Reply With QuoteHmmmm...If a large masked group of individuals approach me in my car chances are they're going to get run over as well.
Nothing personal.
Just been reading up on the Left/Right situation in Germany and as you said it made our bunch look entirely tame. The most you ever get in this country is a few Leftist crazies out of University and the right wingers who seem to quote the Daily Fail and the Sun as gospel truth having a bit of a scrap before the police step in. Seemed it escalated a little when those three terrorists on the M1 were stopped on their way to attack the EDL.Originally Posted by Mr Gently Benevolent
Thank you for the response.So within Germany there is no central-right party? I can understand German trepidation toward anything on the right but it seems (from my uneducated, outsider point of view) there is very much a 'Left only' leaning within German politics?
Hmmmm...If a large masked group of individuals approach me in my car chances are they're going to get run over as well.
Nothing personal.
You're welcome.Thank you for the response.
As the German party system is rather unique one cannot easily describe it without visual means. Imagine the political spectrum as a scale from +5 to -5 whereby 0 is the democratic center and each end represents the respective side's extremist form; the font size is meant to represent the membership strength of the respective party or group and/or it's significance to the political process. Everything beyond +-4 can rightfully be accused of perpetrating or at least condoning violence.
From my point of view German politics have indeed become rather left-leaning.
In the 1960s we used to have only the Social Democrats, Christian (Social) Democrats and the Liberal Party (which was rather leftist back in the day) and they covered everything from +2.5 to -2.5.
The 1968 student revolts and increasing political fragmentation, however, led to the emergence of new parties and conflicts over voter potential made programmatic shifts necessary.
In the 1970s and 1980s Germany was struck by a wave of extreme leftist violence in form of the so called Red Army Fraction ("Baader-Meinhof-Gang") and radical protests against nuclear energy or other "anti-ecological" projects.
The green movements subsequently emerged as another political power.
In the 1990s racist violence rose particularly in the East but while the extreme right continued to gain voter approval there, it also lost support in the rest of the country (and so did non-extreme right wing positions).
When in 1998 Gerhard Schröder of the Social Democrats became chancellor he realigned his party and moved it to the center (much like Tony Blair did in the UK). Along with general social changes - for example the shrinking importance of religion - his "poaching" in the center forced the right-leaning parties to sweep to the center as well and face him on the same territory, leaving everything from the center-right to the democratic right's outer rim without representation.
The chart basically shows the current stage of this development.
Last edited by muck; 07-17-2012 at 05:28 PM.
What role does Christianity play in German politics? You have there some parties with "Christian" designation. A tradition from earlier times when it mattered and now just lingering along?
The Catholic Church still plays a relatively influent role within the CDU/CSU. The "Christian" within them largely means catholic.
Despite Merkel, the CDU was and in some parts still is a catholic party.
Strangely enough the SPD/CDU divide was often a catholic/protestant divide, which you can see from the fact that nearly all state prime ministers from the CDU in protestant states are catholics from enclaves.
Wulff, Althaus etc.
The election map of the 2002 elections largely looked like the map of the Westphalian Peace.
But the choir boys largely stumbled over a mixture of their own greed and incompetence and Angela Merkel.
That said, none of the above is really religious, they pander the catholic church to gain influence and use it as a behind the scenes network.
With the protestants it is different because the official church is so far left that many Protestants including myself are put off by their holier than thou attitude.
Also thats why the CDU color is black - the color of the robes of priests
Though despite being Christian parties with a lot of Catholic figureheads - I think in the public political discourse this plays only a single role today - as a counter image to Islam (and for example immigration and integration policies etc associated with it)
In most parts of Europe conservative parties either follow a certain political figurehead - such as France's Gaullists - or advert to Christian values.
My personal observation is that religion hardly plays a role anymore in Germany's so called "Christian" parties; they're in favour of abortion, alternative family patterns (and so on and so forth) and are nowhere near the right wing of America's Republicans for example. Advocates of traditionalist-religious viewpoints belong to the "old iron" (60 years of age +) and are in a clear minority.
And we all can thank our god or imaginary friend for that.
I agree - and at the same time I don't. It's not necessarily a good thing if a not-so-small percentage of the population is left without any political representation.
I disagree. If they want their christianity stuff they have to vote for the PBC. If not enough people vote that party they obviously wont get a voice.
But such is life.
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