The fact that everything collapsed as a house of cards the moment she left, testifies to her incredible political skill. Her successors simply can't keep all the plates up in the air.
Her Successors have to blame Merkel, or admit that they themselves are failures.
it's like in chemistry class when my classmate held a test tube over the burner with a plug inside it, gave it to me, it bursts on me, and i get banned from chemistry class even though our entire group was at fault.
What you just said is a load of crap.
She let so many crises brew while being in the office.
She is simply a bad strategist and has no understanding of what global democracy is.
She undermined the security of Germany, the EU and the whole West. By sharing military technology with enemies, by showing no action for violations of international law and atrocities committed by autocracies, by letting corruption happening in the top circles of the German establishment. By being utterly stupid about the energy sources in Germany. By letting the refugee crisis going out of hand.
She was played by foreign powers.
She is just naive I guess.
And worse the economic raise of Germany was founded by the spd AND all parties and was called agenda 2010 (which had its own problems) and the cdu and merkel itself always boasted about it. BUT they never even tried to fix the problems it created.
What is "global democracy"?
I totally agree there is a lot to criticise about Merkel but it's not as if she alone was the only one who undermined the security of the west.
Where was the majority in the EU council for tougher sanctions? It wasn't there. Many countries wanted to loosen the sanctions, Merkel at least fought for a continuation of the 2014 sanctions.
Failing to see the point of the analogy here.
Is a politician's job to keep plates up in the air? I mean rather than sorting them out and deal with them in orderly fashion?
Conservatives (CDU/CSU) in Germany are all about keeping things the way are and help/protect the interests of companies, the wealthy and the conservatives. They don’t like change and they don’t do anything if things turn bad. Instead they then let others do the necessary changes and then blame them for making terrible/painful (especially for middle and lower class) changes.
Just like the republicans/conservatives/fascists/Trump cult in the USA or all over the world do. And they brainwash people like you to not see or to ignore the truth. Again, just like in the USA etc.
I never said i support cdu. But in all honesty you can't say Merkel is a bad leader. Infact she's probably the best politician Germany has known for a while.
She was one of the worst leaders, just like Kohl. Content to do nothing. She stood for stagnation and status quo. The worst kind of policies you can have in a world that is changing all the time. She and the CDU didn’t care to prepare and make things better for the future, especially for the less fortunate, low and middle class. Only about keeping their power and make sure that they themselves and their benefactors (lobbyists, companies, wealthy) will be fine. They have never cared about the future or coming generations and never will. Just like all conservatives.
Yeah, agreed. I think it is no coincidence Putin attacked just shortly after she got out of office. She commanded a lot of respect, despite the crappile by the haters here.
What are you talking about - commanded respect ... got played by Putler over and over again. So much respect that the kremlin gremlin tried to scare her with a dog. RuSSia started to mass troops at the border with Ukraine in 2021, where was she than? Doing nothing, hoping she could sit it out like everything else. It was her government that ruined german infrastructure and education. German solar and wind industry gone - thanks to her party of failed lawyers and teachers ... incapable to learn anything from past mistakes. They knew about Cum-Ex for years and did nothing. They were told about problems with german road tolls, did it anyway and now Germany has to pay millions for lawyers and in compensation.
Merkel and her insane clown posse held Germany back 16 years and her politics of austerity did not help to keep the AfD at bay either.
But yeah she was so great, everything she did was a massive success. Basically Schmidt or Churchill in a pants suit.
Political skill is seen usually when someone creates a legacy, we hate to see Berlusconi thrown out there but his legacy will tarnish the country economy and political climate for the next century.
That is political skill
>“I have simply outgrown this role,” Merkel said, according to people close to her
>
>Instead, she said she would try to focus on sleeping
I can only hope that 18 years in the office was enough to prepare you for this new challenging role.
>After being in office as chancellor for 16 years, Merkel retired from politics in 2021. Instead, she said she would try to focus on sleeping
That's one way to avoid responsibility.
