#if you are then also worrying about the AfD getting voted into such a strong position they'll become part of the coalition .... yeah.

[black-silverwolf]

Looking at politics: alles scheiße hier

[shysurvivor]

I think it is not surprising that the young people or people in general vote the AfD. I mean we always witness movements like these when capitalism is at its peak. I mean the distribution of wealth is unjust. Instead of proper and fair distribution, the government as well as the opposition are doing all they can to maintain the status quo. I mean two-thirds of the government are supposedly left leaning. Still, the FDP is always winning. Because, if you look at it closely, the FDP is openly saying and fighting for the same interests, that the politicians from the other parties are also fighting for. The only difference is that those politicians are doing so in private. In the end it is a simple class question. Neither Scholz and the SPD under his leadership, nor the Greens under Habeck will fight for the workers.

The rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer. Instead of taking steps to distribute the weight of the climate crisis fairly and put the strain on those who have done and are still doing the most harm, they push the issue. The FDP is always calling for the Leistungsprinzip but then they turn around and basically force the government to change the law so their minister doesn't have to do his freaking job. But then they simultaneously push the discourse to look at the unemployed who get social security money for doing nothing, calling them names and everything. The cognitive dissonance must be strong with the people if they cannot see that the most expensive couch potato is actually the Verkehrsminister, Volker Wissing. Because he is actively avoiding doing his job. And he is still not getting fired. Something that the free market (the most beloved thing for the FDP) would not tolerate.

Honestly, we might be able to change the tides. But let's be real, the media discourse is massive. Foucault was right when he named the discourse as one hell of a powerful thing.

And the media won't back real left ideas. Because socialism, the thing that we need the most right now, is not popular with the media. Just like in the past, when Hitler was supported by the wealthy - the AfD is much more aligned with the interests of the wealthy and powerful because the AfD promises that it keeps the system as is. Real re-distribution won't happen under the AfD - something that is supported by the wealthy. Because the only ones that are getting disenfranchised are people of the lower classes or PoC. So they don't have to worry about a thing.

So yeah. Honestly, we would need some good old left populism because of the anger at the government, the anger at the unfairness and the disillusionment, it is all there. But once again, we see how the right wing ideas are pushed. CDU, AfD, FDP - if you look at the fundamentals of their ideology you see that they all believe that people are not equal. Because that is how capitalism works - inequality.

Also, in Germany, most people believe that their family was somehow trying to help Jews and other victims. That they were part of the Resistance or something. Which is a lie and wrong.

Additionally, I have learned that the reason why so many died during COVID, the reason why the people are not doing their part to lessen the climate crisis, the reason why the AfD is so successful is, the people in general don't believe that shitty things would happen to them. They don't believe that their home is gonna flood or that they are gonna die of heatstroke. That they are getting sick and die or develop Long Covid and suffer for years. They won't believe that the AfD really enforces their openly communicated plans of mass deportations and what not. And even if, they don't believe that they are involved.

...

Es ist zum Mäuse melken...

What is wrong in Germany right now, because why is the AfD (a far right nationalist party) one of the most voted parties for the age group 16-24. Do people people think that it is funny or do they genuinely believe in the values (if you can call them that) that the AfD stands for. I know that in the past years there was a rise in popularity for conservative parties with the youth but the AfD can't even be considered conservative, theren are people actively trying to get them banned for a good reason and in some regions they are considered "verfassungswidrig", which means that they go against the German constitution.

The general result aren't any better,.AfD is the second most voted party, whilst the CDU (conservative Christians) are the most voted. The CDU isn't surprising but still, what does it say about a country when the most voted party are conservatives that don't support the LGBTQ people and are trying to pass legislation that forbides "Gendern", which in German means language that also includes people that don't identify as male or female. Instead the CDU supports Israel whilst preaching "nie wieder" (never again) in regards to the holocaust.

And furthermore if you look at which parties are most voted in which areas you'll see that the AfD is mostly favoured by the east, the very people who grew up and whose parents and grandparents grew up in the DDR (East Germany), where they were spied on and threatened by the government and barely had any freedom. Haven't they learnt anything.

