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Germany government collapses at a perilous time for Europe
- 01200981480 2y agoX5555
- bpodgursky 2y ago[flagged]
- gotoeleven 2y agoDo you mean via irresponsible energy policies or something else?
- lm28469 2y agoOf course, and they're still working hard at it: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-9-2023-002175_EN.html https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-9-2023-00217... With allies like that....
- wewxjfq 2y agoAnd with "allies like that" I hope you mean allies citing BILD.
- lm28469 2y agoTreat yourself, starting with a classic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Schröder https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Schröder > In his first term, Schröder's government decided to phase out nuclear power ... Since leaving public office, Schröder has worked for Russian state-owned energy companies, including Nord Stream AG, Rosneft, and Gazprom. https://frontpopulaire.fr/international/contents/energie-le-role-trouble-des-fondations-allemandes-contre-le-nucleaire-franc_tco_22739928 https://frontpopulaire.fr/international/contents/energie-le-... https://www.revueconflits.com/comment-lallemagne-finance-laffaiblissement-du-nucleaire-francais/ https://www.revueconflits.com/comment-lallemagne-finance-laf... https://www.ege.fr/sites/ege.fr/files/media_files/jattaque_mai2021_v6.pdf https://www.ege.fr/sites/ege.fr/files/media_files/jattaque_m... https://www.telos-eu.com/fr/economie/le-nucleaire-europeen-sous-influence-allemande.html https://www.telos-eu.com/fr/economie/le-nucleaire-europeen-s... https://www.lexpress.fr/economie/entreprises/nucleaire-une-faillite-francaise-comment-lallemagne-a-torpille-la-filiere-tricolore-7ZAURAVOS5AYTE5LHDSRIT2OME/ https://www.lexpress.fr/economie/entreprises/nucleaire-une-f...
- bpodgursky 2y agoYes, decommissioning nuclear power plants while buying Russian oil, building pipelines to transit Russian gas even while they were invading neighboring nations.
- hiddencost 2y agoBuying Russian gas.
- throw310822 2y agoInvasion of Europe by Russia? Last time I checked, Ukraine was not in Europe any more than Russia is.
- SllX 2y agoLast I checked, Ukraine is wholly in Europe and Russia is only partially in Europe. Your facts do not check out.
- lm28469 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Europe EU != Europe
- Pet_Ant 2y agoThe Bosphorous straight is said to decide Europe from Asia-minor so from that it seems reasonable to include Ukraine, the historical regions of Russia including Moscow, and St Petersburg in Europe.
- ChrisClark 2y agoLast you checked? I think you have a counterfeit fake map on your hands... ;)
- loeg 2y agoTell me, comrade, where are the Ural mountains?
- wewxjfq 2y agoGermany relied on Russian fossil fuels at a share that was EU average.
- bpodgursky 2y agoGermany's economy is largest and the country has run a primary surplus for decades. It's a rich country that could have done the right thing, and instead chose energy suicide. Holding themselves to the same bar as Bulgaria is pathetic.
- nkmnz 2y agocoming from what share exactly in 1998?
- sylware 2y agoOh! It is going to be the circus over there too (I am french).
- rtsil 2y agoThe Germans have a much bigger experience of large coalition governments than us.
- dghughes 2y agoFeli from Germany her channel explains it a bit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ywqDbHiMrs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ywqDbHiMrs
- sylware 2y agoThe political landscape in Germany is closing to the one we have in France. Happening in the UK too, at a slower pace, but it is happening. I thought the "we are fed up" political trend was frenchy french... well, nope, it spans all over EU. Here, political coalition has never been a thing (we tried after WWII, but hardcore failed) : either one party has the majority by itself, either it is the circus. If we had the same election system than in Germany and UK, the "rassemblement national" would have been in power for years. We have a "weakest link" election system: if the biggest party is not big enough, all the other parties can team up to block it.
- djaouen 2y ago[flagged]
- JKCalhoun 2y agoWhy does it feel like "interesting times" lay ahead....
- bamboozled 2y agoWhen isn’t there ?
- ximm 2y agoFor context: Losing this vote was intended. The government already fell apart in November, so this is the next formal step towards new elections.
- bamboozled 2y agoYeah I think the title is a bit too hyperbolic considering the situation. I guess it’s about the Russian invasion and aggression, but Schulz has been hopeless for Ukraine so it shouldn’t sound so tragic.
