Today in Germany, CDU party president Angela Merkel was officially chosen to be the party candidate and thus will run against current Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in upcoming elections predicted to be on or around September 18, 2005. Edmund Stoiber, (pictured right of Merkel), president of the CSU, the sister party of the CDU that exists in Bavaria, ran and lost against Schröder in the past elections and has this time thrown his support behind Merkel saying she “has the full confidence” of both parties.
Should Merkel win this Fall, she’d be the first women to run Germany since Theophanu in 983 AD. While politically she has excellent chances, there are a few other factors working against her. First and foremost, she is a woman and although Germany is a free country with equal rights for women, they are still vastly underrepresented in politics and in business. Secondly, she grew up in the DDR or East Germany and while this doesn’t cause a concrete problem for her, it does tend to foster some mistrust or at the very least discomfort among some Germans. Given the SPD’s huge lack of support among most people, most undecided voters and centrist elements in the SPD are expected to turn out for the CDU/CSU. In Germany, the Bundezkanzler, or Chancellor is not elected by the people but rather by the party which is elected, though as you’ve read, they choose their candidate for Chancellor beforehand.
Chancellor Schröder hopes that the Bundestag’s vote of no confidence occurs no later then July 1st which would clear the way for its dissolution by July 21st. Until then, the lesser parties are scrambling to not be left out, especially the Greens.
In a related and rather unsettling development, the National Democratic Party (NPD) and the German Peoples Union (DVU) have announced that they will run on a common platform and could garner enough vote to finally enter the Bundestag, a true nightmare for most Germans as they represent the far right and tend to make thinly veiled references to the late German Empire and Third Reich which borders on illegal. In 2003, they were brought before the Bundesverfassungsgericht, or German Constitutional Court, and almost banned. There has been talk of another attempt by Schröder however as he already has a full plate, it’s unlikely to happen as their chances of success aren’t much greater today.- BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
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COMMENTS / 12 COMMENTS
ComingAnarchy.com » Blog Archive » CDU Ahead added these pithy words on Jun 02 05 at 7:19 pm[...] Next Post: Previous Post: « Family Ties Related Let the Race Begin [...]
Mike added these pithy words on 30 May 05 at 6:43 pmThat should be 983 AD, not BC. Were there even Germans 1000 years before Christ? I think if you go that far back they would probably still be Aryans invading India right? With the rest slowly migrating towards Northern Europe.
J. Kende added these pithy words on 31 May 05 at 1:08 amDoes anyone have an insight into her general political attitudes and positions? I’m sure she’d be better than the current anti-American fun bunch, but if anyone can give more insight into her (that is in English instead of German), it’d be great.
Sometimes I wish there were international political figure trading cards with concise but detail packed stats on the back.
Younghusband added these pithy words on 31 May 05 at 2:23 amSometimes I wish there were international political figure trading cards with concise but detail packed stats on the back.
That would be brilliant! (As long as they weren’t like the Iraqi set)
J. Kende added these pithy words on 31 May 05 at 6:34 amI was thinking less like playing cards and more like baseball cards… or like the cycling cards kids in Spain carve the faces out of to put in bottle caps to play chalk-on-cement based racing games. I’d love to play for nostalgia but with politicians in there instead. Could flick Chirac intentionally off the track. Beat him ‘till he calls Lance Armstrong his daddy. :)
Grendel added these pithy words on 31 May 05 at 8:35 pmSometimes I wish there were international political figure trading cards with concise but detail packed stats on the back.
The English version of Wikipedia has infos about quite a few German politicians.
Chirol added these pithy words on 31 May 05 at 9:15 pmGrendel: Ich weiss dass “Information” auf deutsch plural sein kann aber auf Englisch nicht =) Es ist nicht zählbar! Aber sonst ist dein Englisch erstaunlich gut. Aber weil ich ständig Englisch unterrichte und solche kleine deutsche Fehler immer korregiere, wollte ich was sagen!
Grendel added these pithy words on 01 Jun 05 at 2:36 pmThanks for the compliment – and the correction, it’s highly appreciated.
Btw, you might be interested in “Which words?” by Anne F. Bulmer for your students as well as this list
Curzon added these pithy words on 01 Jun 05 at 2:41 pm㔚”šÃ¯Â½Å¾Ã£Â?”¦Ã£â‚¬Â?蔹±èªžä»¥å¤”“ãÂ?ªè¨€èªžãÂ?¯ä½¿ã”šÂ?ãÂ?ªãÂ?”žÃ£Â?“ãÂ?¨ãÂ?«ãÂ?—㔚ˆãÂ?” 㔚ˆã€”š
ãÂ? ãÂ?£ãÂ?¦ãÂ?¿ã”š“ãÂ?ªåˆ” ãÂ?”¹Ã£”š”°Ã£Â?ªãÂ?”žÃ£Â?—ãÂ?”¢Ã£â‚¬”š
ãÂ?”?çÂ?” 解㔚’ãÂ?Šé¡˜ãÂ?”žÃ§”?³ãÂ?—上ãÂ?’ãÂ?¾ãÂ?™ã€”š
Grendel added these pithy words on 01 Jun 05 at 2:46 pmãÂ? ãÂ?£ãÂ?ŸãÂ?¿ã”š“ãÂ?ªåˆ” ãÂ?”¹Ã£”š”°Ã£Â?ªãÂ?”žÃ£Â?—ãÂ?”¢Ã£â‚¬”š
Chirol added these pithy words on 01 Jun 05 at 6:04 pmThe Babelfish translations are pretty whacky. They don’t like subordinate clauses.
Grendel: Thanks for the link, that’s fabulous!