And why is it that only 64,8% of the population have voted? What about the rest? How is a democracy supposed to work when over 1/3 of the population doesn't vote? Does their future matter this little to them? Even my extended family that are in vacation during the elections have voted by post beforehand.

Graphics source: Tagesschau.de

[notafraidofredyellowandblue]

Flake interview 2020-01

Not a new interview, but relatively recent, Flake with "Der Standard" 2020-01 before an appearance of Flake in Vienna (author Stefan Weiss), don't think there's a translation on the website, so here's a shot..:

Rammstein keyboardist Flake: "The reunification was a mess"

Christian "Flake" Lorenz hits the keys not only as a keyboardist, but also as an author. A conversation about controversial views on the GDR, fireworks and climate protection

At Rammstein he is the "keyfucker" - GDR jargon for keyboard players. His real name is Christian Lorenz, but he has been calling himself "Flake", pronounced in German, of course, since his youth. For a quarter of a century, the native of East Berlin has been the alien in the German rock band, the thin freak among the strong musclemen. In the meantime, Flake also hits the keys as an author: In "An was ich mich so erinnern kann" (2015) he wrote down his GDR experiences, followed in 2017 with "Heute hat die Welt Geburtstag", a literary autobiography about Rammstein. On March 26, Flake will come to Vienna's Globe Theater for a reading.

STANDARD: We are currently celebrating 30 years of 'Die Wende' *1). Your joy is limited, as one knows. How do you perceive the anniversary?

Flake: 'Die Wende' and reunification of Germany have to be separated. I experienced the change as a punk at the time. The ossified old concrete headframe of the GDR Politburo was also our enemy. We didn't want this idiotic regime anymore and we fought to loosen it up. When the wall came down, we didn't know what to do with the freedom we suddenly had. But then began an incredibly exciting time in which we tried to develop professionally, politically and musically in every direction.

STANDARD: And then came the reunification.

Flake: A lot went wrong from then on. We were annexed as a useless country, entire biographies were declared worthless, companies were closed so that the western companies could expand. We have been reset to such an extent that resentment and disappointment have built that have persisted until now. By and large, the reunification in this form was a mess.

STANDARD: If you look at Germany's east today, right-wing populism has recently had great political success there. A legacy of reunification?

Flake: Many people are disappointed because certain promises have not been fulfilled. But they already had the political left in their lives, now they are trying it with the right. Personally, I cannot understand how one can vote for the AfD *2). But those who do are doing it in large part in protest against the mainstream parties. It is clear that the AfD cannot meet expectations either. If the AfD were to rule, many people would notice very quickly that it is not getting better, but worse.

STANDARD: You grew up in the East Berlin punk scene. What are the differences between the East and West punks?

Flake: There was a fundamental difference: the Ostpunks didn't need any money because life was absurdly cheap, rent around 25 marks. The koney you made from one concert lasted over a month. So you could make the music you wanted to make and not just the music that sells well. Absurdly enough, it made us very free.

STANDARD: There were also IM Stasi informers among your band colleagues at the time (IM: unofficial employee, note). Aren't you angry with the repressive surveillance state of the GDR?

Flake: I'm not angry with IM informers in the bands. Because their IM status often made it possible for the bands to exist at all. The Stasi didn't lock up its own people. The best example of this is the GDR band 'Die Firma'. It was founded by IM informers. The gag was that 'Die Firma' ('The Company') was actually a synonym for "Stasi". Covered by the Stasi, they then sang anti-subversive texts. Almost brilliant really.

STANDARD: Do you understand when it is said that the GDR was an injustice state and that Stasi repression was a kind of terror?

Flake: I can understand it when people say that who have experienced it and suffered from it. But personally, I can't say that the whole state was bad. I don't want to know how many innocent people have been or are being imprisoned and monitored in the West. I do not find the generalization of the "unjust state" okay.

STANDARD: Would Rammstein have been conceivable in the GDR?

Flake: We wouldn't have founded a band like Rammstein within the GDR because it would have been the wrong answer to this system. We founded Rammstein because we noticed that our punk music wasn't getting anywhere in the West. It took harder stuff.

STANDARD: You have retained a kind of socialism within the band. Nevertheless, Rammstein is a millionaire company. Were there moments when you thought: The money could not only destroy our character but also the band?

