Wahlblog: 15.–22.09.2013
A city in election fever: the closer the German parliamentary elections approach, the more wired the politics in Berlin. Isabelle Daniel and Laura Hofmann blog live from the centre of the election campaign for the young people’s magazines jádu und To4ka-Treff – and also report on nervous parties, demanding citizens and the weird and comical stories that result.
Merkel stays on as chancellor.
But things are still exciting, even after the campaign. With 41.5% the CDU/CSU has fallen just short of an absolute majority – but cannot enter into a coalition with their previous partner, the FDP, because for the first time in the party’s history, the FDP failed to gain entry into the Bundestag. Two scenarios now arise for the formation of a government: a Grand Coalition made up of the CDU/CSU and the SPD, or a black-green coalition. Neither Social Democrats nor Greens are exactly lining up to join in a government coalition under Merkel’s leadership. But Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble hit the nail on the head following initial forecasts on TV: “Either the SPD or the Greens will feel sorry for us.”
The Countdown is on
the countdown for the parties is on. A glance at the last “Sonntagsfrage” (i.e. Sunday question) before election day shows that things definitely won’t get boring. Many voters are still undecided; the opposition and government are running neck-and-neck. Whether Angela Merkel can stay in office is by no means a foregone conclusion. But another question is arising for the smaller parties: will they make it into the Bundestag at all? The free-market liberal FDP, the Pirate Party and the Euro-critical Alternative für Deutschland are already scrabbling at the 5% barrier. Will the smaller parties decide the elections in the end?
The chancellor-bus
The campaign is entering the home stretch. Even if Angela Merkel is the clear favourite in all polls, she and her team are also fighting for every last vote in the last days before the elections. To reach all of Germany, they are travelling for 150 hours in a chancellor-bus and are canvassing all Bundesland capitals and other places of interest. The chancellor started her trip on Monday in Berlin with “Line 150.” Today, she and her team are stopping in Görlitz, Dresden, Erfurt, Kassel and Cologne. On 21 September, one day before the elections, “Line 150” will be back in Berlin.
The SPD-Party
The SPD has moved up its election party: the party leadership is demonstratively celebrating with the Berlin band “Lastrel” at Berlin’s Alexanderplatz – despite pessimistic survey results for the Social Democrats. Current polls indicate that with 39% of the vote, the CDU, Angela Merkel’s party, has a clear lead.
Fisherman's Friend has it´s own campaign
People say the campaign is boring. The campaign posters are uninformative. The British lozenge manufacturer Fisherman's Friend has taken the platitudes and content-free election advertising as a cue to advertise for itself: the advertising agency Scholz&Friends Berlin is stirring up the world of posters with slogans in election-campaign style. The action also includes a bus in whale-look that is touring Germany with stops in major cities. The advertising gag is also interactive: anyone who posts a photo of the whale tour-bus or of a poster on the Fisherman's Friend Facebook page has a chance to win a party.
NPD again sends hate letter to parliament candidates.
The right-wing extremist party NPD (Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands) has sent a hate letter to parliament candidates with migration backgrounds. This screed with the heading „Heim wandern statt einwandern“ (i.e. emigrate instead of immigrating) says, among other things: “Remember? ‘Migrare’ also means ‘to emigrate.’ In our view, this is a smart solution, as you must not be transported in any way that inconveniences you personally. We prefer resettlement by means of emigration.” The threatening letter contained a symbolic plane ticket. The text was sent to Azize Tank of Die Linke and to Özcan Mutlu and Bartosz Lotarewicz of the Greens, among others. Mutlu has now lodged a criminal complaint against the NPD, and Die Linke’s Facebook page states: “This action on the part of the NPD demonstrates complete contempt for human dignity and is in our view a clear-cut hate crime. We have therefore submitted a criminal complaint with the Berlin state prosecutor’s office.” A similar hate letter was also sent out before the last Bundestag elections in 2009.
Djordje, not entitled to vote
Djordje Tomic (33) has been living in Berlin since 2006. But he can’t vote, because he is a Serbian national. Despite this, Tomic, a political scientist, worked for a long time for the Fraktion Die Linke (Germany’s left-wing socialist party) and followed the last campaign in 2009 close-up from the Bundestag. Djordje tells why, in his view, non-EU citizens ought to have voting rights and about the problems that arise in applying for German citizenship in our #wahlblog-Interview.
Transcript of the interview with Djordje Tomic
The Greens cook in a Berlin playschool.
Parental subsidies or more Kita (preschool) places? – day-care for the littlest members of society provides material for passionate campaign debates. But what does day-to-day activity in a Kita actually look like? The Greens’ leading candidate Katrin Göring-Eckhardt and Özcan Mutlu, the Green candidate for Berlin-Mitte, took a close look – and not only that: the two politicians cooked together with children from the Kita in the Lüneburger Straße in Berlin Moabit. Veggie (what else?): whole-grain pasta with home-made tomato sauce. The little cooks were then rewarded with a green children’s bicycle and a couple of footballs. Katrin Göring-Eckhardt praised the care-givers’ dedication and promised more funding for child-care, not only for expanding Kita places, but also for improved salaries for preschool educators, should the Greens enter into the government.
A trip to Bonn, the former German capital
The parties’ campaign posters in this election are considered particularly uninformative. The ideas of the parties’ youth organisations show more creativity. In Bonn, traditionally close to the CDU, the Junge Union (the CDU youth organisation) urges voters to re-elect Chancellor Merkel with a jovial slogan. The opposing campaign of the Grüne Jugend (the Green youth organisation) lost no time: they warn against re-electing the chancellor because she is in the CDU – as are the three severely criticised ministers depicted on the poster: Friedrich, Schröder and de Maiziere.
The election for people under 18
On 13 September, children and young people under 18 had the opportunity to cast their ballots for the Bundestag at over 1500 polling places throughout Germany. The winners were the CDU/CSU, the SPD and the Greens, but the Pirates Party also made a strong showing with 12.3 % of the vote. The FDP was the loser – the next generation of voters gave the party only 4.6 % of their votes, and the FDP thus failed to overcome the 5% barrier. The Liberals were also the only significant party that was not represented with a stand at Alexanderplatz.
 Week 2 |
