After weeks of debate, the decision is now official: Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz will run again for the SPD - despite the failed coalition and the discontent among large sections of SPD members
Seems reminiscent of the recent elections in France.
Macron loses.
Macron doesn’t leave.
@Lash,
Lash wrote:Seems reminiscent of the recent elections in France.
Macron loses.
Macron doesn’t leave.
In the last elections in France, Macron could not be elected at all - the next French presidential election is expected to take place in April 2027.
The leading candidate for the federal election in every party is called "chancellor-candidate" (Kanzlerkandidat) here in Germany. (The chancellor will be elected by the newly elected parliament.)
That's what Scholz is, and Merz for the CDU/CSU, Habeck for the Greens, and Weidel for the AfD.
@Walter Hinteler,
Walter Hinteler wrote:In the last elections in France, Macron could not be elected at all - the next French presidential election is expected to take place in April 2027.
Macron has been President of the French Republic and Co-President of the Principality of Andorra since May 2017. He was elected for a second term in the presidential elections in April 2022.
As re-election is possible, but only two consecutive terms are allowed, Macron is not a candidate for the next elections in 2027.
The Duran hosts Sevim Dagdelen and Glenn Diesen, discussing the ongoing deindustrialization and subordination of Germany, which they describe as a vassal state of the failing US.
Sad news all around—for all Western states.
https://youtu.be/T_oGKW07WBs?si=GY0va_wOlw83IBcj
@Lash,
Dağdelen is a communist, member of the German party BSW and has also published numerous guest articles in various Russian media.
Since February 2024, she has also been a guest author in the right-wing populist Swiss weekly magazine Die Weltwoche.
Diesen is a Norwegian political scientist. He regularly appears on the Russian propaganda channel RT.
Academics and Scandinavian media have criticised him for spreading Russian propaganda.
An ‘economic community from Lisbon to Vladivostok’ and more independence from the USA: Thuringia's AfD leader Björn Höcke takes a swipe at Friedrich Merz, Mario Voigt (CDU) and German foreign policy in a party conference speech and swears his supporters to a Russia-friendly course.
‘Russia sees itself as an alternative to the universalist hegemony of the non-European world power USA,’ Höcke read from a resolution at a regional party conference in Arnstadt. The 300 or so members adopted it. ‘Peace in Europe depends on Germany's and Europe's good relationship with Russia’, it says, but not a word about the fact that Russia attacked Ukraine in violation of international law. Instead: ‘Ukraine and Russia have been at war with each other for almost three years.’
Sources: agencies, media (translated)
Höcke was confirmed in office as head of the regional organisation in Arnstadt.
The Thuringian AfD is categorised by the Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution as a confirmed right-wing extremist party.
In his speech, Höcke outlined a ‘Europe whose spine runs from Paris via Berlin to Moscow’. He said that he was referring to the former French statesman Charles de Gaulle. Höcke said that he found his dream of a ‘Eurasian economic community stretching from Lisbon to Vladivostok’ attractive.
The resolution adopted by the AfD members was presented in German and Russian. (Later also in English)It speaks of a ‘secession of Russia from Europe’. This would follow a US-American calculation, as the USA did not want to give up its supremacy in Europe.
‘Peace in Europe depends on Germany's (and Europe's) good relationship with Russia,’ the resolution states. A ‘US-American world concept’ must be countered by a European one.
With regard to the candidacy for chancellor of AfD federal leader Alice Weidel, Höcke said that it may be ‘one parliamentary term too early’ for a Chancellor Alice Weidel, but he is convinced that the AfD will take a giant step towards government responsibility.
Today, the Bundestag is voting on Chancellor Scholz's vote of confidence. A new Bundestag election is planned for the end of February.
How will the process work today and in the coming weeks?
The new election planned for 23 February 2025 is already on everyone's lips. However, a new election is not possible ‘just like that’. It is subject to certain conditions and procedures, which are regulated in Article 68 of the Basic Law, among other things: The Federal Chancellor must have faced a vote of confidence in the Bundestag and lost. The Federal President must then have dissolved the Bundestag. The consequence of the dissolution would be that new elections must be held within 60 days.