Flake: Rammstein is a company where money fluctuates a lot. We have a lot of employees, we buy tons of pyrotechnics, we have a huge stage, costumes, our own electricity network, we shoot extremely complex videos. The money that remains private can actually hardly harm us, because it is so limited. We really have to make sure that the plus-minus calculation works out.

STANDARD: In your book "Heute hat die Welt Geburtstag" you describe the 25 years of Rammstein as a long partnership: It has become calmer in bed, but you understand each other blindly. Is divorce even an option?

Flake: Divorce is definitely not an issue. It's like a very long marriage: You don't even think about divorce anymore.

STANDARD: In the midst of tough muscle men, you were always the figure that breaks everything, especially in the interaction with singer Til Lindemann, who sometimes roasts you on stage like a cockroach. It looks like the traditional comedian constellation white clown and stupid August, Laurel and Hardy with SM components. How important is that to the show?

Flake: We developed that more by accident. We never made it up: you are the strong one, I am the weak one. At our first concerts we always stood around very haphazardly, then we started pushing and provoking each other. When I watch a normal heavy metal band I get bored easily. We always have something going on.

STANDARD: Do you sometimes long for a role change at Rammstein? To be the strong one for once?

Flake: Nah, I have other worries. With those couple of concerts, I can handle my role well enough.

STANDARD: Can you even enjoy appearances or does that only come afterwards? After all, a Rammstein show is precision work.

Falke: What do you mean enjoy? I enjoy when everything runs smooth and everything works like a machine. There are good and bad concerts, at the good ones we take off like an airplane.

STANDARD: Rammstein mixes black romanticism with black humor. You yourself love the blues, which often sails in similar waters. Can you draw joy out of melancholy?

Flake: The blues is the best example of this. Sadness and comfort go hand in hand. All of popular music arose from a problem of the respective author. This is exactly what you want to hear when you are not feeling well yourself. During puberty you normally don't want to hear "Walking on Sunshine" either.

STANDARD: Traditionally, there is also joy in melancholy and morbidity in Vienna. Is that the Eastern European impact?

Flake: Slavic music is very melancholic, on the other hand the Goth culture comes from the west. So I wouldn't really pinpoint that to anything local.

STANDARD: It is said that Rammstein did more to preserve the German language than all the Goethe Institutes put together. Are you proud of that?

Flake: Yeah. But the interesting thing is that we are regarded more highly abroad than in our own country. In Germany there is a lot of ranting: We are dull and foolish about Germany - complete nonsense.

STANDARD: Rammstein has always been compared to the totalitarian parody band Laibach. They recently played in North Korea with the aim of appearing subversive. Is something like that conceivable for Rammstein?

Flake: We'd have to think very carefully about what we want and why we want it. If that were to help someone, okay - but only to be able to say, "We're subversive now," that's not an argument.

STANDARD: For reasons of climate protection, there is an increasing number of missile bans. A topic for Rammstein?

Flake: We played a concert in Chicago once. The local fire protection was so rigorous that we shouldn't even have lit a match. Complete ban on pyro. We went on stage and said: either we are leaving because we are not allowed to make a fire here, or we are playing without. The audience wanted the latter, of course. And it became one of our best shows. You have to weigh it up a bit: should you stop all things like a Rammstein show for climate reasons? But I totally understand that there shouldn't be any more bangs on New Year's Eve. I was in Vienna once at the turn of the year, and there was relatively little banging. I thought that was good. Berlin is one of the most terrifying cities on New Year's Eve. There it's pure aggression.

Notes:

*1) i kept 'Die Wende' as the term for the political transformation in east germany, not sure what the official english phrase is

*2) AfD, short for 'Alternative für Deutschland' or 'Alternative for Germany' is a right-wing populist political party, often characterized as far-right, known for its opposition to the European Union and immigration

[jotunlokisuggestion]

when you say a lot of things currently happening politically, do you mean world or germany?

//Having finished typing this, I’m just going to put an apology in advance for the incoming rant.

Answer: Both I guess. There is a lot of things going on in the world that I worry about politically at the moment. Of course I worry about North Korea. About the Middle East. About Boku Haram in Nigeria. About detained children in the US. About the Australian government putting refugees in camps with hardly any medical attention. About fires in Greece. I follow the news and I’m aware these things are happening and I know that most of them are worse than what we’re dealing with in Germany. But the thing is. Growing up I never imagined these things to reach us the way they do now.

