#ampel coalition

[lintukodossa]

To be honest, I don't know what to think about the break-up of the Ampel (=German government).

I mean: it's OBVIOUSLY bad. Trump just won, we don't need any MORE destabilization. Especially not now. Our blue Nazi party has gotten a lot stronger lately and I think we'll probably get a grand coalition under Merz.

BUT! After all the bad news today, it was also VERY satisfying to see Chancellor Scholz speak plainly for once about how much Finance Minister Lindner sucks. I've spent the last few years getting upset with the guy AND NOW HE'S FIRED!

The consequences still suck. But after this depressing 24 hours (honestly: how can so much shit happen in so little time?), I don't have the energy to care anymore. Let me have my little moment. Let me listen to Chancellor Scholz's most substantive speech ever and cheer him on when he basically says: Fuck you, Lindner!

(The dire consequences will catch up with me soon enough, lemme have that moment)

[knoepfchen]

Wie man das von den Jungen Liberalen so gewohnt ist, dachte ich gerade ernsthaft, dass das ihr Nachname sei 😂

Danke, Franziska von und zum Ampel-Aus 🙏 Dass das keine Satire ist..

[waytootiredstudent]

Okay alright sorry for all the sudden German politics influx but lemme explain what happened so far and why Germans are losing it a bit:

The tldr? Our government is getting a divorce and it's turning messy with elections being called early and now being called even earlier.

The longer version?

Okay so, groundwork first:

in Germany there is a coalition currently in power called the Ampel(traffic lights) bc the colours of the party are red, yellow and green (or not anymore or for much longer??). They're centrist slightly more left leaning than right leaning. (You could argue about that I am aware). There has been infighting for as long as this coalition has been going on. It is also the first three party coalition since y know, the Last Time.

So. Enough groundwork. The yellow party (FDP) has a finance minister (Christiane Lindner) it's this guy

You will see him in memes I am sure. We don't like him. He's an asshole and has blocked every meaningful change that the coalition had been trying to accomplish. He also got his finance plan blocked by our highest court because parts were against our Constitution.

(.... I am oversimplifying hard here it's actually more complicated than that and not fully his fault, but it's also not the focus)

What WAS the fault though of him and the FDP was that they had a strong position of "saving money at all costs" which made bigger and bigger rifts with the two other coalition partners who were more leaftleaning. The war in Ukraine, Infrastructure, climate change - there were many places that needed more money and Lidner was like naaahhhhh for no fucking reason other than "oh we need to save money!!"

Long story short there have been arguing all the fucking time and therefore have started to lose approval. Drastically lose approval. As on for the first time since the Last Time there is a far right party in charge for part of the country that is also being investigated for being Nazis. (Oversimplifying again).

Which is. Worrying. You know. Especially with Trump now being elected. It has us all a little skittish.

The finance minister has also now been fired.

You see. We were all still trying to stomach Trump winning the US election, when Scholz, in the same fucking evening, fired Lindner.

And not in a polite way. Nah. Olaf fucking Scholz our Chancellor, notorious for saying literally nothing, and with a running joke that he regularly stops existing bc that man Does Not Take Stances, a spine of wet cardboard, delivered this yesterday evening:

(English subtitles by me you already got this far watch it I spent too much time on this lol)

And it is insane alright. For his standards and German politic standards thats the equivalent of calling Lindner a egomaniacal bitch that has only his self interest at heart and can not be trusted.

Lindner and his party have been pulverised in all recent elections. Which means that after he was fired, the FDP completely withdrew from the coalition and all minister from the FDP resigned.

....well all but one who apparently stayed in his positions because he's leaving the FDP over this. What sort of shitty backstabbing kindergarten fight is this. (Jokes aside hes the minister of transportation and says he needs to stay in office in important projects. Which. True. Having minister resigning en mass is not good)

Alright cool cool cool cool. Current situation yesterday is the following:

So. Trump is president. Fuck.

Lindner got fired! Yaaay!

Wait my goverment is now also falling apart! Fuck.

Which all lead to new elections being called in Germany.

Mind you, that's not usual ok. I know other countries have systems where they can call an election whenever but that is not a thing that normally happens here. We have a schedule alright. (Insert obligatory "Germans and their plans and structure" joke)

So new elections are called for spring, nearly a year early. Cool cool cool. With a right wing rising in Germany and deeply unpopular current leadership. On the eve of motherfucking trump getting elected.