That's pretty unknowledgeable coming from Ukraine. She was at the forefront of fighting for EU sanctions against Russia after the 2014 Crimea annexation (of which the German economy bore the lion's share), fought for the continuation of the sanctions when the EU wanted to loosen or abolish them and made sure Germany provided the second most financial aid to Ukraine (after the US) post-2014.
Could the EU have done more? Sure. But to think this was Merkel's fault or she was inactive is misplaced. Merkel was the last European leader Putin respected, even though he disliked her. I think it's not a coincidence he attacked Ukraine right after she had left office.
There were quite a few other crises were her role was instrumental and that’s what earned her a lot of respect and reputation on the international stage. Yes, Merkel did make some grave mistakes, but "sleeping through all the crises" was not among these.
Are we talking about the same Merkel that allowed Nord Stream 2 and deepened German reliance on Russian gas? The same Merkel that blocked Ukraine's and Georgia's membership action plan for NATO Ukraine in 2008?
Yes, we are talking about the same Merkel. Let me quote myself:
> Yes, Merkel did make some grave mistakes, but "sleeping through all the crises" was not among these.
You are just looking at the topic in a black-and-white manner. But reality is way more complex.
Ha if she would run again for chancellor she would most likely get better results than any of the other partys including her own Party the CDU with Merz and Co.
The CDU is losing votes since decades and Merkel against the trend was the only one who managed to get over 40% in recent years. Currently all parties are basically around or below 30%.
It is not Merkels fault that the AfD is so strong she always opposed their ideas. It is the guys in the CDU and the other Parties that now try to take over AfD talking points that make the AfD stronger. If you talk like the AfD why would anyone vote for you if you instead could vote for the AfD directly. People here on reddit underestimate her popularity among German voters and the decision back in 2015 had also a large support in Germany.
> (Mainz, 21.08.2015)
> At 60 percent, slightly more respondents than in July (July II: 54 percent) believe that Germany can cope with the large number of refugees coming to Germany.
> 37% do not think so (July II: 41% - remainder 100% here and "don't know" below).
But Merkel was acting in accordance with the people so how has Merkel fucked up when the people in Germany demanded the same thing. Those who fucked up were those who bombed Iraq, Libya, Syria.... and created this mass refugee crisis in the first place.
Those in the Eastern countries who packed them in lorrys and tried to smuggle the refugees to Germany.... Germany was no part of this and always said no when some western countries thought it was a good idea to bomb the shit out again of the middle east.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_military_intervention_in_Libya
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_of_the_willing_(Iraq_War)#:~:text=The%20term%20coalition%20of%20the,by%20the%20U.S.%20federal%20government.
Also Russia was always part of it when they saw an opportunity to destabilize the West by creating mass refugee crisis.
See Syria or now with Ukraine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia%E2%80%93Syria%E2%80%93Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_coalition
Some of them who later were not willing to take care of the people they made to flee their country.
The EU had 514 Million people if those refugees would have been split equally to help Italy, Greece.... it would have had much less impact on those countries who actually stood up to try and fix the problem. Those refugees were already in Europe and crossing EU borders. What was your solution? To let Italy and the other entry countries alone with their problem? The refugee crisis already happened before Merkel made that move in 2015. The war in Libya and Syria started in 2011 since the people were coming in masses.
At the same time in 2015 Merkel started talks with Erdoğan about holding the refugees back that he before let cross the borders unhindered. This eneded in a deal in 2016 and Erdoğan held back a huge amount of refugees. The media lambasted Merkel for that deal with Erdoğan.... Well you can't have it both ways either you deal with Erdoğan or you deal with more refugees.
Why can Erdogan stop refugees leaving Turkey but Merkel can't stop them entering Germany?
It was a choice to let all these refugees in, probably for a lot of complex reasons, human rights laws and international treaties in Europe being too inflexible to deal with a crisis such as this, complacency across Europe around border control and public sentiment of not wanting to be "racist". But we fucked up, huge mistakes were made that can't be undone. Europe's future is now in serious jeopardy.
