The Zustrombegrenzungsgestez and the proposals Merz made on Wednesday are - as you pointed out - likely to be not able to stand jurisdiction. I believe that it is necessary to change our management of migration and the party I feel closest to in our political system is the CDU ( I am prepared to being crucified now…).
But the recent events made me realize that Merz has not what it takes to be Kanzler.
I am lost for words about his tactical mistakes :
copying Trump ( on my first day as Kanzler I will…) who is generally despised here.
Walking with open eyes into this trap that he himself laid with no need. He knew that the AfD would support him and what the reaction would be.
making these proposals in spite of not finding allies in SPD and the Green Party although he must have known that by doing so he would hand them the opportunity to take this very high moral ground they have now.
not waiting with his proposals for another 4 weeks until after the election. I am quite sure that we will end up having another grand coalition and together with SPD he could have found a compromise.
Last and least : I deeply despise the AfD, I did not and will never vote for them. But I am sick and tired of these Weimar comparisons. The 20ies and 30ies are fundamentally different to today’s political, social, economic climate in Germany. Today we have the great benefit of hindsight and know what a Nazi government is like, which is something people and politicians back then hadn’t.
Supporting the CDU is a legitimate position in a democracy and I would defend your right to that position despite my disagreement with much of their programme.
Working together with fascists is, however, unacceptable, as you say.
Comparisons with past situations are always imperfect, but an awareness of the way the the Nazis used the democratic system to grab power is important at all times and especially now.
I agree with what you say. I think today we have the awareness that you demand, this is one of the few aspects where I am optimistic. And I also think that studying history and then drawing conclusions is essential.
I’m curious to know more about what about the CDU appeals to you, and what’s wrong with Germany’s management of migration?
I’m an outsider looking in, and I’m rather interested to know if there’s anything structurally different in Germany compared to other countries where migration is a big political issue.
…that we collectively refuse to use. We have reached the point of being far enough away from the 30s that the “I like Trump’s ideas I just wish he would tweet less” idea is being used about Hitler by a sizeable number of people with complete sincerity.
I agree with you. These constant comparisons are simply wrong, and possibly misleading. But it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be worried. What is on the horizon with the new extreme right isn’t nazism at all, but it’s possibly very dangerous going forward. I ask myself if these comparisons with the Weimar republic and the nazis isn’t an attempt from people to reassure themselves: bad guys took over, but in the end, the good guys won.
What about the current wave of authoritarism taking over the whole world for the next fifty years? Europe increasingly gets into the unwanted role of the last democratic bastion in the world, but as we are seeing, isn’t immune to eventually being overwhelmed as well.
One thing is sure: we’ll have to defend our democracies against incessant assaults from authoritarian tendencies, and foreign attempts of meddling with elections (ie. Putin’s bots not long ago, Musk these days). Hopefully democracy will prevail in our countries. A majority of people here still want this after all. But it’s not a given.
I can assure you that I don’t find these comparisons reassuring at all.
But we can discuss all of this without the Weimarer Republik. Doesn’t really make it better.
I don’t disagree. What I meant with this, is that the usual post-war storyline in the US and Western Europe of ‘fascism/nazism is bad, but fortunately, democracy showed itself to be stronger than fascism/nazis in the end’ has accompanied us for a long time. I’ve believed this myself during a long time.
The problem with this rhetoric is that it ignores a bit too much that WW2 was only won thanks to the help of a horrible, murderous, dictatorial regime, and to a fatal strategic error from Hitler who attacked it at the wrong time.
But the truth is that democracy isn’t stronger than any other political regime when it comes to fighting a war. Has never been, and will never be. For you guys it’s maybe a given since long, but not for me.
I really dont think anyone else is thinking about the situation in that way. The allusion to Nazis, or the more generalized fascism of the 20th century, is far more about yelling “what the fuck are you doing sanitizing these ideas…these people are fucking Nazis. Pretending they had legitimate point of view back then is how we got ourselves into such an awful situation and we are walking right back into it”
The fact we can draw distinctions between then and the present day misses the point of what an analogy is. If someone says to you “it is the size of the fight in the dog not the dog in the fight” responding that you are not a dog pretty clearly misses the point.
The extreme-right isn’t nazism because it still hasn’t become potent enough and/or the situation still isn’t conducive enough. Look at what Netanyahu did in Gaza. Did anyone imagine he will try to exterminate two million people? But he tried the moment he got the opportunity.
Aside from Norway, Iceland, and Ireland, every European country has a well-entrenched, and flourishing extreme-right force.
Yes, it is wrong. The FDP are a bunch of heartless people who lack empathy for the many unfortunate in our society as far as I can see, but at least they operate within our constitution and don’t question it. The AfD in contrast are a party that feasts on misery and adress the lowest and vilest instincts of people.
What drew me towards the CDU was my impression that they were ( and still are ) the strongest supporter of the European cause in Germany. I live 10 minutes away from the French border and being good neighbors with them is a wonderful thing regarding what happened in the last two centuries between us.
Regarding migration : all of my working life I worked with lots of people who were not born in Germany ( or whose parents weren’t ) and I know firsthand that we would be fucked without them. Then the more or less uninhibited migration created a climate here in which a lot of my fellow germans stopped distinguishing between them and genuine asylum-seekers on one side and people we don’t need here because they are either only interested to enjoy financial benefits our are outright enemies of our way of life on the other.
It is a very tricky topic and I feel quite uneasy discussing it in a foreign language. Therefore I want to make clear that I think the right of asylum is one of the most important rights we have ( again : study history and learn from it, especially us germans ). So I think it is all the more important to secure that right against it being undermined by misuse.
