GER politics thread

[Skybird]

New frozen pizza spotted in Germany's supermarket.





(Oetker presents: Pizza Habeck - simply no topping on it)

[JU_88]

Originally Posted by Dargo

The AfD youth wing JA is already classified as proven right-wing extremist, as are some state branches, such as those in Thuringia and Saxony according to the Verfassungsschutz. Since 2021, the AfD has been considered a suspected extremist party. The security service sees the party as a threat to the free democratic legal order in Germany, and the qualification Verdachtsfall gave the Verfassungsschutz additional powers. According to that service, AfD members propagate xenophobia and anti-democratic views. They adhere to a ‘völkisch’ nationalism and want to exclude Muslims and political dissenters. So opportune of me to think these are fascists. Who am I to think that the cornerstone of society is not the backward old-fashioned family of man, woman, children how anti Lebensborn of me and that the other.... in a ... belong and especially not be a Mensch. But no stay afraid of different thinkers, be afraid before you know it they dilute your DNA. You can spin it all you want, but what I see is brown. The slogans, lectures, symbolism, stink is back to the ‘Alte Kameraden’ time you can fool me a lot but if it stinks then it is shyte.

Even if youre correct, the sad part is that If any political establishment finds it self scrambling to contain the rise of a far right party or group like the AFD (whos retoric is very easily dismantelled in good times) - then its quite clear that said poltically establishment has screwed up royally to enable them in the first place, so how can the same people who created the problems be expected or trusted to solve them? Where are people supposed to go? Just keep voting in and trusting the same people like the CDU again and again, but expect a different outcome? Germany as for along time has been established as a very tolerant and progressive nation and society, so how afraid and desperate did people have to get to start flipping to the AFD and why, what are the route causes?, you cant just brush it all off as 'propaganda and misinformation' that kind of dismissive denial is what get us there in the first place, and the best misinformation in the world has no effect if its unrelatable to peoples reality, the root social or ecenomic causes behind such political upheavels are always something very real felt by those people. weather or not it fits comfortably in to yours or my personal world view and narrative is irrelivant.

[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.

[mapuc]

Had to translate this danish article and post it here in our GER politics thread.

I presume he is very much wrong in his statement

Musk, who in the US is closely linked to the incoming Trump administration, recently expressed public support for the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) with a brief post on the social media X stating that only the AfD 'can save Germany'.

Germany is going to the polls on February 23, and the Tesla CEO's sudden interference in the German election was widely debated.

In the debate piece in Die Welt, he argues for his support for the party, which is suspected by Germany's domestic intelligence service of being a right-wing extremist organization.

Musk believes that the AfD stands for 'political realism'. He talks about Germany being on the 'brink of economic and cultural collapse'. In Musk's eyes, the AfD has the right approach, including when it comes to the economy and migration.

https://ekstrabladet-dk.translate.go..._x_tr_pto=wapp

Markus

[Catfish]

Originally Posted by mapuc

[edit: Musk]
I presume he is very much wrong in his statement [....]

Musk is wrong in a lot of ways. We will soon realize what this means.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by mapuc

Had to translate this danish article and post it here in our GER politics thread.

I presume he is very much wrong in his statement

https://ekstrabladet-dk.translate.go..._x_tr_pto=wapp

Markus

Maybe not as wrong as people want him to be. He attacked the certain sort of Zeitgeist we have over here and that is used to be on an ideological partying frenzy without being put into quesiton and now reacts with the to-be-excpected hysteria. Mind you, a poll riun earlier this year found that over 90% of German journalists and staff at newspapers confessed to vote green-left. The poltical left is used to have an uncritical court reporting not putting left idelogy and woke demands into question. Its not by chance only that the best newspaper there still is, is no German but a Swiss one, the Zürcher Neue Zeitung NZZ. Personally I would rate none of the German mainstream media papers with a schoolnote higher than C - and most are not even that. German newspaper an dmedia do not keep their distance to political actors and parties, and are usually just the non-AfD mouthpiece of the Bundestag parties. With the state television channels 1 and 2 (ARD and ZDF) its even much, much worse. I think of GDR propaganda television thatg we watched for comedy when I see their news porgrams. The GDR TV via-air-broadcasting was not to be recieved everywhere in Germany, but living in West Berlin, we obviously could.

