this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2024
31 points (97.0% liked)

Europe

1482 readers
528 users here now

News and information from Europe 🇪🇺

(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)

Rules (2024-08-30)

  1. This is an English-language community. Comments should be in English. Posts can link to non-English news sources when providing a full-text translation in the post description. Automated translations are fine, as long as they don't overly distort the content.
  2. No links to misinformation or commercial advertising. When you post outdated/historic articles, add the year of publication to the post title. Infographics must include a source and a year of creation; if possible, also provide a link to the source.
  3. Be kind to each other, and argue in good faith. Don't post direct insults nor disrespectful and condescending comments. Don't troll nor incite hatred. Don't look for novel argumentation strategies at Wikipedia's List of fallacies.
  4. No bigotry, sexism, racism, antisemitism, dehumanization of minorities, or glorification of National Socialism.
  5. Be the signal, not the noise: Strive to post insightful comments. Add "/s" when you're being sarcastic (and don't use it to break rule no. 3).
  6. If you link to paywalled information, please provide also a link to a freely available archived version. Alternatively, try to find a different source.
  7. Light-hearted content, memes, and posts about your European everyday belong in !yurop@lemm.ee. (They're cool, you should subscribe there too!)
  8. Don't evade bans. If we notice ban evasion, that will result in a permanent ban for all the accounts we can associate with you.
  9. No posts linking to speculative reporting about ongoing events with unclear backgrounds. Please wait at least 12 hours. (E.g., do not post breathless reporting on an ongoing terror attack.)

(This list may get expanded when necessary.)

We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.

If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.

If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the mods: @federalreverse@feddit.org, @poVoq@slrpnk.net, or @anzo@programming.dev.

founded 4 months ago
MODERATORS
 

FRIEDRICH MERZ is doing it, and I’m fine with that.” This brief statement by Markus Söder, the head of Bavaria’s governing Christian Social Union (CSU), was enough to confirm what had long been clear in German political circles: that Mr Merz, leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the CSU’s larger sibling, would be the parties’ joint candidate at next year’s federal election. Mr Merz will thus lead the opposition conservatives’ bid to unseat Olaf Scholz, the Social Democratic (SPD) chancellor.

top 10 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] tal@lemmy.today 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I don't know enough about German domestic politics to understand the full impact, though my memory is that Merz is considered to be more-economically-liberal than Söder.

[–] 5714@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Söder serves Bavaria first, as does his party CSU. Appointing CSU folks to federal chancellor candidacy for CDU/CSU is never smart, unless they won enough charisma and credibility federally.

Both Merz and Söder are opportunistic racists and classists, but in general they respect the rule of law aesthetically. Söder is the slightly bigger opportunistic climate denialist and doesn't fear clientelist interventionism. Merz is found near BlackRock and company. Both get off on 60 percent debt to GDP limit.

Suburban home-, shop-, land and car owners are kind of their electorate.

[–] trollercoaster@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

The only benefit of Merz is, that he's an old geezer who is nearing the ripe age of 70, with a bit of luck, Mother Nature will rid us of him before his term ends.

[–] poVoq 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yes, please no 16 years of CDU again 😭

[–] trollercoaster@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 month ago

Demographics and the so-called centre-left parties are working against us here. But the CDU is also working hard to ensure that we'll have a much bigger problem than themselves, the Nazis of the AfD, within a much shorter time than 16 years.

[–] federalreverse@feddit.org 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

70 means he likely has 10 good years (or 2.5 terms) left...

[–] trollercoaster@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

One can always hope, and the probability of nature taking its course grows with increasing age.

[–] killingspark@feddit.org 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The more interesting canidates would have been Günther or Wüst, both of them are currently ruling their states together with the green party and seem happy about what they were able to achieve there. Söder and Merz only differ a bit on how much they love bavaria.

[–] poVoq 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The Greens are not doing too well in polls and Merz is clearly on an AfD appeasement course to make way for a possible right-wing coalition (or at least keep it as an option in coalition negotiations to minimize concessions to the SPD or the Greens).

[–] killingspark@feddit.org 3 points 1 month ago

I just wanted to say that the differences between Söder and Merz arent that big compared to other people that once were in the talks