Habeck, leader of the green party and one of the few policians in germany I think is vaguely liked by ppl (the general attitude in German politics is less "I like this guy" and more "you are the least shitty choice I guess") has appearently also nearly started crying after the news broke. So. Yeah.

Now. Let's make this shitshow complete,alright?

There is this party. CDU. They had been in charge for a very long time in Germany. Centrist, right leaning, with the afd on the rising even more right leaning than before. Their current leader is Friedrich Merz, as unpleasant as human beings can go.

He has now called for the new election to be not in a few months but like. To be called next week.

In the current climate.

So yeah. if you're German mutuals and friends are currently going through their own stages of grief - this is why.

[cosmogyros]

(Reblog this version please!) Okay fuck it. I was too nervous to post this at first, but I see tons of non-Germans wanting to know what's going on right now. So here's my summary. Thanks to my buddy @keldermans and another German friend not on Tumblr for taking a glance at it to make sure I didn't get anything too horribly wrong <3 Any remaining errors are my bad!

I spent much of today writing up an outline of the current soap-opera drama going on in the German government, for my non-German-speaking friends who'd like to enjoy the tea as well.

Disclaimer: I am not technically German, but I did my best to explain this all as accurately as possible (and I did get a couple of Actual Germans to check it over for me).

For THE GERMAN DRAMA, see below...

Cast of characters:

The German government coalition (known as the “Ampel” – traffic light – due to its colors):

Olaf Scholz, Chancellor (leader) of Germany. Party: SPD (color: red). - and the other Red party members in the coalition - this includes the Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach

Christian Lindner, Minister of Finance of Germany. Party: FDP (color: yellow). - and the other Yellow party members in the coalition (four FDP members) - this includes the Minister of Transport, Volker Wissing - and the Minister of Justice, Marco Buschmann

Robert Habeck, Vice-Chancellor of Germany. Party: Greens (color: green) - and the other Green party members in the coalition.

Other characters: Friedrich Merz, likely to become the next Chancellor. Party: CDU (color: black).

The events I can recall so far, in roughly chronological order over the past five days:

1. The government coalition argues all day Wednesday, trying to pass laws while Lindner refuses to agree to anything. In the evening, Scholz loses his patience and fires Lindner with the legendary words, “Dann, lieber Christian, möchte ich nicht mehr, dass Du meinem Kabinett angehörst. ...So. Doof.” (In that case, my dear Christian, I don’t want you in my cabinet anymore. ...Well. Sucks.)

2. Scholz then calls a press conference and gives a surprisingly impressive speech in which his rage is barely concealed. He includes some sharp jabs at Lindner and sounds very personally betrayed by the breakup.

Scholz's speech includes the immediately-legendary line “Zu oft hat er mein Vertrauen gebrochen” (Too often has he broken my trust), which everyone here in Germany is now obsessively quoting.

He declares that he will ask for a vote of confidence in January, and if he fails it (as is expected), he will call for new elections in March, six months earlier than they would otherwise have taken place.

3. Lindner gives a very emotional and self-pitying speech in which he declares “Ich habe gelitten” (I have suffered) – another phrase that becomes an instant classic with those of us watching from the sidelines – and he includes some sharp jabs at Scholz.

4. Showing solidarity with their fellow party member Lindner, all the rest of the FDP members in the coalition resign from the government too… except for Wissing, who instead decides to quit his own political party, the FDP, in order to stay in government and keep his job. He is now a party-less politician!

5. Habeck gives an emotional statement to the press, practically in tears, coming across like a kid whose parents are divorcing and he doesn’t know how to handle it. In a maudlin moment of his speech, he compares the collapse of the coalition to the end of a relationship.

6. At the end of Habeck’s statement, a reporter calls after him: “Is Lindner going to apply for Bürgergeld benefits?”

(Background: There are two tiers of unemployment benefits in Germany. To explain it in a somewhat tasteless way, there’s kind of a class distinction. If you come from a “higher-class” profession, you can typically start by getting ALG I, which is more money. If you are unemployed for the long term or come from a “lower-class” working background, you get Bürgergeld. The stereotype about people on Bürgergeld benefits is that they spend it all on drugs and alcohol and sit on park benches getting drunk all day. Also, Lindner is known for trying to pass legislation to reduce social benefits of all kinds, including unemployment benefits.)

7. Background: After the failed assassination attempt on Trump earlier this year, a popular German comedian called El Hotzo posted a joke online saying basically “too bad he missed” and promptly got fired for saying that. He kept his spirits up and joked about the job loss, saying “Ich bin Deutschlands frechster Arbeitsloser” (I’m Germany’s cheekiest unemployed boy).