[TE] “Germany has become too comfortable in mediocrity - it's time for bold change, and the AfD is the only party that opens up this path.” Tech billionaire Elon Musk is able to express his views on why he is backing the AfD in an unusually broad manner in Die Welt. The fact that the newspaper “dares more Musk” leads to an internal conflict in which the head of opinion resigns and employees publicly express their displeasure on X.
The world has done nothing wrong. Nevertheless, the media hullabaloo, both from the editorial office and on social media, suggests that the Springer newspaper itself recommended voting for the AfD. This is piquant at a time when a new Correctiv investigation has been eagerly picked up by the masses - and is already being haunted by ARD as “Potsdam 2.0”.

A few days ago, Christian Lindner tested out what you are still allowed to say in public. Margarethe Schreinemakers once said “Autobahn doesn't work at all” to Eva Hermann in a highly acclaimed talk show on Johannes B. Kerner when she pointed out that certain things from the Nazi era are completely normal, even if they have a certain background. Harald Schmidt, in turn, used this as a template for a “Nazometer” that lit up when certain terms were mentioned. Of course, there was also a dispute about this.

The Autobahn is now called Elon Musk and the Nazometer is an AfD-O-Meter. Who invites whom and where, how close they are to the AfD and the words they use say something. Because perhaps they also use the AfD and its figureheads. Remember the “Occident” discussion, when the Catholic Church under Cardinal Marx suddenly distanced itself from a term whose originator was the Church itself. Because the PEGIDA group referred to it.

So there are numerous, tedious back stories to the current case, in which nothing more has happened than tech mogul Elon Musk explaining in an article in one of the country's most important newspapers why he posted on X that only the AfD could save Germany. Die Welt must therefore allow itself to be criticized for letting the other side have its say and explaining what it means. That's a good move. Because “traditional” media suffer from the speed of X. What Welt and Co. can provide, however, is a deeper analysis. On X, people want to be informed quickly: too long, didn't read (tldr) is what they call it in Internet German. The weekly newspaper is a good choice.

And what Musk is saying goes much deeper than mere populist partisanship for a German right-wing party. The international war for freedom of expression is also being fought in Germany; it is a battlefield that was announced here at TE shortly after the election victory. The AfD is therefore the logical choice for Musk, because:

“It addresses the current problems - without the political correctness that often obscures the truth. The portrayal of the AfD as far-right is clearly false when you consider that Alice Weidel, the party's leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!”

Musk summarizes this under one of five points, in this case “political realism”, which speaks for the AfD, because the other parties have “simply failed”. Their policies have led to economic stagnation, social unrest and an erosion of national identity.

Musk elaborates. “The German economy, once the engine of Europe, is now drowning in bureaucracy and oppressive regulations. The AfD has understood that economic freedom is not only desirable, but necessary.” It stands for de-regulation, and Germany needs a party that not only talks about growth, but also takes measures to avert state intervention.

Another point: immigration and national identity: Germany has opened its borders to a very large number of migrants. “Although this was done with humanitarian intentions, it led to significant cultural and social tensions,” said Musk. The AfD advocates a controlled immigration policy; it is not about xenophobia, but about ensuring that Germany does not lose itself in the pursuit of globalization.

Musk explicitly addresses Germany's disastrous energy policy. “Germany's decision to phase out nuclear power and instead rely heavily on coal and imported gas, as well as unstable wind and solar power, without the battery storage needed to stabilize the grid, has left the country vulnerable, especially in terms of power supply disruptions.” What Musk writes could have been written by any TE author.