Until now. A few weeks ago the AfD became more popular in the polls than the SPD (the social-democrats), the only party older than the Federal Republic of Germany. The party that was persecuted under Hitler and had to go abroad and resisted. The party that existed in the Weimarer Republic. The party that already existed when we had a fucking Kaiser. (to be fair, the AfD surpassing them is mostly due to the SPD rapidly losing in polls but it’s still scary) You know, almost every Western country currently has a party of right-winged nutters and Nazis on the rise and…sadly we do to. The AfD. We actually were late to this because Germany isn’t very accessible to that kind of rhetoric but they started getting popular in 2014 as a party of “Europe-sceptic” old people. And then they kicked out their leader and replaced them with the very radical right-wing Frauke Petry. And she led the party for a while and I remember 2015 was:

“OMG FRAUKE PETRY IS SUCH A NAZI SHE’S SO SCARY THIS IS DANGEROUS SHIT!” which was true.

Then, one day after the last election in 2017 Frauke Petry left the party - because it had become too right-wing for her. (obviously only after she got her seat in the Bundestag)

Reaction: “OMG THE MODERATE FRAUKE PETRY HAS LEFT THE ONLY REASONABLE VOICE IN THE AFD NOW THE NAZIS WILL TAKE OVER!”

Like…you can’t illustrate a movement to the right in a country and in a party more clearly than that.

We don’t have a Trump or a Duterte as Chancellor. The AfD is in the Bundestag now - which is also something people couldn’t imagine a few years ago! - but they’re not in charge, they’re in the opposition and the other parties in the opposition hate then more than the actual government and refuse to work with them. So they mostly sit around and complain.

I disagree with Merkel on many things and I never voted CDU but I can live with her and for all I care she can stay Chancellor forever if that’s the only thing that can prevent Alice Weidel from becoming Chancellor. 

But you know-

I left school about 5 years ago. So I went to school all through 2000-2013. And in basically every year and in most classes one way or another we discussed the question: “Can “it” happen again.” at some point - “It” being the NS-Regime. 

As long as I can remember I mostly sided with ‘yes’. That yes, it can happen again. Looking at the world and looking at places like North Korea or China (and in many ways also the US, no offence) I always felt like it’s very arrogant how many Germans often argue: “Well, we learnt from our mistakes!”- “We are different because we know what can happen.” - “We had the Weimar Republic and did away with all the weaknesses and loopholes.” As if we are somehow smarter or more educated or magically the only nation on the world advanced enough to realise the Nazis are bad.

The thing is. I figured it could happen again. I always figured it would look differently. The Nazis have a very…strong brand, let’s put it like that. And their uniforms and their salute and the very language they used or the way Hitler talked - this stuff is something basically every child in Germany knows. There is a huge awareness.

So I always figured that if something like that rose again, it would look very different. 

But doesn’t. Björn Höcke - one of the biggest AfD politicians told some American newspaper that “Adolf Hitler wasn’t all that bad”. Many AfD-politicians are insisting we are mourning the victims of the Holocaust too much. Some of Alice Weidel’s supporters (she’s the most important AfD-politician at the moment.) almost got kicked out of Sachsenhausen because they denied the Holocaust loudly in fucking Sachsenhausen. They went into a former concentration camp- now a memorial place - and denied the Holocaust. (Which is illegal in Germany so the police is investigating it obviously, but. Good luck proving that because obviously, they deny it)

And then Chemnitz happened. Chemnitz is. Scary as fuck.

I know there was some international coverage about what went on/is going on in Chemnitz but I’m not sure how many people outside of Germany followed that so let’s simplify it like this:

A few people got into an argument. whatever really happened aside, it ended tragically with two men stabbing another man. There was a lot of mourning  as you can expect - also a lot of serious, honest mourning. But the thing was - the two culprits were refugees and the victim was German. And the city it happened in has…strong Nazi-presence. I mean the classic, bald-headed baseball-bat carrying drunkard-type, not even the well-dressed Identitarian Alt-Right type. The honesty-in-advertising kind. 