Back to the present: At a press conference, a reporter asks Lindner: “How are you handling the statements being made about you online right now, such as ‘This is Germany’s cheekiest unemployed boy’?”

Lindner seems to need a long moment to figure out how to reply to this question.

8. The next day, Habeck coyly soft-launches his candidacy for Chancellor by posting a mysterious video of himself on social media in which he’s wearing a cute beaded friendship bracelet that spells out “Kanzler Era” (Chancellor Era). This is apparently a Taylor Swift reference (?).

In this video, he’s sitting in an atmospherically-lit room, writing at a table. It appears that Lindner had posted a very similar picture of himself in the past, because he now tweets in response to Habeck: “All Democrats welcome here, Robert! You got the setup almost right – the lamp was on the other side. ;)” (and he adds his own pic, which indeed very much resembles Habeck’s video)

9. Angela Merkel muses publicly, “Maybe God only created the FDP in order to test us all.” (ETA: She said this a while ago, not in response to the present situation. But it's still so true :'D)

10. A mainstream German news podcast sassily comments on Friday:

“While Olaf 'Too often has he broken my trust' Scholz is enjoying his party’s admiration for his cowboy moment and Christian 'I have suffered' Lindner is going through his own personal St. Matthew’s Passion […]”

11. Buschmann (one of the FDP party members who resigned), who apparently moonlights as a composer of electronic music under the handle "MBSounds", drops a new self-composed track on SoundCloud about the collapse of the Ampel government. It’s called “To Go Is to Stand”.

The news comments dryly: “Well, at least he doesn’t sing on the track.” (Buschmann's previous biggest hit was simply an angry speech of Lindner’s, set to music.)

Lauterbach (one of the SPD party members still in office) tweets: “No offense, but I don’t think I’ll be listening to that song more than once. But still, it was good working with you, Marco.”

12. The media ask Scholz if he’s throwing his hat in the ring to run for Chancellor again. He says yes. They ask, in what ways is he different from Friedrich Merz (the dude who’s currently expected to win)? And he replies “Ich finde mich etwas cooler, wenn es um Staatsangelegenheiten geht” (I think I’m somewhat cooler [than him] when it comes to matters of state).

And now the German media is making up new words like "scholzen" (which I can only presume means "as the leader of a country, to fire other government members you don't get along with"):

[Headline translation: "Who Donald Trump will 'scholz' first"]

[bakerstreetdoctor]

State of German politics: discussing who of the former Ampel coalition heads are alpha(Habeck)/beta(Olaf)/omega(Chrissi)

[lightsoffwhentheyshouldbeup]

Well. I guess our German government called The Ampel Koalition (“traffic light coalition”) falling apart at least brought us this meme.

[vollesroah]

Christmas Coalition in Germany

Today's news from Germany, the so called Ampel Coalition (trafficlight) with red, yellow and green parties has kicked out the yellow party and will now be known as the christmas coalition, partly because of the christmassy colours, red and green, and also because they will now be out too by January.

Much hated in the last months, they did however get Self-Id through, albeit with compromises, double statehood for immigrants and helped Germany on the way to becoming more ecological.

So thank you dear Ampel for the good policies and the entertainment along the way ;)

[violet-hady]

Literally every good idea the Ampel (German for traffic light, that was the nickname for the coalition that was ruling our country until Wednesday, called so because of the parties colours being red, yellow and green respectively) ever had

Lindner (our former finance minister, until he was fired on Wednesday, ergo breaking the coalition)

Why Ampel broken

do it :3

[snap221sn]

Allemagne : La coalition tricolore  « Die Ampel » vole en éclats

Allemagne. La coalition tricolore  “Die Ampel” vole en éclats (Par Dr. Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana) Au cours d’un discours prononcé  tard dans la soirée du 6 novembre 2024,  le chancelier Olaf Scholz a annoncé la rupture de la coalition tricolore composée du SPD social-démocrate, des Verts,Bündnis 90/Die Grünen et du FDP les Libéraux. le chancelier social-démocrate Olaf […]

[lintukodossa]

I never intended to talk about politics here, but it was just too much today. What a day! I can go bury myself now…

It made me depressed enough to see Trump get re-elected. And now Germany's government is also collapsing. Have now reached a point where it all feels so surreal and I feel so detached from it that I feel nothing about it anymore and just laugh at it like I'm crazy. Just waiting for this to end in the inevitable breakdown.