Finally, in the subheading “Innovation and the future”, Musk emphasizes that it promotes critical thinking instead of indoctrination, an attitude that is in line with the basic principle of his own corporate ethos. “To those who condemn the AfD as extremist, I say: don't be put off by the label attached to it. Take a look at their policies, economic plans and efforts to preserve culture,” emphasizes the Tesla boss.

Die Welt was aware that such words contain explosive material. It therefore added a counter-commentary to this article. Its author is Jan Philipp Burgard, long-time USA correspondent for ARD and now editor-in-chief at Die Welt. Burgard was also responsible for the duel between Björn Höcke (AfD) and Mario Voigt (CDU). So Die Welt pulls out the sharpest caliber to restrict Musk's commentary. This is actually what you would expect from good journalism: The debate of free speech for the best argument. After all, you don't have to share Elon Musk's positions.

For many, however, this exchange of blows was apparently too free. There had already been a crackling in the editorial office: apparently the Musk text was to be prevented. The situation then exploded on Saturday. Eva Maria Kogel, head of the opinion section, resigned after the pre-publication. Ironically, she announced the move on Musk's X platform after leaving it unused for three years. Other Welt journalists are also protesting, whether publicly or indirectly.

Medieninsider reports that there was hope within the editorial team that “after days of discussions in heated conferences and crisis meetings between the editors-in-chief and editorial representatives, it would not appear after all”. In a letter obtained by the magazine, she quotes that the editorial team had warned against an “election advertisement for the AfD disguised as a guest article”. This is remarkable, because in pro & con debates, party politicians or people close to a party always make a point for the political movement they sympathize with. If Elon Musk had campaigned for the Greens in the Taz newspaper because of their love of electric cars, not a whiff would have gone through the press.

The suspicion arises that this is not just about the AfD and Musk. In many respects, the latest Welt affair is reminiscent of a critical article on trans hype, which was taken down after huge displeasure from the trans-moving elements of the republic. Mathias Döpfner then prescribed a strict LGBTQ-friendly course. As with the coronavirus issue, the editors, who are brushed against the grain, are testing their limits. A baptism of fire for the new editor-in-chief?


https://www.tichyseinblick.de/feuill...weit-die-welt/

[mapuc]

Thank you Marc for this in-deep analysis of the political landscape.

Never knew it was poisonous when it comes to free speech and AfD.

I foresee a landslide victory for the AfD. Not enough to rule the country by themselves. Since no one want to cooperate with them I expect a quadrable coalition will be the result after the election and negotiation between the parties.

Markus

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by mapuc

I foresee a landslide victory for the AfD.

Not yet this time. But what the other parties are doing is all election campaigning for the AfD. They are driving up the ratings for the AfD. At the same time, they are trying to get the AfD banned. There should only be left-wing extremist, red-green politics in Germany, in line with John Ford's old saying that the Model T is available in any color - as long as you always order black.

Basically, all of this also applies to the EU's sphere of influence. In a way, the EU has declared as unthinkable a political world in which it and the euro arenot seen as the most glorious, wonderful and desirable thing on earth.

The future of us all? Will be either socialist, pro-Islamic, anti-Christian (in the meaning of histortical heritage and a general cultural influence), anti-West, totalitarian-paternalistically pro-EU - or extremist authoritarian, nationalistical. Forget democracy. Its just a slogan.

2000 years of Hellenistic-Roman civilization have come to an end. “Rome is burning”, it is ablaze. The Western world is falling, overthrown from without and corrupted from within, too rotten to be able to counter all the challenges and to withstand the storms any longer. The Western world is falling - and we who live now, are condemned to witness the fall.


https://www.amazon.de/Was-tun-Leben-...ps%2C83&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.de/Renovatio-Euro...ps%2C83&sr=8-4

https://www.amazon.de/Europa-Aeterna...ps%2C80&sr=8-1

https://www.amazon.de/Auf-dem-Weg-in...44305450&psc=1

[Catfish]

^ How disappointing for you if this will not happen.