Question of confidence: In accordance with Article 68 of the Basic Law, the Federal Chancellor submits a motion to the Bundestag for a vote of confidence in him. Olaf Scholz did this in writing on 11 December 2024 and sent it to Bundestag President Bärbel Bas. The motion was published as a Bundestag printed paper and put to the vote on the vote of confidence: According to Article 68(2) of the Basic Law, the vote on the motion may take place no earlier than 48 hours after receipt of the motion. It is to take place today in the Bundestag after Scholz has explained his motion and there has been a debate on it. If the Federal Chancellor does not receive an absolute majority of 367 votes in favour in this vote, he would have lost the vote of confidence. Possible abstentions by MPs would have the same effect as a no vote.
A roll-call vote is to take place. It will therefore be publicly known which MPs voted how to propose dissolution: After losing the vote of confidence, the Federal Chancellor can propose to the Federal President that the Bundestag be dissolved. Scholz has already announced that he will do so.
If the Federal Chancellor proposes to the Federal President that the Bundestag be dissolved, the Federal President must decide within 21 days of losing the vote of confidence whether he will dissolve the Bundestag, although he is not obliged to do so. The substantive criterion for him is whether there is a politically unstable situation in the current constellation.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in his speech on 7 November 2024, shortly after the end of the traffic light system, that stable majorities and a government capable of taking action would be the yardstick for his decision. This suggests that he is probably leaning towards dissolving the Bundestag: if the Federal President dissolves the Bundestag, there must be a new election within 60 days of the dissolution. This is stated in Article 39 Paragraph 1 Sentence 4 of the Basic Law.
The day of the Bundestag election is formally determined by the Federal President in accordance with the Federal Elections Act.
@Walter Hinteler,
717 MPs voted: 207 expressed their confidence in Olaf Scholz. 394 withdrew their confidence in him. There were 116 abstentions.
Scholz thus lost the vote of confidence as intended.
Germany's far-right AfD has stated in its draft election manifesto that it wants to leave the EU and the euro.
Are they serious — and what consequences would this have for Germany and the EU?
Dexit? Far-right AfD wants Germany to leave the EU
@Walter Hinteler,
I definitely understand why regular citizens want to leave these huge lumbering bureaucracies that are completely unresponsive to the needs and desires of the people who pay for them.
Balkanization would benefit us all. It’s a legitimate, sensible, pro-citizen movement.
@Lash,
Lash wrote:I definitely understand why regular citizens want to leave these huge lumbering bureaucracies that are completely unresponsive to the needs and desires of the people who pay for them.
First of all: my post was about the AfD's election programme.
Then I wonder - since you "definitely understand" that - where your experiences with the EU come from, and in which country you had the
@Lash,
Let’s try again.
Lash wrote:
I definitely understand why regular citizens want to leave these huge lumbering bureaucracies that are completely unresponsive to the needs and desires of the people who pay for them.
Balkanization would benefit us all. It’s a legitimate, sensible, pro-citizen movement.
Is there a word or phrase you don’t understand?
Are you unable to synthesize one phrase or thought with another?
How can I help you?
@Lash,
Lash wrote:How can I help you?
Thanks for you kind offer, very much appreciated.
How will the German constitution be changed? Article 23 of the Basic Law, which postulates the Federal Republic's participation in the European Union precisely as a constitutional mandate, poses high hurdles for a ‘Dexit’.
@Lash,
Lash wrote:Balkanization would benefit us all. It’s a legitimate, sensible, pro-citizen movement.
Small is beautiful.
Exactly of which multinational states in the EU are you thinking where citizen movements try to get smaller ethnically homogeneous entities?
@Walter Hinteler,
You’re trying so hard!!🤭
My statement didn’t mention German law.
If you’re so motivated to refute
my statement, I’m afraid you’re going to have to limit yourself to
my statement—not make up another one to knock down.
Tsk, Walter.😑
