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I 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

by jajko 2y ago

I 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 ago
    Yeah, 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 ago
  Unless they would like to experience a reverse Anschluss with Russia, yes.
  - lukan 2y ago
    Did you compared europes combined economic and military capabilities with those of russia lately? If it weren't for the nukes, no one would talk about russia so much. China would be a different story.
- ImJamal 2y ago
  People are consistently claiming that if Ukraine falls, Russia will move further west. This could bring a war on the border of Germany.
holowoodman 2y ago
Don't worry, Germany will hit the 2% mark soon due to decreasing GDP.
geremiiah 2y ago
[flagged]
- cyberpunk 2y ago
  A bit harsh I think to generalise an entire country so. What makes you feel this way?
zelphirkalt 2y ago
Since we periodically elect such parties and people, apparently we get what we deserve. Shitty governments, consisting of people, who care more about their own deep pockets, rather than improving the status quo. Every 4 years we have men in black walking around blitzdingsing everyone apparently, to forget how bad the government before the current one was and then we reelect those. Now "new" to the mix we have AfD and BSW, which are so far removed from reality, that I don't even know how to describe them any longer. Of course part of this is by design, letting the education sector drift into becoming utter crap. Wouldn't want a populace capable of thinking for themselves, now would we? And as such maybe we do deserve better, but are somehow incapable of voting ourselves out of the bad situation we are in. Doesn't help at all, that there is a growing aging polulation, that is basically not actually capable of living democracy and simply always and forever votes for corrupt gangs, oops, I mean parties. I expect from a person valuing and living in a democracy, to actually inform themselves before voting, instead of letting calcified brain cells vote. Maybe I am asking too much here, but all it takes is 2-4h once every couple of years, and not only thinking of oneself, actually being a member of society and understanding oneself as such.
mtmail 2y ago
Wehrmacht was 1935-1945. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wehrmacht https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wehrmacht > Existential threat almost at the door yet 0 reaction June 2022 "German lawmakers approve 100 billion euro military revamp" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/german-lawmakers-approve-100-bln-euro-military-revamp-2022-06-03/ https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/german-lawmakers-approv... > massively under mandatory NATO 2% contributions and 0 attempt to get there. 2015: 1.19%, 2016: 1.20%, 2017: 1.24%, 2018: 1.26%, 2019: 1.36%, 2020: 1.57% (https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2020/10/pdf/pr-2020-104-en.pdf https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2020/10/p...)
- bpodgursky 2y ago
  You cannot seriously be arguing that going from 1.19% of GDP to 1.57% of GDP in a decade counts as an attempt.
  - lukan 2y ago
    1.57 % in 2020. After the invasion and with the 100 mio it is at 2%.
    - holowoodman 2y ago
      No, that isn't a done deal yet: https://www.statista.com/statistics/810406/ratio-of-military-expenditure-to-gross-domestic-product-gdp-germany/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/810406/ratio-of-military... post-cold-war numbers until 2022 are under 1.4% 2023 is still well below 2% at 1.5%: https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/2404_fs_milex_2023.pdf https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/2404_fs_mi... 2024 is expected to maybe barely scratch 2%, but maybe only with accounting tricks such as including road and train infra spending: https://www.politico.eu/article/berlin-germany-pump-defense-spending-military-mobility/ https://www.politico.eu/article/berlin-germany-pump-defense-... Also, the 100mio are only expected to last until 2026 at most, and the budget for 2025 led to the blowup of the traffic-light-coalition government and is expected to include major slashes in spending when the next government after the spring election gets working on it.
ReptileMan 2y ago
>Existential threat almost at the door yet 0 reaction Why do people pretend that Russia is capable of even threatening the EU? They can't even subdue the backwater that is Ukraine. Even if Putin takes all of it, he will need decades to make Russia capable of striking meaningfully into Europe. And we can outproduce him 10 to 1 for every piece of military hardware, and we have enough fighting age immigrants pouring into Europe in the last decades that we can mobilize and throw into the meatgrinder before having to tap our own population. I am convinced that this is one of the reasons we have so lax borders in Europe - to have cannon fodder for WWIII
- CBarkleyU 2y ago
  >and we have enough fighting age immigrants pouring into Europe in the last decades that we can mobilize and throw into the meatgrinder before having to tap our own population. I could say that this is extremely macabre (which it is), but I guess I have a better chance reaching the HN crowd by saying that soldiers under force usually perform atrocioucsly, especially fighting for a cause they have zero interest in.
  - sabbaticaldev 2y ago
    it works well for the US as some 5 to 12% of the US army is composed by immigrants
- aguaviva 2y ago
  Why do people [maintain] that Russia is capable of even threatening the EU? Because its regime has verbally done just that, and has conducted sabotage and assassinations on EU soil on multiple recent occasions. The fact that is attacking Ukraine in part as a response to its attempt to join the EU is also very reasonably interpreted as part of this intrinsically threatening stance.
  - ReptileMan 2y ago
    Putin's mouth is writing checks that his ass cannot cash. They are bogged down for 3 years in the only country in Europe less developed than them. He may have the desire, but he lacks the capacity to threaten Europe.
echoangle 2y ago
> Wehrmacht is a joke considering size of the country. I would hope so, the Bundeswehr is the thing we should worry about though.
lukan 2y ago
And strong leaders are good as long as they think what needs to be done, matches what you want. The reason Scholz came to power, was not because he is strong, but because he wasn't. Germany is as divided as the rest of europe. Some think the war in Ukraine is the most important. Some think climate crisis is. Some think cheap energy is the most important, some think the immigrants, ... so how does it all go together? Well, it doesn't. And since we are a democracy we need to find some compromise. Not a dictator. But yeah, some indeed want to have a dictator and a strong Wehrmacht back. And their numbers are rising.
- rayiner 2y ago
  The rest of europe isn't in the same boat. Denmark and now Sweden have been able to bridge the divides by capitulating on the pro-immigration stance: https://www.politico.eu/article/denmark-migration-eu-parliament-election-mette-frederiksen/ https://www.politico.eu/article/denmark-migration-eu-parliam.... If CDU were to give up the immigration issue and absorb the AfD defectors, it likely would be able to form a governing majority.
  - Tomte 2y ago
    AfD is (like BSW) extremely anti-Ukraine. Seriously, the party boss just called for recognizing Russia’s victory. That‘s the big divider, on immigration issues they could find common ground.
    - telotortium 2y ago
      I'm not German, but it seems to me that CDU could capitulate on immigration in exchange for a change in AfD party policy on the Ukraine war. I doubt there are that many hardcore pro-Russian voters (although who knows with the East Germans).
    - hollerith 2y ago
      [flagged]
      - 2y ago