- aguaviva 2y agoSchulz has been hopeless for Ukraine so it shouldn’t sound so tragic. Oberfeldwebel Hans Schultz was known mostly for turning a blind eye to the prisoners' various doings at Stalag 13 (to whom he was known simply as "Schultz"). Having proved himself hopeless in that capacity, it's not surprising that he'd be hopeless for Ukraine as well. Something tells me you may be thinking of the current German Chancelllor, Olaf Scholz. https://hogansheroes.fandom.com/wiki/Hans_Schultz https://hogansheroes.fandom.com/wiki/Hans_Schultz
- WesolyKubeczek 2y agoI think the proper way to say would be "it shouldn't sound much more tragic than it already is". What's there in the meantime before the elections? Would they appoint some kind of interim ministers? Which of course would not do anything at all to stir whatever policy currently there is, because they are not supposed to have any initiative. Also, "what if AfD wins?". Situation normal, all fucked up...
- bamboozled 2y agoYeah my thoughts exactly. Better to just get the election done and move on.
- dghughes 2y agoAnd an election was scheduled in March anyway.
- jajko 2y agoI don't follow him and his policies closely but whatever I caught in various types of media was just bad news. Germany's car manufacturers can potentially lose few million jobs if they go belly up, VW will definitely be closing at least few factories and the rest ain't in best shape neither. Does anybody know something positive on this guy? Existential threat almost at the door yet 0 reaction, Germany is still massively under mandatory NATO 2% contributions and 0 attempt to get there. Wehrmacht is a joke considering size of the country. He didn't turn around Merkel's horrible energy policies while whole world was just watching in awe how it unfolded. Nothing about semi-permanent migrant crisis. Really, german population deserves much better leaders than him or Merkel, these are tough times and weak leaders lead to degradation of not only economy, plus it spills all over EU.
- Tomte 2y ago> Wehrmacht is a joke considering size of the country. You should strike that word from your active vocabulary. Our armed forces are called Bundeswehr, and people might mistake an honest mistake for some Nazi leanings.
- 123yawaworht456 2y ago[flagged]
- echoangle 2y agoYeah, and everyone calls it Bundeswehr.
- aniviacat 2y ago> Germany is still massively under mandatory NATO 2% contributions Do you think German voters want to spend more money on military?
- groby_b 2y agoUnless they would like to experience a reverse Anschluss with Russia, yes.
- andersa 2y agoMaybe now we can elect a new government who will actually use their brains. That would be something.
- itzehoe 2y agoAnyone with a link without the paywall? I see only one snapshot on web.archive but it doesn't work so well..
- mh- 2y agoHere you go: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/16/world/europe/germany-confidence-vote-scholz-snap-election.html?unlocked_article_code=1.h04.AiWS.FvZU03oSAcNr&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/16/world/europe/germany-conf... @dang feel free to update to this, I generated it myself.
- monero-xmr 2y agoThe only way Germany reboots their economy is if they ditch the disaster the Greens implemented in regards to energy policy, drastically slash red tape and bureaucracy, stop the industrial policy that favors old-economy manufacturing, and promote entrepreneurship and new companies. But that's the playbook for France and the UK, and all of Europe. I think it will take 10+ more years of slow-grind reductions in their standard of living for Europe to change its ways.
- SvenL 2y agoI‘m curious, what do you mean by disaster in regards to energy policy?
- cyberpunk 2y agoAssuming they mean nuclear. But it’s too late to fix that it takes many years to build nuclear plants I think we are doing ok on renewables.
- groby_b 2y agoWhat was the cost per MWh last week again? No, we're not "doing ok on renewables" And no, it's not "too late to fix that". We have 8 restartable reactors, we don't need to build new ones to do that. (Isar 2 is probably restartable within a year or two)
- cyberpunk 2y agoYes sure, I agree. It’s extremely expensive. I can only speak for my region (Berlin Brandenburg) but there’s solar going up everywhere around. Perhaps not fast enough, but movement is happening.
- ximm 2y agoMaking energy expensive is kind of the point, isn't it? The cost of destroying the planet was not billed in so far, so we need to correct that.
- cyberpunk 2y agoIt’s quite depressing how weak with SPD and CDU policies are at a time when we should have something more to say to AfD than “more of the same”. CDU’s policy document this week is likely to keep the debt brake which is actively preventing any meaningful investment in infrastructure here. So the Germany economy can die while being in perfect health. Super.
- kranke155 2y agoGermany needs to get rid of absurd economic ideas that seem to predicated on bad notions of why the 1920s happened. They have imposed 3% deficit cap and then expanded it all over Europe using the Maastricht Treaty. Economist Steve Keen has called a ‘suicide pact’.