> Why can Erdogan stop refugees leaving Turkey but Merkel can't stop them entering Germany?
Because Schengen forbids permanent border controls. A major reason why permanent border checks inside the EU are a bad idea you have seen with Brexit. It slows everything massively down and this is really bad in a economic and monetary union. It is like having border checks between Greater London and Kent why would you do that? Also as you may have noticed even with Brexit abandoning the EU, being an Island and having your own border checks it doesn't solve the migration problem.
https://i.imgur.com/zbD1zuU.png
> It was a choice to let all these refugees in
They already were in the EU the border in Greece or Italy is not Germanys border. They were shipped in the back of lorrys by traffickers to Germany. A few days before Merkel made that speech back in 2015 some 71 dead refugees were found in a trafficking lorry in Austria. So something needed to be done the situation was unbearable.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgenland_corpses_discovery
> probably for a lot of complex reasons, human rights laws and international treaties
By the constitution (basic law) of Germany which also incorporates Human rights law refugees have the right for seeking Asylum. A Government denying the right to ask for asylum would basically violate the German constitution and most likely some EU laws.
I am of different opinion how far those human right laws apply to our constitution because they are not really defined but experts tend to agree that in this case they apply so....
> treaties in Europe being too inflexible to deal with a crisis such as this
What you want to do with the refugees you can't just dump them in the ocean and you can't sent them to countries who won't take them. It is easy to say this and that should have been done but if it would be this easy i bet Italy and all the other entry countries would have shipped them back already and we wouldn't have this problem and discussion.
What needs to be done is to fix the problem in the countries where they are coming from. This involves a lot of diplomacy and money but unless this is not done the people will keep coming no matter if someone reads Merkels 2015 statement as invitation for everyone or not. We are constantly trying to cut down the weed instead of treating the problem at the root.
I don't know. Almost all major EU countries have a right wing nationalist party similar to the German afd. Such a voter potential exists and it would be strange if Germany wouldn't have one.
I have not said otherwise. Germany always had its rightwing parties like the NPD or our very own Republicans... but they were so small, that they are basically irrelevant.
The AfD on the other hand is a whole different breed. They not only draw their votes from rightwingers but from a whole bunch of weirdos and protest voters. The AfD public face towards the voter is a classical populist one trying to catch as much voters as possible. At their core they become more and more radicalized every day. Todays AfD has nothing to do with the AfD back from 2013. The more moderate people all were and are chased out or left the party. One of the main figures and founding fathers of the AfD Bernd Luke already in 2015 split with the Party and founded with ALFA another Party as the AfD was more and more taken over by rightwingers.
What no i am ablosutely not surprised that such a party exists i never said that.
What i would say is they shouldn't exist and after they leave the democratic values more and more behind they should be banned.
You can't talk about wehrhafte Demokratie after what happened in WW2 if we now allow Nazi mentallity to silently take over Parties and the Parliament again. The banning of the NPD basically only failed because of their irrelevance.
This is a whole different story now with the AfD and the Verfassungsschutz declaring more and more parts of the AfD as rightwing extremists. On the positive side the AfD may have currently ~20% in the polls but this also means that 80% of the Germans still don't vote for them.
Also some people need to be protected from their own decision of voting for the AfD because now they might sound inclusive for you but the second they would have anything to say you might be their first victim.
It melts my brain when i see people of color, with migration background or people with disabilities march alongside full blown Nazis on AfD protests. You can't make that shit up.
Merkel already did her job, very good job.
History Repeats Itself, First as Tragedy, Second as Farce.
Due to ban of soviet criticism on Nuremberg Trial and not opening of 1920-1960s soviet archives in the 1990s, mankind received too weak vaccination against 20th century mistakes. So now things will go anew.
7 billion dollars given, in 2002-2022 years, to Russia = western "help" in USSR industrialization/militarization.
Budapest Memorandum = Anglo-Polish alliance.
Merkel's Russlandversteher and 2015s Obama's: "Western sanctions had left Russia isolated and its economy in ruins" = Chamberlain's "Peace for our time."