Anyway, it's midnight now and I'm spending my time doomscrolling when I've also got some work to do for uni tomorrow. But who cares, my life is over now anyway, I might as well ruin it a bit more by not sleeping.

(If we get Merz as chancellor, I'll move to the woods and hide from human civilization forever)

[future-institute]

German Politic: Break or ReBoot

    Traffic light coalition: Red yellow Green 40% agreement 10% Vote of no confidence 30% vote of confidence 20% New elections     Ampel Koalition: rot-gelb-grün 40% Einigung 10% Misstrauensvotum 30% Vertrauensfrage 20% Neuwahlen    

[shi1498912]

I don't think the CDU/CSU would actually agree on a coaliton with the AfD on the federal level. Don't get me wrong Merz definetly would go fishing for votes on the right, but a full on coalition? Nope. Union and FDP is more likely, unless the FDP does get kicked out for falling under the 5% barrier. Which looks like it'll be likely, or why else you think they haven't actually left the Ampel yet? They know they're fucked.

They are fucked and its their own damn fault, but the refuse to acknowledge it. It was clear from day one of the Ampel, that the FDP would act like a skid for the other two coalition parties. Hell! it was clear after the 2017 election, that you couldn't expect anything new coming from the FDP aside from their constant refrain to lower taxes, while simultaneously lowering social spending.

Either way: even if the SPD in parts has embraced neo-liberalism, my vote will still go them. And I urge you all to remember that not going to vote, because "it's all the same and nothing's gonna change" will only help the AfD.

Cat in the Hat:

"The German Health Minister gave an important update on the Covid situation yesterday.

I’ve written up the section of his speech from the video below for easy reading.

It’s immensely refreshing to see a government minister warning of the harms of Covid in such a transparent way."

https://x.com/_catinthehat/status/1732092683508678954

Prof. Karl Lauterbach

Health Minister, Germany

4 December 2023

"This second (long Covid) round table was very interesting, lasting three and a half hours. It serves as a unique forum for dialogue among scientists, researchers and those affected by long Covid, facilitating the exchange of ideas.

There are many new findings about long Covid. Not all of them are good news. One piece of not-so-good news concerns the fact that long Covid is actually still a problem for those who are newly infected. One estimate that has been put forward is that the risk of contracting long Covid now, even after vaccination, is around 3%. Now you may say, "that's not such a big risk" , but there are tens of thousands of people who are repeatedly affected in a short period of time. And so, the long Covid problem has not yet been solved.

We have also established that there really are many subgroups of long Covid and that we do not yet have a cure. And it was clearly pointed out that we are also dealing with problems here that will challenge society as a whole, because vascular diseases often occur after long Covid. Throughout Europe, we are currently seeing an increased incidence of cardiovascular disease in the middle-age group - from 25 to 50. This is associated with the consequences of Covid infections.

We also very often find cognitive impairment in older people. And one participant pointed out that it may well be like the Spanish flu, where 20 years after the Spanish flu there was a significant increase in Parkinson's disease and probably also dementia.

This is something we must pay attention to, as the past infection afiects how the immune system in the brain functions, as well as the brain's blood vessels, potentially increasing the long-term risk of these major neurodegenerative diseases. This is why we need to conduct very intensive research. This research has played a major role.

What is the overall assessment of the situation now?

We have to be careful. Long Covid is not curable at the moment. We also know that over 40% of those who have several manifestations of long Covid, for example, five or more, still have symptoms after 2 years, so it doesn't seem to heal spontaneously. We also know that those whose symptoms are more pronounced at the beginning are less likely to heal.

So some of what we know from the demographics of long Covid has been confirmed, and we now know more precisely which mechanisms in the brain, but also in the blood vessels and the immune system, are responsible for this. Professor Scheibenbogan will explain this briefly later.

At this point, I can only say the following - this is particularly important to me:

First of all, long Covid is a disease that stays with us and that we cannot yet cure. And we are seeing an increasing number of cases as the waves of infection continue to affect us.

Secondly, Covid is not a cold - with a cold, you don't usually see any long-term effects. You don't see any changes in the blood vessels. You don't usually see an autoimmune disease developing. You also don't usually see neurological inflammation - these are all things that we see with long Covid. Therefore, one should not assume that Covid infection is just a common cold. It can affect brain tissue and the vascular system, and we still lack an effective treatment, making these studies crucial.