And these Nazis grasped the opportunity and started marching through the streets of Chemnitz, attacking people, doing the Hitler Salute singing the U-Bahn-Song (It’s a forbidden Nazi song about “building an underground train to Auschwitz” like. This level of vile. Imagine Charlottesville without torches).

And AfD-politicians like Höcke or Gauland expressed sympathy. Like…so far they did everything to avoid being placed in this context. They tried to look modern and clean and educated and shit to hide their ideology. They even avoided associating too publicly with Pegida, which was less radical than what is going on in Chemnitz. They are no longer scared of losing popularity over this.

 And many Germans argue: Well, Chemnitz is a “Nazi-city” and Saxony is the “Nazi-state”. And “everyone knows it’s a problem area.” and “haha let’s just send the Saxons off to Syria then everything is perfect and alright in Germany again and obviously no West-German has ever had a bad thought about foreigners in their life.” 

And yeah, it’s probably the biggest problem area we have. I have friends from Saxony and the shit they’ve seen their  - especially in smaller towns - is really scary. One German-Israeli comedian called Shahak Shapira wrote a book about growing up in the East which might be translated into English one day because he does a lot of stuff in English and if it does, I recommend it if you’re interested in that stuff because he does a good job of talking about these places in a way that explains them well to outsiders. A friend of mine from Marocco studied in Dresden - the capital of Saxony - for a while and he told me about some shit he’d seen there. A colleague told me her roommate turned down a job offer in Dresden because she asked where they’d recommend she should move there and - in response because she’s black - the interviewers explicitly said that there was only 1! part of the city she could live safely. That’s Dresden.

And Chemnitz is Dresden times ten. So yeah, Germans saying it’s a Saxony-problem or a Chemnitz-problem or an East-Germany problem aren’t lying (although they’re also doing it to distract from huge problems in other parts of the country) but the thing is - this shouldn’t exist. These are our version of sundown towns and saying it’s not a problem because “people there are like that” a) ignores the victims b) normalises this ideology for the sake of feeling better about ourselves and c) it’s also a breeding ground for this ideology and it’s not going to stop a the borders or walls of these cities. 

And the thing is. You know how I talked about how I always said it could happen again but now imagining how? This is the one way I always said I couldn’t imagine it. I never imagined it to take exactly the same shape. And this scares the shit out of me. These people are doing the Hitler Salute. They are singing about Auschwitz. They are honouring Nazi-politicians and visiting their burial places. And this is something I never thought I’d see here.

[kendrixtermina]

The German Marriage Equality Decision: A Political Perspective/ Context

The Decision itself was simply a matter of time, given that most of the population simply agrees with it,  

It is important to understand that this is not a shift from 0% to 100% but more from 98% to 100% -  There have been civil unions for years and over the years those civil unions have been made made closer and closer to equal in terms of civil & financial privileges. 

None of this is any excuse, of course, calling it something else is still invalidating & going to sting people who struggled with being mocked all their lives; The one major thing missing rights wise was the joint adoption specifically - You could totally adopt, you could do a stepchild adoption if your partner had a kid from a previous marriage or even a previous adoption (I think this was eventually justified with) but you couldn’t do an adoption where you’re both the legal parents right away. 

So then the real question would be, why did it take so long to do it all the way? Well, enter the bothersome intricacies of local politics. 

While Germany as a whole has been steadily moving toward social progress, some of it has been slow for a variety of reasons, including perhaps cultural ones & things being more inert & less dynamic in Europe. 

Another is impetus: The situation in the US was pretty bad with mounting polarization & extreme conservatives - if everythings not quite satisfactory but you could still technically create the life you want, there’s less of a strong drive to change. Though we have hardline conservatives here, too, and some of them have way to much power (a lot of the big industrialists are seated in the traditionally conservative Bavaria)  the situation isn’t nearly as extreme as in the US as we don’t have as many fire & brimstone preachers & religion is generally more moderate. 

Then, there’s the factor that for the past 10+ years, the reigning party has pretty much been the CDU. 

The CDU base consists of suburban moms who want benefits for big families, & wealthy conservative old men - and so they’re always sort of beholden to them especiallly with a new rightwing populist party on the blog - for over 70 years the shock from WWII has pretty much eradicated; “right wing” is considered an insult/ pretty much equivalent with “nazi” - no non-nazi but still strongly conservative party has really taken off though some have tried. 

