Wow.
Talk about tying yourself in knots.
When last we left the country of some of my ancestors, the cordon sanitaire thrown 'round the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party by the mainstream players had fallen in a spectacular display of naked 'I need their votes' political maneuvering.
The head of the Christian Democrats, Freidrich Merz, had scandalized and shocked the country when he declared bygones were bygones, reaching across the aisle to AfD's Alice Weidel for help in getting a comprehensive immigration reform package through the Bundestag.
...And, by Georg - he went through with it.
German CDU party breaks “firewall” by cooperation with AfDs
The leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic party (CDU), Friedrich Merz, received criticism yesterday after his party set forth a proposal to limit migration into the country with the support of the hard right Alternative of Deutschland (AfD) party.
Merz’s party introduced several motions and a draft bill to parliament to modify the country’s immigration and asylum laws in the run up to the forthcoming elections to be held on the 23rd of Feb next.
Merz's bold ploy, made in the face of increasingly hostile German voter sentiment towards immigration in general and the cold reality that he didn't have the votes within his usual group of playmates for such reforms, was so beyond the pale it roused so somnolent an august personage as Angela 'Mutti' Merkel to waddle forth and denounce it and Merz publicly.
The hysterical center and hard Left/Greens immediately began organized street protests against both the plan - an anathema to hard-core European Union supporters - and Merz's embrace of bi-partisanship with Satan herself. How dare Merz break through the firewall that protects democracy?!
In Germany, thousands of protesters gathered outside the Christian Democratic Union’s (CDU) Berlin headquarters. They were furious at its decision to push an immigration law through the Bundestag, the parliament, with the support of the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
The demonstration on January 30 followed the immigration law vote the previous day that for many marked an unprecedented breach of Germany’s long-standing “firewall” against the AfD.
The demonstration, organised by Zusammen gegen Rechts (Together against the far-right) under the slogan “No co-operation with AfD”, denounced what activists called a “historic betrayal”.
And polls suggested that the average German voter sitting on the sidelines was in favor of whatever and whoever it took working with to get immigration squared away.
...A recent poll published by German newspaper Bild found that two-thirds of respondents want the Social Democratic Party (SPD) to back the bill.
That suggested to some that a majority of Germans may be in favour of ending the political isolation of the AfD, thus deepening divisions in the country.
So, natürlich, nothing of the sort happened. The vote failed narrowly as bill blew apart on the 31st of January after a raucous session.
Wild verbal battles in the Bundestag, loud demonstrations on the streets, talk of betrayal and of taboos being broken: it has been an extraordinary few days in German politics.
On Friday, parliament narrowly rejected a bill to significantly tighten asylum laws with supporting votes from conservative Christian Democrats and Christian Socialists (CDU/CSU), the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) and the populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW).
What happens next, with an election on nineteen days away?
What is happening in Germany right now is crazy. Our entire political system appears to be melting down. I have never seen anything like this, it almost defies explanation.
Last week, the CDU and the CSU – the centre-right sister parties of the Federal Republic – voted twice with Alternative für Deutschland in the Bundestag. It was an effort to signal that the Union would take a hard line against migration and that they would even violate the strict terms of our firewall, our cordon sanitaire against the AfD, if necessary. Now Germany is teetering on the edge of ungovernability. It is like the singular retarded principle that no outcomes can be achieved with AfD votes was the lynchpin that held everything together, and now that it is in question nobody can think straight, run a sensible messaging campaign or develop any minimally credible plan.
In fact, it is worse than that. All parties, save for the AfD, are presently doing everything in their power to exclude all possible post-election paths to a government. The only hard rule seems to be that if this or that coalition partner might provide a way to govern, if this or that scenario might promise a path through the impossible thicket, somebody will appear on television in the next five minutes and promise not to do precisely that thing.
Merz has done a craven 180°, swearing never to work with AfD again, and now his CDU cohorts are putting out these weird video things, pathetically begging for forgiveness.
Oh, ick.
🇩🇪‼️ Germany Votes: CDU leader Merz is promising to never vote with the AfD again after his immigration bill failed.
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) February 4, 2025
Now, CDU members have made cringe videos promising "never with the AfD."
They plan to work with pro-immigration parties instead, like the Greens and SPD. pic.twitter.com/Y2uMAqcX2c
The only thing the thousands in the streets and Merz's embarrassing retrenchment seem to have done is strengthen Weidel's hand and help fill her campaign coffers.
...The recent welcoming of the AfD out from the cold has backfired for Merz, giving the party legitimate influence in federal policy-making and incentivizing undecided voters that backing the AfD is not a lost cause. Recent polling from the Democracy Institute has seen Alice Weidel’s right-wing populists climb to 25 percent in national polling, just two points behind the CDU who have comfortably topped every poll in the run-up to the election.
The institute was one of the few to accurately predict Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential victory in 2016 and the ‘Leave’ vote in the U.K.’s Brexit referendum of the same year.
It further suggested that public endorsements of the AfD by tech billionaire Elon Musk are swinging voters, and the party’s coffers have been richly topped up in the last few weeks with three major donations totaling nearly €5 million.
The 'what if' scenarios are insane. And if the middle - die Mitte - for which the Germans strive over everything cannot come together and is forced to reapproach the 'far-right'?
Rightward Realignment
I don’t think either Merz or the CDU are quite willing to set their party on fire in that way. If there can be no rapprochement with the SPD and no viable coalition from the “democratic centre,” they will bury the cordon sanitaire for all time. Merz will have himself christened Chancellor with AfD votes and we will have a minority CDU government tolerated by the AfD despite everything.
Something has to give here, some of our politicians will have to go back on some of their promises in a very big way. The only question is who, and which ones.
What a hot mess.
In the meantime...
🇩🇪🚨 Turkish refugee rapes multiple ponies in Germany, but he will NOT be deported or imprisoned.
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) February 4, 2025
The sexual attacks were caught on surveillance camera by the farmer in the Bavarian town of Oberneufnach, but police told her: "That's not enough for prison or deportation."
"On… pic.twitter.com/sSrKrqrT7H
..."On Saturday, the man was wandering through our village again. I'm scared. Especially for children and animals," said the woman.
Once the video footage was reviewed, it showed the man had sexually abused multiple female ponies in the course of 25 minutes. Several of the ponies suffered physical injuries, including one that collapsed to the ground.
...people are getting kind of tired of stuff.
Somebody had better do something.
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