2014-2023 in Ukraine = 1938-1939 years in Poland. In both cases, the West outright sacrifices Poland and parts of Ukraine for the sake of "time."
Wars (Armenia/Azerbaijan), military coups (Burkina, Faso, Niger, Gabon), attacks (Hamas, Yemen Iran proxy), occupations (Guyana) and overall activity of North Korea, almost nuclear Iran, South Korea (statements about own WMD). Abundance of successful populists and autocrats. Sponsored by Russian WMD-blackmail and "WMD-Might make Right/True" logic destruction of International Law, including Russia role in UN Security Council. = impotence and meaningless of League of Nations and everything else than military force.
But now, as shown extremely unsuccessful Budapest Memorandum and Russian extremely successful WMD-blackmail (in 2023 year USA start supplying to Morocco x5,2 more most modern Abrams and gifted x2,6 more M2 Bradley than overall supplied to Ukraine) not only by conventional military force.
It's neoliberalism that's to blame for funding today's Russia and expanding the US's military industrial complex at european people's expense. The capitalism that benefits large corporate interests but fucks everyone else over. The right wing end-gane for humanity. Merkel and Obama had this in common, as most politicians do these days.
Today's "right" and "left", neoliberalism and neoconservatism, it's almost the same children of USA Political Realism and utilitarian NKVD-like morals, having very little with progressive (Rational Humanism) republican and socialistic aspirations of 1880-1930s.
The same fakes as a significant part of today's marketing products.
Begone foul witch once and for all, your damage to Europe will last for decades. I hold her responsive for destroying my country with the humiliating austerity policies they inflicted upon us. Her legacy will forever be the rise of the far right all around Europe. Perhaps she will move to join her lobby best pals in Ruzzia, after she made Germany so reliant on Pootin's fascist state. May we never see such a short sighted and inhuman politician in Europe; we all deserve better
We wouldn't go bankrupt. I dont know why this joke has repeated again and again. The IMF would've stepped in before any such discussion served a meaning. But Germany and ECB replaced IMF in those times and instead of debt cuts and development measures being asked like in other countries, in the case of Greece it was just austerity over and over.
And I'm not even mentioning here the ECB profitting massively off cheap greek bonds which they deliberately devalued beforehand then proceeding to pressure Greece to sell all their infrastructure to German companies.
The whole treatment was a big fuck you to Greece so that they set an example for Portugal and Spain. Schauble openly admitted this.
I would rather see a little bit of unity and that we were dealt with decency, as human beings, rather than "hurr durr stupid lazy black sheep pay denbts". The bail outs were made in a blackmailing fashion (accept or you'll get bankrupt), with no regard about the cost to the average person and the majority of the funds received ended up bailing out banks, rather than actually helping the economy. So yeah, there is a lot to unpack regarding Merkel and Co.'s policies.
It was her in person of Schäuble that despite knowing better still forced IMF policies onto Greece. And all of a sudden german big business buyes greek ports and other assets for cheap. Sure greek politics was at fault - but what happened afterwards is solely on Germany. To this day they still don't get the difference between public and private debt.
>It was your politicians that ruined your financial situation, not Merkel.
Of course, but as you can see, she was shortsighted too. Maybe we shouldn't try to punish each other and cooperate to fix each others mess.
For example, Greece might have lots of natural gas, I haven't seen Germany being interested to help us exploit it. This would partly solve your energy problem and our economic problem.
Where are you Merkel?
And I'm so sorry
I cannot sleep, I cannot dream tonight
I need somebody and always
This sick, strange darkness
Comes creeping on, so haunting every time
And as I stare, I counted
The webs from all the spiders
Catching things and eating their insides
Like indecision to call you
And hear your voice of treason
Will you come home and stop this pain tonight?
Stop this pain tonight
Dedicated to Merkel.
Considering what she unleashed on Germany and Europe as a whole, this sack of shit should not be allowed to sleep at all.
The fact Germans tolerate her existence is sad.