(Comparably, my parents have consistently voted for them because after growing up in a communist country they won’t touch anything that’s “left”, even i it’s as watered down & mainstream friendly as the SPD or as different in origin as the green party. Though my father would probably vote for something like the US republican party if it existed here. )

The closest thing that exists is the centrist or perhaps sorta neoliberal CDU.  Sure they’re corporate, there’s been some bushesque security/ surveilance paranoia following terrorists attacks and I’m not voting for em in September but  they’re generally sane & do modernize when the people’s opinion does - and that’s how they stayed in power: The people want clean energy? Come on in clean energy. The people want to let the refugees in? Come on in refugees. Which can rightfully be seen as sort of self-interested but then again, changing your position instead of stubbonly insisting on it and also, they work for US: They’re our representatives - if they do what we want it means the system is working. 

Yeah that ‘C’ stands for ‘Christian’ but that’s one of the cases where theory & practive differ - They’ve put at least one muslim MP in the parliament & once formed a coalition put a protestant woman & a gay dude in the highest offices. 

Until the rightwing populist AfD showed up they were pretty much the most conservative party on the block but they’re not at all comparableto USA conservatives. (Not because the CDU is so great but because the republicans are so horrible... but that’s First-Past-The-Post for you. ) - But the thing is the CDU has taken some less conservative positions over the years (ie, let in the refugees), and the conservative voters had nowhere else to got except some tiny parties that had zero influence & far too many far-right asshats in them. Now there’s the AfD... that IS far-rights asshats but markes themselves better than the average ones/ try hard to convince stupid people that they aren’t. 

Now come the 2017 election - Last time, smaller parties made big gains in both federal & local elections but now with the Trump situation and frequent terror attacks everyone is worried and afraid, & the polls so far show a huge preference for the big parties, even more so  now that the AFD is loosing its steam in the polls. 

The SPD took that to mean that they could win, but thing is they haven’t mounted a decent candidate in years, ever since... Merkel’s predecessor, actually. There’s lots of good & bad to say about him but damn he was brave. Similarly, whatever you think about Merkel’s party, she’s a level-headed person with nerves of steel, far less actionistic than the average politician. Not the worst person to have in charge while you sit out the trump debacle.

 I daresay a lot people like merkel more than they like Merkel’s party...whereas the SPD may have the better programs in some respects but they’re too damn wishy-washie, don’t differenntiate themselves enough (eg. playing ball on corporate issues like trade deals & arms deals)  and the same is true for the no-name, no-carisma toads they keep putting up. The current leader, Gabriel, is an unpopular toad n one likes, the beloved competent people such as Steinmeier don’t want to be chancellor, so they keep pulling these unknown dudes out of nowhere & expect them to beat Merkel. 

The current one, Schultz is better than most in that h’s experienced in international politics which is what we need now but apart from some initial hype, he didn’t really do much - The CDU won several local elections as if nothing happened, poll numbers slipped back to status quo, basically he realized he wasn’t gonna win... 

That’s when he chose to make a big deal about the gay marriage thing & promise loudly to fix that if he wins, trying to make it about an ethical issue in line with the current global political climate. Lots of people would go “WEll I don’t like him but I can’t not support gay marriage” - Heck I considered it after being too dissatisfied with the SPD and intending to vote green or pirate, but to be honest, I pretty much called the current developement: That Merkel would push for a vote before the election, again, perfectly in line with her history of decisions. 

In that sense Schultz’ gamble paid off (and I’m going to call it a gamble because that’s what it was - still, if it has good results & forces progress I won’t be complaining) in that it would have given the slow grind of process a push either way: Either if he won or because the government would be forced to adress the issue before it becomes subject to the election. 

As for Merkel herself, she stayed with party lines & voted no, but was the one who forced the vote past her more conservative peers and she must have known how it would turn out - Even when explaining it, she gave a wishy-wahy, consider-all-sides-piss-no-one-off anwer like, “I was wrong in 2003 & unsatisfied even them, of course they should get to adopt, but [conservative platitude about how the constitution defines marriage]” In the end a lot of this is about power politics. 

