And now its official: in Saxony, the AfD by votes is the winner and ranks on 1. In Brandenburg, it is the second strongest party by votes.

Eight lessons to be learned:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...a-1169606.html

Correctly identified.

Outlook:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/...a-1169632.html

Wowh, that did not take long: the chief of the CSU, Horst Seehofer, has opened debate on whether CDU and CSU shall continue as a "Fraktionsgemeinschaft", a union of two sister parties, and wants his party to have a vote on whether or not they want to continue side by side together with the CDU.

CDU/CSU have been de facto one party on national level since the founding of the federal republic after the war.

In the past years, Seehofer tried the impossible, attacking Merkel over the migration crisis, to appease the conservatives in his party, but always in the last minute falling back and lining up with her again to not threaten the government. It has pissed many conservative voters, who necessarily feel betrayed by his manouverings. They turned away and let the CSU in bavaria almost collapse this time. usually they sack results above the 50% level in their home state.

We now expect Farage to come over and extend his congratulations.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics...lly-in-germany

If he goes ahead he will damage himself and look like a hypocrite, back here UKIP is holding a leadership election and he has said do not elect one candidate who is anti muslim/islam whom would destroy UKIP.

Merkel has been weaken is this a chance for the French wolfs to take chunks out of her. :hmmm:

Macron wanted a strong Merkel/Schäuble because both sympathise with the French demand to communitise/communise European debts so that net payers must finance the debts of net receivers, which is forbidden by the Maastricht joke-of-a-treaty. If Merkel still nodds this off now, she can not hope to get away with it easily anymore, for the AfD will call her out (having already announced they want to hunt Merkel down), and with an FDP in a coalition government one woudl expect that the FDP also would not allow this to happen anymore: the FdP indicated their price for coalition is to get the seat of the finance ministry.

I think in Paris faces yesterday became longer and longer.

On the other hand, considering the psychotic characters that politicians on this level of power have, we can also expect that stubborness will prevent Merkel from facing new realities, and that she will press even harder for more EU and more Euro and more German payments (while telling the opposite to the Germans at home, of course). "Jetzt erst recht!" (now more than ever!) might become the new parole, making things even worse, of course. Like Juncker recently said the lesson of the past years must be to intensify the EUnification and that we need even more of what has brought us the several crisis of the past couple of years.

Germany was sullied and lullied by too mayn years of overwhelming grand coalition majority that left no chance for controversial debate and discussion. Merkel that way could afford to declare herself as "without alternative". The AfD strong now, the CSU under existential pressure to confront the Merkel-CDU, and Merkel having no chance to have a coalition where she must not accept compromises, but must balance interests of the Green versus that of conservatives versus that of liberals(=libertarians, not socialists) - that is good, and therefore I do not see the fall of Germany in the AfD'S raise yesterday. The AfD will misbehave, will provoke and will raise controversy. After the decade of Merkelian stagnation and collective graveyard peace-consensus strangling all discussion on Merkel'S policies to death before it could even begin, this can only be good. That it needed the AfD to raise shows how terribly petrified things over here are, due to Merkel'S years.

I think Merkel will not serve the full term. Even inside her CDU, some people have re-started to sharpen knives against her already. Which is good. I see Merkel as one of the three or four biggest disasters that have hit post-war Germany and post-war Europe. That with other chancellors it could have most likely become even worse, does not change that assessment taken for itself.

A German newspaper quotes France's Macronman, who should have told an unnamed visitor to the Elysee palace: "If Merkel coalises with the Liberals, then I am dead." His plans for raising the debts in Europe and "reforming" the Euro zone at the cost of the net payers, then could be handed over to an early funeral.

Macron's whole political program was basing on the assumption that the Germans must and will pay for it. But the head of the FDP, Christian Lindner, even yesterday evening repeated his mantra that with him there will be no chance for a deepening of the Euro zone regime, and that this is a red line the FDP will never overstep.

Merkel wants to start coalition talks with the SPD. For her, getting the SPD back into coalition, would be the most comfortable solution to her messes. And it is not certain that the Greens and the FDP want to coalise with the Merkel party at all. Everybody has noted over the past 12 years: any party who shares bed with the Merkel party, ends up dead at the end of the legislation period, getting sucked out and cannibalised. Many party unions of the FDP on federal state level reject a coalition with Merkel.

Politics in Europe right now and perhaps even more than ever are a continouos shifting sea of sand.

Pythia...? Is that really you...?!

Anyway, I saw a conference with Merkel today, and what I saw there, rang the former psychologists' alarm bells in me.

She said that she does not see anything that would have needed to be made differently in her policies, and that should have been arranged differently during the campaign, a campoaign that she herself had planned and arranged. - Mind you, her party has scored the worst result ever since 1949, and suffered big losses. Mind you also, her strategy was to avoid any confrotnation, and to sit still and remain silent and ignore anything not agreeing with her.

And she said that if people demand her to do it, if she is expected to do it, then yes, disagreeing but nevertheless: she declares that she takes responsibility for it, not believing that she should, and thinking it is injust to expect her to take that responsibility, it is quite offensive to expect that of her, "But if you people really want it and press me for it, okay, here are the words you want to hear form my lying lips: I am responsible. I am not really, but that is what you want me to say." - Of course she did not use these words. I use these words to describe the stunning, the shocking body language in her, and the alienating tone in which she made the according comment. I was stunned when seeing and hearing it. It was surreal, and really worrying.

Merkel has not understood anything. Really, nothing at all she has understood, and she thinks she is the victim of circumstances and is being treated injust. She denies reality and is disconnected form it.

She has done nothngn wrong, what she did was all right, was perfect, she beleives he rown mantry "I am without alternative", it is injust that people do not follow her anymore uncritically, she denies any own guilt for the drama happening, and in general what I saw was a woman that has snapped, and that takes very very serious personal offence from German having turned away. The Germans made the mistake - she made none.

Merkel has understood NOTHING.

I never liked her, on a personal level, but never before I have seen her as arrogant, disconnected and especially as unappealing, as today. I fear she will seek revenge on Germany: now more than ever my ways, and my ways alone!

She has understood nothing. And sees herself as victim of injustice and unthankfulness.

I think the CDU needs to get rid of her by force. The earlier, the better.

I take it you will smile on that day a tearful Merkel steps down. I am not to sure but only time will tell.

No, I'm simply her conscience.

With many many crystal balls which will soon be on display in some museum up North.

Not crystal, Tungsten.