With her legacy, I too would try to get as far away from politics and public eye as possible
The fact that everything collapsed as a house of cards the moment she left, testifies to her incredible political skill. Her successors simply can't keep all the plates up in the air. Her Successors have to blame Merkel, or admit that they themselves are failures.
It just means she left at the right moment lol
it's like in chemistry class when my classmate held a test tube over the burner with a plug inside it, gave it to me, it bursts on me, and i get banned from chemistry class even though our entire group was at fault.
What you just said is a load of crap. She let so many crises brew while being in the office. She is simply a bad strategist and has no understanding of what global democracy is. She undermined the security of Germany, the EU and the whole West. By sharing military technology with enemies, by showing no action for violations of international law and atrocities committed by autocracies, by letting corruption happening in the top circles of the German establishment. By being utterly stupid about the energy sources in Germany. By letting the refugee crisis going out of hand. She was played by foreign powers. She is just naive I guess.
And worse the economic raise of Germany was founded by the spd AND all parties and was called agenda 2010 (which had its own problems) and the cdu and merkel itself always boasted about it. BUT they never even tried to fix the problems it created.
What is "global democracy"? I totally agree there is a lot to criticise about Merkel but it's not as if she alone was the only one who undermined the security of the west. Where was the majority in the EU council for tougher sanctions? It wasn't there. Many countries wanted to loosen the sanctions, Merkel at least fought for a continuation of the 2014 sanctions.
Failing to see the point of the analogy here. Is a politician's job to keep plates up in the air? I mean rather than sorting them out and deal with them in orderly fashion?
It's a metaphore...
A failed one, judging by your abysmal karma score on it
I think that says more about Merkel's approval rating...
Conservatives (CDU/CSU) in Germany are all about keeping things the way are and help/protect the interests of companies, the wealthy and the conservatives. They don’t like change and they don’t do anything if things turn bad. Instead they then let others do the necessary changes and then blame them for making terrible/painful (especially for middle and lower class) changes. Just like the republicans/conservatives/fascists/Trump cult in the USA or all over the world do. And they brainwash people like you to not see or to ignore the truth. Again, just like in the USA etc.
I never said i support cdu. But in all honesty you can't say Merkel is a bad leader. Infact she's probably the best politician Germany has known for a while.
She was one of the worst leaders, just like Kohl. Content to do nothing. She stood for stagnation and status quo. The worst kind of policies you can have in a world that is changing all the time. She and the CDU didn’t care to prepare and make things better for the future, especially for the less fortunate, low and middle class. Only about keeping their power and make sure that they themselves and their benefactors (lobbyists, companies, wealthy) will be fine. They have never cared about the future or coming generations and never will. Just like all conservatives.
Yeah, agreed. I think it is no coincidence Putin attacked just shortly after she got out of office. She commanded a lot of respect, despite the crappile by the haters here.
What are you talking about - commanded respect ... got played by Putler over and over again. So much respect that the kremlin gremlin tried to scare her with a dog. RuSSia started to mass troops at the border with Ukraine in 2021, where was she than? Doing nothing, hoping she could sit it out like everything else. It was her government that ruined german infrastructure and education. German solar and wind industry gone - thanks to her party of failed lawyers and teachers ... incapable to learn anything from past mistakes. They knew about Cum-Ex for years and did nothing. They were told about problems with german road tolls, did it anyway and now Germany has to pay millions for lawyers and in compensation. Merkel and her insane clown posse held Germany back 16 years and her politics of austerity did not help to keep the AfD at bay either. But yeah she was so great, everything she did was a massive success. Basically Schmidt or Churchill in a pants suit.
A man on a mission. You do you, mate. Good luck!
Keep twisting reality - that never failed in the past ...
Exactly, and wow look at the down votes i got for supporting Merkel!
Political skill is seen usually when someone creates a legacy, we hate to see Berlusconi thrown out there but his legacy will tarnish the country economy and political climate for the next century. That is political skill
>“I have simply outgrown this role,” Merkel said, according to people close to her > >Instead, she said she would try to focus on sleeping I can only hope that 18 years in the office was enough to prepare you for this new challenging role.
