SAN FRANCISCO
Lee Heidhues 11.16.2024
A year ago we were in Berlin. Who would have thought that 12 months later Donald Trump would be preparing to move into the White House?
Who would have thought that the coalition government in Germany, which included the Green Party, would collapse?
Well, it’s all happened. It’s fair to say arch conservative reactionaries are on the rise. It’s not a comforting thought for anyone who believes in personal freedom and the expectation to be free from the oppressors.
The reactionaries are rising in Germany, America and, perhaps, on my block in San Francisco. Where it pains me to write Trump got nearly 22 percent (179 votes) in my precinct.
Nobody is exempt from the rising tide of oppression.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 11.7.2024
What now?
That was the question of the day after the collapse of the so-called traffic-light coalition — named for the colors of the three parties forming it: the center-left Social Democrats (red), the neoliberal Free Democrats (yellow) and the environmentalist Greens.
One day after the dramatic break-up, Chancellor Olaf Scholz‘s view was very different from that of the leaders of the center-right opposition, whose cooperation Scholz is seeking.
The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU) are not only the largest opposition bloc in the current parliament, they are also, according to current polls, most likely to emerge from new elections as the strongest force.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz who is tipped to become Germany’s next chancellor urged swift action. “The government no longer has a majority in the German Bundestag and so we have to call on the Federal Chancellor — with a unanimous decision by the CDU/CSU parliamentary group — to call a vote of confidence immediately, at the beginning of next week at the latest,” he said.
https://www.dw.com/en/political-wrangling-starts-after-german-coalition-collapse/a-70725678
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