- lokar 2y agoIt feels better the blame history on inflation then racism
- cyberpunk 2y agoEveryone I speak to agrees, no one seems to be running on such a policy. There’s a definite time bomb coming on the aging population, to boot. Although I still think things are looking better in Germany than the UK right now.
- nkmnz 2y agoYou don't seem to speak to a lot of people. The debt break is in high regard in Germany, for very good reasons. Just look at the latest absurd policy suggested by Habeck: a 1000€ voucher for electricity for everyone who buys an electric car. THAT'S the kind of policies which are prevented by a debt break. The problem is not that the government cannot spend enough. We have higher tax revenues than ever. The problem is that most of the taxes are spent on consumption instead of investments. More money for the government through debts won't necessarily increase investments, but it will 100% increase consumption ever more. Also, you should look into why the French government collapsed: because their high-debt policies haven't been sustainable.
- rayiner 2y agoThe stoplight coalition is incoherent. You can't have socialists, greens, and neoliberals in the same party. The only thing they can agree on is more immigration, and that's not going to make voters happy. CDU should just agree to work with AfD in return for some bright lines excluding the most extreme stuff.
- jltsiren 2y agoFinland has had a few of those. Wide coalitions can work if people focus on getting things done, or they can fail if they focus on identity politics.
- rayiner 2y agoGet what done? What does FDP want to do that Greens also want to do?
- Grumbledour 2y agoWell, they claimed for years they wanted to strengthen civil liberties, stop surveillance, progress digitalisation of government etc. That all should have worked well with their coalition partners and the fact that they never actually intended to do these things and thus didn't certainly plays a role in that they lost so much voter approval, even if the keep telling themselves the only reason is that the were not neoliberal enough!
- shawndrost 2y agoI imagine the argument here is: FDP wants lower energy prices enough to horse trade with Greens for new conservation designations. That kind of thing.
- jltsiren 2y agoYour question is a perfect example of identity politics. Most political parties want mostly the same things. They have differences in priorities, and they may oppose the specific means other parties propose, but they are rarely opposed to the actual goals of the parties on the other side of the political spectrum. Radical fringes often have too different visions of the society to work with those on the other side. But we are not talking about radicals here, but a coalition of three moderate center-left / center-right parties. Those parties should be able to collaborate most of the time, even if you add CDU (another center-right party) to the mix.
- jcfrei 2y agoThere's a whole bunch of stuff happening that collectively hurts the German economy: - German economy is heavy on manufacturing: Part of their success was cheap raw materials (oil, gas, etc.) from Russia. That edge has disappeared thanks to the war in Ukraine. - More competition from China: China is moving up the value chain in manufacturing, competing with Germany in previous strongholds. Lowers margins for lots of German companies. - At the same time subdued demand from China itself: A large part of growth - esp. in the automotive section - came from China. Domestic manufacturers of EVs have now better offers than Germany, meaning it's losing market share. - Misguided energy politics: With an unnecessary exit from Nuclear energy (German nuclear power plants were among the most reliable ones). Driving up energy costs just at the moment when gas is already in short supply due to sanctions on Russia. Will any new Government fix all these issues? Unlikely, they are structurally too deeply a part of the German economic model that a new Gov. could change them (except for restarting Nuclear power plants - but that seems unlikely atm).
- OptionOfT 2y agoThe hardest part to build a car these days is the emissions. Without it, the next thing is safety, but that is an easier solve. I feel that Germany felt like EVs wouldn't take off, and thus ignored them for too long, and they got taken by surprise. For example, the Model 3 Performance on 20" wheels has 303 miles of range, a 0-60 of 2.9 seconds and is about 20k cheaper than the BMW i4 M50 on 20" wheels has 227 miles of range and a 0-60 of 3.7 seconds. Why? Well, the i4 isn't a purpose built EV. It sits on a platform that must incorporate everything, starting at a tiny 1.6 liter 4 banger, a 2 liter 4 banger with electric motor, a 3 liter 6 banger, and a plethora of configurations, manual, automatic, (air)suspension, performance (M3/M4), bodies (station wagon). And on top of that a battery pack beneath everything and electric motors. Look under the hood on a BMW i4. Take the cover off. There is empty space there. It's wasteful. So now I'm looking at our next car. Do I get the Tesla? Or the BMW?
- r00fus 2y agoI mean, you have a lot of choice and the Tesla quality isn't exactly known to be as high as the BMW (Also Tesla real-life range != stated range).