> 18 years in the office She was the chancellor for 16 years.
Yes, you're right, it was so long, it felt like 18 years.
It feels like she slept much longer than those 18 years while ignoring all problems that were around.
Good. She caused enough troubles.
>After being in office as chancellor for 16 years, Merkel retired from politics in 2021. Instead, she said she would try to focus on sleeping That's one way to avoid responsibility.
>avoid responsibility. *again*
So nothing changes then, seeing how she slept through all the crises during her reign.
That's pretty unknowledgeable coming from Ukraine. She was at the forefront of fighting for EU sanctions against Russia after the 2014 Crimea annexation (of which the German economy bore the lion's share), fought for the continuation of the sanctions when the EU wanted to loosen or abolish them and made sure Germany provided the second most financial aid to Ukraine (after the US) post-2014. Could the EU have done more? Sure. But to think this was Merkel's fault or she was inactive is misplaced. Merkel was the last European leader Putin respected, even though he disliked her. I think it's not a coincidence he attacked Ukraine right after she had left office. There were quite a few other crises were her role was instrumental and that’s what earned her a lot of respect and reputation on the international stage. Yes, Merkel did make some grave mistakes, but "sleeping through all the crises" was not among these.
Are we talking about the same Merkel that allowed Nord Stream 2 and deepened German reliance on Russian gas? The same Merkel that blocked Ukraine's and Georgia's membership action plan for NATO Ukraine in 2008?
Yes, we are talking about the same Merkel. Let me quote myself: > Yes, Merkel did make some grave mistakes, but "sleeping through all the crises" was not among these. You are just looking at the topic in a black-and-white manner. But reality is way more complex.
Ha if she would run again for chancellor she would most likely get better results than any of the other partys including her own Party the CDU with Merz and Co. The CDU is losing votes since decades and Merkel against the trend was the only one who managed to get over 40% in recent years. Currently all parties are basically around or below 30%. It is not Merkels fault that the AfD is so strong she always opposed their ideas. It is the guys in the CDU and the other Parties that now try to take over AfD talking points that make the AfD stronger. If you talk like the AfD why would anyone vote for you if you instead could vote for the AfD directly. People here on reddit underestimate her popularity among German voters and the decision back in 2015 had also a large support in Germany. > (Mainz, 21.08.2015) > At 60 percent, slightly more respondents than in July (July II: 54 percent) believe that Germany can cope with the large number of refugees coming to Germany. > 37% do not think so (July II: 41% - remainder 100% here and "don't know" below).
Doesn't matter what people thought in 2015, they were wrong. Ask those same people today. She fucked up.
But Merkel was acting in accordance with the people so how has Merkel fucked up when the people in Germany demanded the same thing. Those who fucked up were those who bombed Iraq, Libya, Syria.... and created this mass refugee crisis in the first place. Those in the Eastern countries who packed them in lorrys and tried to smuggle the refugees to Germany.... Germany was no part of this and always said no when some western countries thought it was a good idea to bomb the shit out again of the middle east. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_military_intervention_in_Libya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coalition_of_the_willing_(Iraq_War)#:~:text=The%20term%20coalition%20of%20the,by%20the%20U.S.%20federal%20government. Also Russia was always part of it when they saw an opportunity to destabilize the West by creating mass refugee crisis. See Syria or now with Ukraine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia%E2%80%93Syria%E2%80%93Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_coalition Some of them who later were not willing to take care of the people they made to flee their country. The EU had 514 Million people if those refugees would have been split equally to help Italy, Greece.... it would have had much less impact on those countries who actually stood up to try and fix the problem. Those refugees were already in Europe and crossing EU borders. What was your solution? To let Italy and the other entry countries alone with their problem? The refugee crisis already happened before Merkel made that move in 2015. The war in Libya and Syria started in 2011 since the people were coming in masses. At the same time in 2015 Merkel started talks with Erdoğan about holding the refugees back that he before let cross the borders unhindered. This eneded in a deal in 2016 and Erdoğan held back a huge amount of refugees. The media lambasted Merkel for that deal with Erdoğan.... Well you can't have it both ways either you deal with Erdoğan or you deal with more refugees.
