KLAUS WOWEREIT, a Social Democrat, was re-elected Berlin’s mayor yesterday, but the real story is what happened to two opposition parties.The assumption is that the vote showed a general disillusionment with politics and politicians, a problem we all know well. What will happen now that the Pirates are in a state parliament?
The liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), the junior partner in Angela Merkel’s coalition government at the national level, won a dismal 1.8% of the vote and disappeared from the city’s legislature. The Pirate Party, dedicated (awkwardly) to free information and rigid privacy protection, won nearly 9% and enters a German state parliament for the first time (Berlin is a city with the status of a state).
This is one of those what-does-it-all-mean moments. An established party like the FDP has the stuffing knocked out of it. Its place has been taken by a party that seems to have been dreamt up over a few beers (originally in Sweden). The Pirates’ top candidate, Andreas Baum, recently estimated Berlin’s debt at “many, many millions.” Technically that’s not wrong; the city owes €64 billion ($88 billion). But it was clear enough that he had no idea.
Monday, September 19, 2011
What can be made of this?
Elections in Berlin and the result had some unexpected details:
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They will be less thieving and dishonest.
ReplyDeleteBTW, your login requirements look a little excessive: No I don't want to less some software access my Twitter account and download my contact list. A job for the Pirate Party, methinks.
Antoine
Y'arrr Maties! We be for makin' 'em walk the plank an' sendin' 'em straight to Davy Jones' Locker!
ReplyDeleteSorry, I'll get my coat...
I think it's a sign that people still aren't taking the problems seriously. The FDP may have deserved its kicking, but while the Pirate Party isn't exactly a joke - it has some good ideas (and some absolutely terrible ones) - but it's not the sort of thing that's urgently needed right now. As you quote Bret Stephens saying above, the Europeans are still trying to take a holiday from history.
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