningfully combat climate change and unlike B'90/Greens they wouldn't put an even larger strain on working people.
Also Die Linke would never elect Merz for chancellor, unlike the opportunists in the Green party.
thats a pretty good summary...
and honestly the SPD hasnt really been an option since schröder... that betrayal just ran too deep
Looking at the comments, it seems that Merz is unpopular but is likely to become chancellor…
My RUclips audience isn't a representative sample of the German electorate. But for mainstream conservatives, the Union is the only viable option, even if the moderates among them have to grit their teeth and console themselves with the thought that "at least Merz isn't Björn Höcke". The mainstream left-wing vote, on the other hand, is split more-or-less evenly between the SPD and the Greens.
If the SPD and the Greens were to merge, they could (as things stand right now) end up as the biggest party in the Bundestag. But since they're two separate parties, it's going to be the Union that wins the most seats making Merz the natural choice for the chancellorship.
@ - thanks Andrew. That’s a very thorough response 👍🏻
Turn LEFT after the traffic light! 🚩🏴
Nice
There is already a split in the BSW? This party just had its first birthday, how can there already be splits? (I'm not a fan of them, so in a way i am delighted, but this is really rather ridiculous.)
(Sorry for two comments, but this felt better separate from my first comment.)
The BSW was founded by the - excuse my language - most idiotic members Die Linke had. None of them were liked by the people in Die Linke who actually worked on things.
Accordingly, BSW has inherited all of that infighting for which Die Linke was ridiculed for years.
Expect Sarah to start calling the BSW "Lifestyle-Linke" soon, too.
the AfD also had a split pretty early on, see the exit of Frauke Petry for reference. it's kinda normal because not everyone might be on the same page but they may be willing to work together to get started. it's later on when these issues emerge again and cause friction.