[Skybird]

The CDU was disemboweled alive by Merkel and stripped of all possible rivals for her position of power. Now it is nothing more than a papyrus-like, empty shell, a hollow torso or empty cocoon as in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and when the wind blows, the remnants of what was once there crackle. Merkel was also never a woman of the CDU party who felt connected to it. She didn't, she never did - and that became abundantly clear especially after her departure. She needed a party as a vehicle for her ride to power. Just any party. And that is all that defines her relation with the CDU. There is not and never was anything more.

That's why the CDU today has absolutely no character and is defined by flirtatious zeitgeist mimics without any commitment (I mean "Verbindlichkeit") but with a maximum will to opportunism - a Merkel legacy.

Since it has denied itself the alternative - at least trying to cooperate with the AfD, as is occasionally the case at local and municipal level! - the CDU only has the option of having a green or red coalition partner. And that partner demands green, red, woke policies as the price for elevating little Merz to the throne. Since the CDU has got rid of its former brand essence of "conservatism, Christian-derived values, commitment” just as thoroughly as it has got rid of its expert personnel, and is ultimately facing exactly the same desolate catastrophe as a basic red-led government did, it will ultimately only be left to carry on next year as red-green culminated and Merkel initiated: green-red woke or red-green woke.

I can't help anyone who is still saying that they absolutely have to go to the elections, that their vote counts for something.

Voting for the AfD is also not an alternative at the moment. Because the AfD will not become capable of governing through a coalition or absolute majority, not in the foreseeable future. So again it will be the others governing.

Vote red or green, and you get red/green.

Vote CDU, and you get red/green.

Vote AfD, and you get red/green.

And all parties except the AfD are unanimously threatening Nibelung loyalty to the EU and the euro. Mind you, orginally the AfD was founded as an anti-Euro project against Merkel's currency policy.

Elections without having choice - are pointless.

Our stodgy would-be President Steinmeier did not miss the opportunity to call on everyone to vote for the “right” party, with his usual stolid pomposity. And he indirectly threatened to cancel the election in the event of an AfD victory, as happened in Romania (for other and probably much more valid reasons). He didn't say that word for word, of course, but the threat could be read between the lines. Also the much more blatantly blasé Scholz admonished the Germans to make the “right” choice.

Incidentally, CDU chancellor candidate Merz is only pretending to be fresh and young. In fact, he is already of retirement age and, at 69, is not likely to win the hearts of the young. There are a number of polls on the candidates for chancellor, some of whose results are extremely contradictory. I therefore do not place my trust in such statements, even in homeopathic doses. The question of which party will be the strongest force is clearer, and the CDU's claim of 30-35% cannot be seriously doubted if they do nothing completely wrong.