[Skybird]

No, how sad that it already is happening all around us, practically everywhere.

[JU_88]

Originally Posted by Catfish

^ How disappointing for you if this will not happen.

Love it or loath it, Islam is course to take over eventually on the current trajectories we are on, You can toss current left and right politics out the window - and just observe a few basic numbers and principles.


Demographics: While even North Africa and India are now starting to slip below the population replacment rate of 2.1 the west's is absoutley in the gutter, to the point we will not have enough working aged tax payers to support are aging populations by 2050. China is also in big trouble here thanks to their one child policy, something the CCP now openly regrets.

Islam is still by far the fastest growing relegion and ideology on earth, the west has by and large abandoned relegion and family values or placed it below materialsm, self fullfiment and expression and wealth status, has for several decades favoured modern first world progressive thinking, which means to be outward and not inward looking or even have an out group preference, in practice this ammounts to celebrating the cultures of others and being humble or even somewhat ashamed of your own - a total inverse of right wing nationalsim and tribal ingroup preference, unfortunatley the rest of the world is not practicing this so much, and if you have zero pride or support for your own culture and heritage others cannot be reasonably expected to adopt it or continue to support or cheerlead it for you - why the hell should they? And So your culture eventually dies.

Islam as a very conservative and traditional culture is simply getting bigger and stronger, thats just reality, Islam simply cares for Its own self preservation and is not trying to be nobel and clever by putting others before itself and why would it? when it doesnt take an overly objective view of them anyway, the word god is not really up for debate. There is no sense in being mad at islam for it either, in the west our decline is 100% something we did to ourselves, the same to happens to all societies which advance in this way eventually. Its not like its the first time this has happened in human history. I think its effectlivley what happens when a culture or society gets its self to the top of the food chain, it gets complacent, starts to take many things for granted, almost delusionally belives it self to be too big to fail. You see the same thing play out with Companies, Sports teams, Artists, inderviduals, you name it. Delusions of grandure off the back of some successful legacy. People at the top get sloppy :P


The sun is setting on the west, the Progressive Left position is to accelerate its demise in favor of its own untested globalist vision, While the Rights is trying to clinge on/ preserve the nation state and national culture, it may even try to turn the clock back. Its entirley possible neither will succeed in the end.

[Skybird]

^ About Islam in Germany it should be noted that a few days ago I read somewhere, I can't remember where, that most the Christian churches that are being abandoned and sold in grpowing numbers have for some time been bought and rededicated predominantly by one group of buyers: Islamic communities. These form the largest group of buyers! Symbolically a devastating signal, because this is the absolute triumph of Islam over its adversaries, when it even claims their own God's houses for itself. In terms of the weight of meaning, this corresponds roughly to the erection of towers as a sign of the authorities' claim to power in times gone by.

Otherwise, the writing is on the wall. In the decline of schools and the disrespect for the value of general education. In the replacement of education with leftist, politically correct ideology in schools and universities. In the slow-motion collapse of the monetary system, which is increasingly being deformed into an instrument of oppression, surveillance and control. The behavior of the state in the Corona “epidemic”. The loss of military resilience. The degeneration of modern art (yes, I use the bad word...), the infantilization of artistic performance standards, and their degenerate perversion, which blatantly serves only the orgasmic satisfaction of pleasure on more and more stages. The demographically induced self-extinction. The exodus of ever larger parts of key industries. The sexual disinhibition, the denmial of basic natural standards undeniably defined by genetics and biochemistry. The destruction of family as the constellation of female mother, male father, young child. The commercial decline and desolation of city centers. The establishment of parallel societies and their social and even legal rules, alongside the state and local traditions. The erosion of infrastructure. The debt world war. The ever more fragmented harassment of citizens with bureaucracy and extortion. The increasingly blatant sanctioning of unpopular expressions of opinion. The terror of energy policy. The ever more homogenized political spectrum of choices. The delegitimization of patriotism and the denigration of one's own historically grown cultural identity, and its replacement by a universalistic, non-discriminatory identity featuring an arbitrarily designed non-discriminatory artificial image of humanity from the - ultimately Leninist - ideology laboratory. The accumulation of more and more power in fewer and fewer hands. The accumulation of control over the essential foundations of life in the hands of uncontrolled greed for profit. The transformation of capitalist free markets into monopolies. The politically correct attitude replaces the ability, the professional competence, the scrounging replaces the willingness to perform. The education crisis. The collapse of bridges and railroads.