Significantly, we know that the risk of long Covid decreases when you're infected but have been vaccinated. That's why it's concerning that only 3 million people have been vaccinated with the new, adapted vaccine. That is a very bad result.

Please protect yourself from severe infections.

Please protect yourself from long Covid.

Currently, the danger posed by Covid is indeed being underestimated. Nothing is worse than infecting someone at Christmas who then becomes seriously ill and may not fully recover."

Alt text is included in all images of this post.

[head-post]

German opposition demands government action on borders

Opposition party members in Germany have voiced criticism of the Government and demanded tough measures in migration policy despite the steps taken after the knife attack in Solingen.

The European Union’s largest economy remains one of the biggest destinations for illegal migrants. At least 266,224 cases of illegal entry and residence registered by authorities last year alone. Scores of illegal immigrants were asylum seekers from Syria and Afghanistan.

Following the knife attack in Solingen during a street festival in which three people were stabbed to death and eight injured, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition came under increased pressure from opposition parties who accused the government of ignoring the problem for years and even facilitating illegal immigration with its policies.

On top of that, the suspect was identified as a 26-year-old Syrian with alleged links to ISIS, who was previously subject to deportation. As a result, the German government unveiled a new security package, leading authorities to begin deportations.

The attack sparked a new debate in Germany on migration, with the country’s ruling coalition led by Chancellor Scholz criticised for its handling of the issue. The new security measures, released by the government at the press conference on Thursday, seek to speed up the deportation of rejected asylum seekers and illegal immigrants, as well as tougher gun laws. It also provided an incentive for nationally-oriented parties in Germany ahead of key elections this weekend to once again raise the issue of failed migration policies.

Friedrich Merz, leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), demanded significant action from the government to radically overhaul migration policy. He said that criminals seeking asylum should go to their home countries without delay and Germany should stop accepting any refugees from Syria and Afghanistan. He emphasised:

Ampel again fails to address the real issue: what is happening on our borders? We have to decide who is coming into the country and, above all, who is banned from entering. The limit for our society has been reached.

CSU leader Markus Söder said that the German government “should be able to prevent all those who clearly have no right of protection from entering the German borders. For instance, perhaps because they already come from a safe third country. Deportation practices must also change. Anyone who has no right of residence and refuses to leave the country on deportation or commits an offence should be detained on deportation. Also, we must minimise the benefits for rejected asylum seekers.”

Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party is targeting victory in elections in the eastern states of Saxony and Thuringia scheduled for Sunday. AfD is currently leading in the polls in both states.

Martin Hess, a member of the party, criticised Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), saying she was “a complete political failure because since taking the oath of office she has constantly violated it. Islamism, in particular, has been able to spread further and further under Faeser because the SPD woman has continually prioritised the wrong things.”

Christian Werth, member of the AfD and deputy of the Bundestag, criticised against the European Union’s migration policy. He said: “EU legislation on asylum and immigration is based on Article 3(2) of the EU Treaty. In accordance with this, EU states open internal borders and in return the EU ensures effective external border security, an effective asylum system and the internal security of member states. The EU does not honour this. Since mass migration could not have been foreseen when the EU Treaty was ratified in 1993, this is a case where the basis for the transaction ceases to exist, which is regulated for international treaties in Article 62 WÜV. We can then at least suspend all EU legislation on asylum and immigration until the EU fulfils its obligations, namely securing the external borders and providing a functional asylum system. I proposed a law on this in the Bundestag, which was rejected by all parties, including the CDU/CSU.”

Read more HERE

[garythingsworld]

Far-Left Eco-Extremists Break Through Police Barriers - Attempt to Storm a German Tesla Factory Near Berlin (VIDEOS) | The Gateway Pundit | by Paul Serran

[caustic-light]

Hey, it’s pride month, so remember that the AIDS crisis was an attempt at genocide and the first books the Nazis burned were gender studies and so if you’re a german queer, two entire generations of our people, culture and knowledge have been nearly erased in the last 100 years. Remember that when you watch the Ampel coalition twiddle their thumbs instead of abolishing the TSG and the remnants of homophobic AIDS laws.

[res-a-new-and-worse-sungod]

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2024/11/06/german-coalition-government-collapses-chancellor-scholz-fires-finance-minister-lindner

there are two wolves inside me now,

One laughs and is happy at the prospect that the FDP is dying.

The other is scared of the Ampel being destabilized and New elections leading to higher right wing turnouts