Rising Political Extremism in East Germany Signals a Deepening Divide

[Cameroni]

6 minutes ago, RayC said:

So you believe that Party 'A' which, for example, campaigns on a platform of lower taxation and lower public spending and then finishes second in an election behind Party 'B', which had campaigned on a diametrically opposite policy platform, should be forced to form a government with Party B? 

 

 

Of course not, but all parties have differing platforms by definition. When parties from the outset deny even the possibility of entering into meetings any form of compromise is made impossible from the outset. This kind of behaviour should be penalised.

 

8 minutes ago, RayC said:

Absolutely and utter cods, not least because the voters in Thuringia were well aware before they cast their votes, that the other parties would not collaborate with the AfD.

 

If the voters counted on the AfD getting an absoulte majority then and only then they have a grievance? Come on.

 

9 minutes ago, RayC said:

You stated that you favoured FPTP. I showed that there is, more often than not, a 'democratic deficit' attached to such systems. I used the example of the latest UK general election - where the Labour Party polled 33% of the vote but won 66% of the parliamentary seats - to illustrate my point. This was made very clear in my previous post.

 

The point is moot in the UK because in May 2011, there was a UK-wide referendum on whether to bring in an alternative voting (AV) system instead of first-past-the-post. It was known as the AV referendum. However, nearly 68 percent were against introducing AV. So the Brits want FPTP and decided to keep it. 

 

 

[RayC]

40 minutes ago, Cameroni said:

 

Of course not, but all parties have differing platforms by definition. When parties from the outset deny even the possibility of entering into meetings any form of compromise is made impossible from the outset. This kind of behaviour should be penalised.

 

I still do not understand the problem.

 

Political parties are often criticised - quite rightly - for being less than forthcoming about how they would govern if elected. The SPD, CDU and Greens made clear that they would not enter into a coalition with the AfD. It is as much a declaration of policy as one which says we will cut taxes. If any of these parties were to now enter into government with the AfD, they would be betraying their voters.

 

40 minutes ago, Cameroni said:

 

 

If the voters counted on the AfD getting an absoulte majority then and only then they have a grievance? Come on.

 

Yes, given the stated policy of the other parties.

 

40 minutes ago, Cameroni said:

 

 

The point is moot in the UK because in May 2011, there was a UK-wide referendum on whether to bring in an alternative voting (AV) system instead of first-past-the-post. It was known as the AV referendum. However, nearly 68 percent were against introducing AV. So the Brits want FPTP and decided to keep it. 

 

 

 

The fact that the UK electorate voted against introducing PR does not make FPTP any more democratic.

[Cameroni]

2 hours ago, Middle Aged Grouch said:

Very true Sir.

 

AFD and similar will win all over the world. Not because they are good at the job. But because the others are awful, incompetent and are impoverinshing the people. Same for Trump and the USA. He will hopefully win not because he is any better (or worse) then the others. He will plainly win because the Biden Halala Hillary Harris and cronies are just destroying America.

 

You speak the truth.

 

Incompetent, awful and impoverishing the people, like former German health minister Jens Spahn who bought a four million dollar house with his gay lover, with a mortgage from the bank where he happened to be on the board. On a minister salary.

 

https://www.world-today-news.com/jens-spahn-and-his-husband-acquire-a-luxury-villa-in-berlin-dahlem-for-over-4-million-euros/

 

Hopefully Trump will win and he and Musk will stop such excesses in the American body politic.

[nauseus]

On 8/30/2024 at 2:30 PM, AndreasHG said:

Interesting the comparison between east Germany and Sicily in Italy or Flanders in Belgium (but he list could be much longer). East Germans, after 50 years of Soviet ruling and despite the fact that they won back their freedom 35 years ago, are still ill prepared for life in a modern and dynamic society, like the one in which unification threw them in 1990.

 

However, East Germans do not want a return to the old Soviet or Nazi times. They are not idiots, and they perfectly understand that both Russia and Nazism have nothing to offer them.

All they want is attention. They hope that, after attention, money too will start flowing (in the form of subsidies) from Berlin and Frankfurt in their direction. And voting for the parties that the average west German finds particularly repelling, does attract attention. A lot of it.

 

As someone said about D.J. Trump. "it's not that his bark is worse than his bite. It's that he feels an overwhelming desire to be petted". East Germans too feel an overwhelming desire to be petted.

 

 

Trump is everywhere it seems. Maybe there is truth to his story?

[thaibeachlovers]

10 hours ago, Middle Aged Grouch said:

AFD and similar will win all over the world. Not because they are good at the job. But because the others are awful, incompetent and are impoverinshing the people.

Not just that; they deliberately ignore the obvious will of the citizens to continue unpopular policies eg allowing illegal immigrants to continue staying in the country.

[thaibeachlovers]

3 hours ago, nauseus said:

 

Trump is everywhere it seems. Maybe there is truth to his story?

He certainly occupies the minds of a number of posters that will insist on disparaging him in topics that have nothing to do with him.

[metisdead]

Off topic deflection posts and replies about "Free Palestine" and "genocide of children" have been removed.  Off topic posts and replies about UK politics have been removed as well as this topic is about:

 

Rising Political Extremism in East Germany Signals a Deepening Divide