German Federal Election 2021 - Who will succeed Angela Merkel?

[Zanza]

Latest poll on the federal election in September.



Greens lost a lot, Conservatives regained a bit compared to the polls earlier in this thread.

The Green candidate was criticized over inaccuracies in her CV and plagiarism in her book and did not look convincing there.

The Conservatives have a really uninspiring candidate though, who allowed himself quite a gaffe during the flood.

Let's see if the flood will lead to climate change being higher on the agenda again, which would benefit the Greens.

The other parties are quite stable in their support, with Social Democrats and Liberals slightly gaining.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

maybe the greens need to bring back the nuclear power plants, to show they're serious rather than dogmatic.

Ours will in any case combat climate change by building gas-power-plants and raising CO2 emissions.

[Sheilbh]

I wonder if some of those numbers is also the declining impact of vaccine politics?

In Scottish and Welsh election, English local elections, Saxony-Anhalt etc incumbents did well - precisely as vaccines were being rolled out efficiently. I wonder if that isn't a lasting boon for incumbent parties but just a temporary thing that's now fading?

[Zanza]

I doubt that the German vaccine campaign gives a boost to the governing parties. The way they did it was not exactly seen as a success. And Laschet or Baerbock had zero role in that. Maybe different elsewhere.

[Zanza]

maybe the greens need to bring back the nuclear power plants, to show they're serious rather than dogmatic.

Ours will in any case combat climate change by building gas-power-plants and raising CO2 emissions.

Nuclear power is not a topic in Germany anymore. Renewables are cheaper anyway without the gigantic upfront cost, long build time or the question of nuclear waste. It would have been better to first phase out coal before nuclear and let the nuclear power plants run longer. But it was a Conservative-Liberal government which made the post-Fukushima phase out decision. Mainly to take away a topic for the Greens. Shows you how shallow they are.

The Conservative candidate comes from a region with huge open pit lignite mines. The dirtiest form of energy. And he wants to keep it until 2038.

There is no question on who has a more realistic policy on climate change. That said, lots of people just don't care. Especially older voters of the Conservatives it seems.

[crazy canuck]

That said, lots of people just don't care. Especially older voters of the Conservatives it seems.

Our biggest problem the world over.

[Syt]

The bits about the CV and the copy/pasted parts in her book are bad optics for Baerbock. That said, considering the various corruption scandals in the CDU, the highly questionable comments from their far right candidate Maaßen, and the continued gaffes and displays of lack of competency by Laschet make it quite baffling that the CDU is still so far ahead in the polls.

Possibly the biggest put off about Laschet for me is the combination of incompetence and patronizing arrogance.

[The Larch]

Potential plagiarism as a reason for political resignations must be a uniquely German thing, right? What's in play there? A certain obsession with academic degrees?

[garbon]

Potential plagiarism as a reason for political resignations must be a uniquely German thing, right? What's in play there? A certain obsession with academic degrees?

Biden's plagiarism was an issue that came up when he ran for president in the 80s. Though plagiarized speech not a book.

[The Larch]

Yeah, I was thinking more about plagiarism in an academic context, as in parts of a book or PhD.

[garbon]

Yeah, I was thinking more about plagiarism in an academic context, as in parts of a book or PhD.

I found this with many of those involving book plagiarism

https://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/19/politics/politicians-plagiarism/index.html

[The Larch]

Thanks, I see it's a bit more widespread than I thought.

[Syt]

Meanwhile, Peter de Vries, candidate for the CDU in Hamburg for the Federal parliament on whether Germany is an Einwanderungsland (immigration county): there were several ethnic groups who have integrated themselves well, but Germany - while having received many migrants in recent years - is not an immigration country because it has a "genuine German people"; immigration countries would be e.g. the USA or Australia "who didn't have their own people."

[Sheilbh]

Potential plagiarism as a reason for political resignations must be a uniquely German thing, right? What's in play there? A certain obsession with academic degrees?

Biden's plagiarism was an issue that came up when he ran for president in the 80s. Though plagiarized speech not a book.

And not just a speech but quite a personal bit of Kinnock's speech (which Biden always attributed to Kinnock but cocked up once and didn't). I think he also plagiarised one of the Kennedy brothers speeches.

But yeah I feel like the customary academic credentials/thesis plagiarism scandal is a very German phenomenon.

[Valmy]

Potential plagiarism as a reason for political resignations must be a uniquely German thing, right? What's in play there? A certain obsession with academic degrees?

Biden's plagiarism was an issue that came up when he ran for president in the 80s. Though plagiarized speech not a book.

And not just a speech but quite a personal bit of Kinnock's speech (which Biden always attributed to Kinnock but cocked up once and didn't). I think he also plagiarised one of the Kennedy brothers speeches.

But yeah I feel like the customary academic credentials/thesis plagiarism scandal is a very German phenomenon.

Yeah he stole one of RFK's speeches. And he also had a few lies about his education I think.

Kind of miss the days when things like that were the big political scandals.