by jajko 2y ago

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 ago
  Yeah, 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 ago
Unless they would like to experience a reverse Anschluss with Russia, yes.
- lukan 2y ago
  Did you compared europes combined economic and military capabilities with those of russia lately? If it weren't for the nukes, no one would talk about russia so much. China would be a different story.
ImJamal 2y ago
People are consistently claiming that if Ukraine falls, Russia will move further west. This could bring a war on the border of Germany.

holowoodman 2y ago

Don't worry, Germany will hit the 2% mark soon due to decreasing GDP.

geremiiah 2y ago

[flagged]

cyberpunk 2y ago
A bit harsh I think to generalise an entire country so. What makes you feel this way?

zelphirkalt 2y ago

Since we periodically elect such parties and people, apparently we get what we deserve. Shitty governments, consisting of people, who care more about their own deep pockets, rather than improving the status quo. Every 4 years we have men in black walking around blitzdingsing everyone apparently, to forget how bad the government before the current one was and then we reelect those. Now "new" to the mix we have AfD and BSW, which are so far removed from reality, that I don't even know how to describe them any longer. Of course part of this is by design, letting the education sector drift into becoming utter crap. Wouldn't want a populace capable of thinking for themselves, now would we? And as such maybe we do deserve better, but are somehow incapable of voting ourselves out of the bad situation we are in. Doesn't help at all, that there is a growing aging polulation, that is basically not actually capable of living democracy and simply always and forever votes for corrupt gangs, oops, I mean parties. I expect from a person valuing and living in a democracy, to actually inform themselves before voting, instead of letting calcified brain cells vote. Maybe I am asking too much here, but all it takes is 2-4h once every couple of years, and not only thinking of oneself, actually being a member of society and understanding oneself as such.

mtmail 2y ago

Wehrmacht was 1935-1945. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wehrmacht https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wehrmacht > Existential threat almost at the door yet 0 reaction June 2022 "German lawmakers approve 100 billion euro military revamp" https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/german-lawmakers-approve-100-bln-euro-military-revamp-2022-06-03/ https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/german-lawmakers-approv... > massively under mandatory NATO 2% contributions and 0 attempt to get there. 2015: 1.19%, 2016: 1.20%, 2017: 1.24%, 2018: 1.26%, 2019: 1.36%, 2020: 1.57% (https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2020/10/pdf/pr-2020-104-en.pdf https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2020/10/p...)