The more individuality is demanded, the more specialized particular interests are formulated by ever smaller fractioned minorities, the greater the fragmentation, the less the unifying effect of a shared sense of belonging, the less significant shared culture and shared identity become, and instead there is even more and more antagonism and competition. In the end, everyone stands alone. Or translated: one falls after the other. The weak first, the strong last.

The writing is on every wall.I see nothing encouraging.

Germany, France (where there are Islamic attacks on at least one church every day), Sweden (where a head of government told the astonished Swedes a few years ago that Sweden no longer belonged to the Swedes, but to the foreigners who were coming), England, and of course: Brussels and the nightmare that is the EU: a corrupt criminal cartel, a syndicate of organized crime that hides behind a brutal fighting smile while spouting poisonous lies and twisting the garrots tighter and tighter around our necks, making itself unassailable to criticism by always wearing an ice-cold smiling mask.

And just btw, I think Musk does not know the AfD very well. That I defend him this time doe snot mean I agree with his views of what the AfD is. But he set the correct bigger diagnosis. Whether it is good style to interfere this directly with another nations election campaign, is something else - it quite Russian doing what he does, isn't it. On the other hand Europe is lecturing the US on many other opportunities as well, so maybe we count it as a draw... But I never denied the big entertaining value of the Trumpists.

In order to develop an inner attitude that can bear all this, it is essential to recognize that what is happening is actually happening indeed, and to understand that we as individuals have little influence in the span of our lives. We must learn to think again in longer time frames than just legislative periods and annual balance sheets - or our life span. We have to learn again to be less influenced by our delusions of individuality and more by being connected to longer-lasting, generation-spanning processes.

The construction of a cathedral, for example, used to be a mission that shaped the cityscape for generations, for centuries. Today, the attention span extends at best as far as planning one's own career steps - and after you, the deluge.

Let us be realistic. Let us renounce our loyalty to a corrupt state that betrays and deceives us. Let us realize that we will only be helped to the extent that we learn to help ourselves - against the fierce resistance of the state. Let us keep our distance, create alternative care structures and social connections where we can. The only thing that can apply to the present is to need others as little as possible and to remain loyal and faithful to our own. No matter what the cost. The times will be bitter, the loss of freedom total. You don't want to have to tell your children that - and yet: from some age on they need to know.

[Skybird]

Education crisis in Germany: A system on the brink

In Germany, an above-average number of young people leave school early or drop out of education compared to the rest of the EU. The proportion of young people who only completed lower secondary level, i.e. the intermediate school leaving certificate, was 12.8% in 2023, significantly above the EU average of 9.5%, as a recent draft report by the EU Commission warns. Germany is therefore in the critical range - only Spain and Romania are doing worse.

The number of trainees dropping out of training in Germany has reached a new high in recent years. According to calculations by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB), a total of 155,325 training contracts were terminated prematurely in 2022.
Given that 475,100 new training contracts were concluded, this corresponds to a termination rate of just under 30 percent - the highest figure ever recorded.

The increase in inadequate basic skills among pupils is a particular cause for concern. As denounced in the current EU draft for the EU's so-called “Joint Employment Report”, the proportion of 15-year-old Germans without basic skills in mathematics has almost doubled since 2012. An obvious sign of the failure of German education policy.