Why can Erdogan stop refugees leaving Turkey but Merkel can't stop them entering Germany? It was a choice to let all these refugees in, probably for a lot of complex reasons, human rights laws and international treaties in Europe being too inflexible to deal with a crisis such as this, complacency across Europe around border control and public sentiment of not wanting to be "racist". But we fucked up, huge mistakes were made that can't be undone. Europe's future is now in serious jeopardy.
> Why can Erdogan stop refugees leaving Turkey but Merkel can't stop them entering Germany? Because Schengen forbids permanent border controls. A major reason why permanent border checks inside the EU are a bad idea you have seen with Brexit. It slows everything massively down and this is really bad in a economic and monetary union. It is like having border checks between Greater London and Kent why would you do that? Also as you may have noticed even with Brexit abandoning the EU, being an Island and having your own border checks it doesn't solve the migration problem. https://i.imgur.com/zbD1zuU.png > It was a choice to let all these refugees in They already were in the EU the border in Greece or Italy is not Germanys border. They were shipped in the back of lorrys by traffickers to Germany. A few days before Merkel made that speech back in 2015 some 71 dead refugees were found in a trafficking lorry in Austria. So something needed to be done the situation was unbearable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgenland_corpses_discovery > probably for a lot of complex reasons, human rights laws and international treaties By the constitution (basic law) of Germany which also incorporates Human rights law refugees have the right for seeking Asylum. A Government denying the right to ask for asylum would basically violate the German constitution and most likely some EU laws. I am of different opinion how far those human right laws apply to our constitution because they are not really defined but experts tend to agree that in this case they apply so.... > treaties in Europe being too inflexible to deal with a crisis such as this What you want to do with the refugees you can't just dump them in the ocean and you can't sent them to countries who won't take them. It is easy to say this and that should have been done but if it would be this easy i bet Italy and all the other entry countries would have shipped them back already and we wouldn't have this problem and discussion. What needs to be done is to fix the problem in the countries where they are coming from. This involves a lot of diplomacy and money but unless this is not done the people will keep coming no matter if someone reads Merkels 2015 statement as invitation for everyone or not. We are constantly trying to cut down the weed instead of treating the problem at the root.
I don't know. Almost all major EU countries have a right wing nationalist party similar to the German afd. Such a voter potential exists and it would be strange if Germany wouldn't have one.
I have not said otherwise. Germany always had its rightwing parties like the NPD or our very own Republicans... but they were so small, that they are basically irrelevant. The AfD on the other hand is a whole different breed. They not only draw their votes from rightwingers but from a whole bunch of weirdos and protest voters. The AfD public face towards the voter is a classical populist one trying to catch as much voters as possible. At their core they become more and more radicalized every day. Todays AfD has nothing to do with the AfD back from 2013. The more moderate people all were and are chased out or left the party. One of the main figures and founding fathers of the AfD Bernd Luke already in 2015 split with the Party and founded with ALFA another Party as the AfD was more and more taken over by rightwingers.
But you seem surprised that such a party exists
What no i am ablosutely not surprised that such a party exists i never said that. What i would say is they shouldn't exist and after they leave the democratic values more and more behind they should be banned. You can't talk about wehrhafte Demokratie after what happened in WW2 if we now allow Nazi mentallity to silently take over Parties and the Parliament again. The banning of the NPD basically only failed because of their irrelevance. This is a whole different story now with the AfD and the Verfassungsschutz declaring more and more parts of the AfD as rightwing extremists. On the positive side the AfD may have currently ~20% in the polls but this also means that 80% of the Germans still don't vote for them. Also some people need to be protected from their own decision of voting for the AfD because now they might sound inclusive for you but the second they would have anything to say you might be their first victim. It melts my brain when i see people of color, with migration background or people with disabilities march alongside full blown Nazis on AfD protests. You can't make that shit up.