Some of her peers CDU folks DID break with party lines so it’s possible that she really thinks this, or she may think the opposite & this was lip-service to the conservatives, or she may not care; Perhaps she did it to wash her hands of whatever happens, which will look bad in the history books, but in some sense it doesn’t matter what she thinks as long as she understands that being a leader means that it matters less than what the people think & what most of the federal parlament things.

It’s also worth considering that a lot of those politicians are old but hold “fair for its day, but presently outdated/insensitive” opinions - see also the whole burqa thing & may geneuinely not get why it matters that its called the same thing... though it would frankly be their job to keep up with public discussions. 

So what will happen next? Well, a lot of adoptions I suppose, or people having their partner written in as the other legal parent. 

Also, Schultz has nothing more to promise the people or to make himself look better than his oponent - still if he hadn’t forced the issue it may have taken another four years so even if he doesn’t become chancellor he did accomplish something. Merkel’s opponents won’t forget the no vote but since everyone got their adoption rights anyways grass will have grown over it by september.

Like, failing further desasters I’m saying Merkel is still winning. Granted, the leadership situation is far less dire with Macron around, but there’s just not much will for political change right now. We’re gonna get an SPD chancellor when Merkel decides to call it quits & retire. 

Still, even if he’s not becomming chancellor, he’ll go down in history as the guy who accomplished this so there’s that. Chances are history will only see the hard finish line not the process, but, equality means equality means equality so it’s not exactly unfair.  

I for one am happy that this won’t be subject to the election because then it would have been involved in the usual rethorical mudfights, so the same-sex couples of the republic escape having their humanity publicly debated. Homophobic signs in the streets? It becoming an issue people campaign against? No thanks. I’d take a parliamentary vote or a court decision over that every day.

[gyrlversion]

STEPHEN POLLARD: Shame on you, David Lammy

As a 54-year-old Jew, when hear the word ‘Nazi’, I listen. I pay close attention because, like every other Jew, I know the meaning of the word and its special resonance.

If the Nazis had not been defeated, I wouldn’t be here. I would never have been born because, had Adolf Hitler successfully invaded Britain and won the war, my parents — both born in London — would have joined the millions of Jews murdered by the Nazis.

So I have a message for David Lammy, the Labour MP who at the weekend likened members of the hard-Brexit European Research Group (ERG) of Conservative MPs to the Nazis.

David Lammy’s statement at the weekend likening members of the hard-Brexit European Research Group to the Nazis exposes him as an ignorant, hate-mongering fool

It’s a message that comes from my heart: How dare you?

How dare you compare people with whom you disagree on Brexit with the men and women who committed genocide — who planned in meticulous detail the most efficient mechanism for murdering an entire people?

You ignorant, hate-mongering fool…

Mr Lammy’s words are so shockingly inappropriate that they seem even worse the more one thinks about them.

Last month, Mr Lammy attended an anti-Brexit rally at which he said: ‘I’m just looking over there at Winston Churchill. On the 30th of September, 1938, he stood up in Parliament and he said we would not appease Hitler.

‘I’m looking across to Nelson Mandela who would not give in to apartheid. We say we will not give in to the ERG. We will not appease!’

Jacob Rees-Mogg is one of the most destructive forces in modern British politics. Everything he touches fails. But it is unfair to liken him to a Nazi

On the Andrew Marr Show on BBC One on Sunday, Mr Marr said to Mr Lammy: ‘By implication you’re comparing the ERG to the Nazi Party — or at least to South African racists. That was an unacceptable comparison, wasn’t it?’

Instead of apologising for his remarks, Mr Lammy said: ‘I would say that wasn’t strong enough.’

In other words, the ERG — all of whom are elected Conservative MPs — are worse than the Nazis who invaded most of Europe and sought to subjugate the world.

Doubling down, Mr Lammy said: ‘In 1938, there were allies who hatched a plan for Hitler to annex part of Czechoslovakia, and Churchill said: ‘No.’ And he stood alone.’ Mr Lammy repeated: ‘We must not appease.’

Thus, by opposing Brexit, Mr Lammy appeared to be comparing himself to Churchill. The implication was clear: anyone who does not share Mr Lammy’s view that hard Brexiteers are Nazis is therefore an appeaser of Nazis.