The results of the international school performance study PISA in recent years in particular highlight the educational crisis. According to the 2023 PISA survey, the German school system has fallen back to a level that it actually left behind 20 years ago. In addition to deficits in mathematics, German pupils also show considerable weaknesses in reading skills and science.

Last year's PISA study showed that around 26% of young people in Germany can only read to a limited extent - an increase of five percentage points compared to the 2018 survey. These pupils are often unable to grasp the meaning of a text or reflect on it critically. There is also another alarming deficit: a recent analysis of PISA data shows that one in five young people in Germany is barely able to think creatively.

This is particularly worrying in view of the fact that creative thinking is one of the key skills for the future. This ability is considered indispensable for coping with change and adapting to new situations.

But what are the reasons for the drop in performance? The main cause is the massive underfunding of the education sector. Outdated school buildings, inadequate equipment, an acute shortage of teachers and insufficient teacher training characterize the picture.

A key factor here is that Germany has particularly low public spending on education compared to other countries. According to Eurostat statistics from 2023, Germany invested just 5.12% of its gross domestic product (GDP) in education - a figure that is clearly too low. In an EU comparison, this puts Germany in tenth place in the ranking of countries with the highest spending on education.
Budget planning in Germany resembles a disaster. While education and infrastructure are neglected at home and savings are made on essential investments in the future, billions flow abroad or seep away in the costly illusions of the energy transition.

The need for refurbishment in German schools is alarming and has become even more acute in recent years. According to the KfW development bank's municipal panel, the investment backlog this year is around 54.8 billion euros - an increase of 7.3 billion euros compared to the previous year. Many school buildings are in a desolate state: leaking gyms, run-down playgrounds and moldy main buildings are not uncommon. Some schools even have to close their main buildings completely due to severe mold infestation. In extreme cases, lessons take place in containers or pupils sit in overcrowded classrooms. The focus on the individual pupil often falls by the wayside in large classes.

In addition, the curriculum is not very practice-oriented and is based more on ideology than on subject content. It seems as if a clear agenda is being pursued in the German school system. From an early age, children and young people are deliberately fed information that is politically correct. Left-green people are brought up who have forgotten how to question and doubt certain narratives they are given: climate action is important, Trump is evil, as is the AfD; the SPD and Greens are good and likeable. Diversity is enrichment, traditional values are racism, and so on.

The gender and LGBTQ ideology in particular, which is imposed on pupils from an early age and is now firmly anchored in the curriculum, leaves lasting damage. From early sexualization, to the destruction of the flow of speech through gender language [Skybird: utmost relevant from a neuro- and even neurolinguistical POV!! Speech structure of any language and thinkiung are hadrwired to each other, thats why I am convinced that different ethnicities and cultures=different languages indeed think differently on a conceptual level], to the destruction of the conservative image of the family.

The situation is alarming: high school and training drop-out rates as well as declining basic skills in core subjects such as mathematics and reading are evidence of a desolate education system. The underfunding of the sector, dilapidated infrastructure and an acute shortage of teachers further exacerbate the situation. At the same time, the increasing ideologization of the curriculum acts as a burden. In the long term, Germany is in danger of falling behind in international comparison.
https://www.tichyseinblick.de/meinun...n-deutschland/

-------

If I were a father, I either would send my kids on a private school, or leave Germany - or would not have kids at all. I still was lucky, I had a very good school and very good teachers from class 7 to 11, it also had a good deal history and tradition, ranging back into pre-WW1 times. Many teachers I remember with a feeling of thankfulness, even kind of love.
But when I watch the homepage of that school now, 40 years later, my neck hair is raising.


Again, sign of the times. Things are falling.

[mapuc]

Following Skybirds description about the led policy in Germany, makes me understand why there's so high a percentage of none-voters.

Markus

[Catfish]

^ Voter turnout in Germany is about 76 percent, no major change:

https://www.gut-leben-in-deutschland...voter-turnout/

For a comparison it was around 64 percent in the US, and I think about 84 in Denmark.