bpodgursky 2y ago
You cannot seriously be arguing that going from 1.19% of GDP to 1.57% of GDP in a decade counts as an attempt.
- lukan 2y ago
  1.57 % in 2020. After the invasion and with the 100 mio it is at 2%.
  - holowoodman 2y ago
    No, that isn't a done deal yet: https://www.statista.com/statistics/810406/ratio-of-military-expenditure-to-gross-domestic-product-gdp-germany/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/810406/ratio-of-military... post-cold-war numbers until 2022 are under 1.4% 2023 is still well below 2% at 1.5%: https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/2404_fs_milex_2023.pdf https://www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/2024-04/2404_fs_mi... 2024 is expected to maybe barely scratch 2%, but maybe only with accounting tricks such as including road and train infra spending: https://www.politico.eu/article/berlin-germany-pump-defense-spending-military-mobility/ https://www.politico.eu/article/berlin-germany-pump-defense-... Also, the 100mio are only expected to last until 2026 at most, and the budget for 2025 led to the blowup of the traffic-light-coalition government and is expected to include major slashes in spending when the next government after the spring election gets working on it.

ReptileMan 2y ago

>Existential threat almost at the door yet 0 reaction Why do people pretend that Russia is capable of even threatening the EU? They can't even subdue the backwater that is Ukraine. Even if Putin takes all of it, he will need decades to make Russia capable of striking meaningfully into Europe. And we can outproduce him 10 to 1 for every piece of military hardware, and we have enough fighting age immigrants pouring into Europe in the last decades that we can mobilize and throw into the meatgrinder before having to tap our own population. I am convinced that this is one of the reasons we have so lax borders in Europe - to have cannon fodder for WWIII

CBarkleyU 2y ago
>and we have enough fighting age immigrants pouring into Europe in the last decades that we can mobilize and throw into the meatgrinder before having to tap our own population. I could say that this is extremely macabre (which it is), but I guess I have a better chance reaching the HN crowd by saying that soldiers under force usually perform atrocioucsly, especially fighting for a cause they have zero interest in.
- sabbaticaldev 2y ago
  it works well for the US as some 5 to 12% of the US army is composed by immigrants
aguaviva 2y ago
Why do people [maintain] that Russia is capable of even threatening the EU? Because its regime has verbally done just that, and has conducted sabotage and assassinations on EU soil on multiple recent occasions. The fact that is attacking Ukraine in part as a response to its attempt to join the EU is also very reasonably interpreted as part of this intrinsically threatening stance.
- ReptileMan 2y ago
  Putin's mouth is writing checks that his ass cannot cash. They are bogged down for 3 years in the only country in Europe less developed than them. He may have the desire, but he lacks the capacity to threaten Europe.

echoangle 2y ago

> Wehrmacht is a joke considering size of the country. I would hope so, the Bundeswehr is the thing we should worry about though.

lukan 2y ago

And strong leaders are good as long as they think what needs to be done, matches what you want. The reason Scholz came to power, was not because he is strong, but because he wasn't. Germany is as divided as the rest of europe. Some think the war in Ukraine is the most important. Some think climate crisis is. Some think cheap energy is the most important, some think the immigrants, ... so how does it all go together? Well, it doesn't. And since we are a democracy we need to find some compromise. Not a dictator. But yeah, some indeed want to have a dictator and a strong Wehrmacht back. And their numbers are rising.

rayiner 2y ago
The rest of europe isn't in the same boat. Denmark and now Sweden have been able to bridge the divides by capitulating on the pro-immigration stance: https://www.politico.eu/article/denmark-migration-eu-parliament-election-mette-frederiksen/ https://www.politico.eu/article/denmark-migration-eu-parliam.... If CDU were to give up the immigration issue and absorb the AfD defectors, it likely would be able to form a governing majority.
- Tomte 2y ago
  AfD is (like BSW) extremely anti-Ukraine. Seriously, the party boss just called for recognizing Russia’s victory. That‘s the big divider, on immigration issues they could find common ground.
  - telotortium 2y ago
    I'm not German, but it seems to me that CDU could capitulate on immigration in exchange for a change in AfD party policy on the Ukraine war. I doubt there are that many hardcore pro-Russian voters (although who knows with the East Germans).
  - hollerith 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - 2y ago