As it happens, I’m a Brexiteer. But I regard the ERG as deluded fools. I consider Jacob Rees-Mogg, the chairman of the ERG, to be one of the most destructive forces in modern British politics.

Everything he touches fails, whether it was the farcical vote of no confidence in Mrs May that he orchestrated at the end of last year, or his bone-headed stance against Mrs May’s Withdrawal Agreement — which he then reversed when he realised, far too late, that he was endangering Brexit itself.

And I viewed with horror Mr Rees-Mogg’s decision last month to post on Twitter a video of a speech made by the co-leader of the German far-Right party Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany). No mainstream British politician should have anything to do with the AfD.

David Lammy criticised Boris Johnson for associating with Donald Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon

Rightly, Mr Lammy pointed to Mr Rees-Mogg’s tweet quoting the AfD: ‘We have, in the ERG, in Jacob Rees-Mogg, someone who is happy to put onto his web pages the horrible, racist AfD party, a party that’s Islamophobic and on the far-Right.’

Had Mr Lammy stopped there, or had he simply attacked the ERG, I would have agreed with him. Their obstinacy over Brexit has caused great damage.

But the idea that ERG members are comparable to the Nazis because they have a different view on Brexit from Mr Lammy — and from me — is so grotesque that it reveals far more about the MP for the North London district of Tottenham than it does about the ERG.

Under questioning from Mr Marr, Mr Lammy also cited contact between Boris Johnson and Steve Bannon, President Trump’s former adviser who is building an alliance of extreme Right-wing populist parties in Europe.

Mr Lammy asked rhetorically: ‘What kind of country are we going to be like if these people [Mr Rees-Mogg and Mr Johnson] are running it?’

Mr Marr then asked Mr Lammy if he was really saying that Mr Rees-Mogg and Mr Johnson were Nazis.

He replied: ‘Ask Boris Johnson why he’s hanging out with Steve Bannon.’

Mr Bannon is a deeply worrying figure whose shady attempt to create a pan-European movement of far-Right parties needs to be countered. But he is not — does this really need to be said? — a Nazi.

The word ‘Nazi’ is bandied around as if it means ‘someone whose views I find disgusting’. There are — just — people still alive who know what Nazism is. They fled their homes or survived concentration camps. And they saw what real Nazis are and how they behave.

Notoriously, the now Independent MP Anna Soubry was verbally abused outside Parliament as a ‘Nazi’ by a pro-Brexit demonstrator some months ago.

But there is one big difference — while Ms Soubry’s assailant was arrested and is expected to face trial, Mr Lammy, on national TV, can accuse people with whom he disagrees of being Nazis and get off scot-free.

There is, however, another aspect to this sorry story which shows that Mr Lammy is not merely an idiot with no concept of recent history, but a cynical hypocrite, too.

As an MP, he is campaigning to put his party into power. Yet that party is now led by a man who has done more to unleash a culture of ‘Jew-hate’ than any politician since Hitler was defeated in 1945.

Under Jeremy Corbyn, Labour has become institutionally anti-Semitic and is preparing for an investigation by the Equality And Human Rights Commission.

Barely a day passes without news of yet another anti-Semitic Labour member or candidate emerging.

And Mr Corbyn himself has a long and foul history of embracing Jew-haters, from describing terrorists as ‘friends’ to inviting the hate preacher Raed Salah (who peddled the libel that Jews drink the blood of first-born children) to tea in the Commons and donating money to Paul Eisen, a Holocaust denier.

No wonder that, in a recent poll of British Jews, 96 per cent said anti-Semitism is now an important factor for them in deciding how to vote.

This is the party Mr Lammy represents, and the leader he wants to see installed as Prime Minister. Yet he has the gall to accuse the ERG, which simply takes a different view to him on Brexit, of being Nazis.

I have a suggestion for Mr Lammy. Over the next few days, he should read a history of the Third Reich.

I can recommend a few, such as Sir Richard Evans’s The Third Reich In Power or Sir Ian Kershaw’s biography of Hitler.

Then Mr Lammy might learn who and what the Nazis really were — and hang his head in shame.

Stephen Pollard is editor of The Jewish Chronicle.

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