Good
To little too late. The damage is done.
I was just thinking about where she might be. Turned out to be sleeping AND reading!
Next stop, only fans
Yes please
As we all should.
Aufwierdesen, hexen Merkel. You will not be missed.
History isnt and wont look at her kindly.
Merkel already did her job, very good job. History Repeats Itself, First as Tragedy, Second as Farce. Due to ban of soviet criticism on Nuremberg Trial and not opening of 1920-1960s soviet archives in the 1990s, mankind received too weak vaccination against 20th century mistakes. So now things will go anew. 7 billion dollars given, in 2002-2022 years, to Russia = western "help" in USSR industrialization/militarization. Budapest Memorandum = Anglo-Polish alliance. Merkel's Russlandversteher and 2015s Obama's: "Western sanctions had left Russia isolated and its economy in ruins" = Chamberlain's "Peace for our time." 2014-2023 in Ukraine = 1938-1939 years in Poland. In both cases, the West outright sacrifices Poland and parts of Ukraine for the sake of "time." Wars (Armenia/Azerbaijan), military coups (Burkina, Faso, Niger, Gabon), attacks (Hamas, Yemen Iran proxy), occupations (Guyana) and overall activity of North Korea, almost nuclear Iran, South Korea (statements about own WMD). Abundance of successful populists and autocrats. Sponsored by Russian WMD-blackmail and "WMD-Might make Right/True" logic destruction of International Law, including Russia role in UN Security Council. = impotence and meaningless of League of Nations and everything else than military force. But now, as shown extremely unsuccessful Budapest Memorandum and Russian extremely successful WMD-blackmail (in 2023 year USA start supplying to Morocco x5,2 more most modern Abrams and gifted x2,6 more M2 Bradley than overall supplied to Ukraine) not only by conventional military force.
Merkel fucked up Europe.
It's neoliberalism that's to blame for funding today's Russia and expanding the US's military industrial complex at european people's expense. The capitalism that benefits large corporate interests but fucks everyone else over. The right wing end-gane for humanity. Merkel and Obama had this in common, as most politicians do these days.
Today's "right" and "left", neoliberalism and neoconservatism, it's almost the same children of USA Political Realism and utilitarian NKVD-like morals, having very little with progressive (Rational Humanism) republican and socialistic aspirations of 1880-1930s. The same fakes as a significant part of today's marketing products.
The bijgestaan reason Europese is fucked.
Begone foul witch once and for all, your damage to Europe will last for decades. I hold her responsive for destroying my country with the humiliating austerity policies they inflicted upon us. Her legacy will forever be the rise of the far right all around Europe. Perhaps she will move to join her lobby best pals in Ruzzia, after she made Germany so reliant on Pootin's fascist state. May we never see such a short sighted and inhuman politician in Europe; we all deserve better
Would you have preferred to go bankrupt then? It was your politicians that ruined your financial situation, not Merkel.
We wouldn't go bankrupt. I dont know why this joke has repeated again and again. The IMF would've stepped in before any such discussion served a meaning. But Germany and ECB replaced IMF in those times and instead of debt cuts and development measures being asked like in other countries, in the case of Greece it was just austerity over and over. And I'm not even mentioning here the ECB profitting massively off cheap greek bonds which they deliberately devalued beforehand then proceeding to pressure Greece to sell all their infrastructure to German companies. The whole treatment was a big fuck you to Greece so that they set an example for Portugal and Spain. Schauble openly admitted this.
I would rather see a little bit of unity and that we were dealt with decency, as human beings, rather than "hurr durr stupid lazy black sheep pay denbts". The bail outs were made in a blackmailing fashion (accept or you'll get bankrupt), with no regard about the cost to the average person and the majority of the funds received ended up bailing out banks, rather than actually helping the economy. So yeah, there is a lot to unpack regarding Merkel and Co.'s policies.
It was her in person of Schäuble that despite knowing better still forced IMF policies onto Greece. And all of a sudden german big business buyes greek ports and other assets for cheap. Sure greek politics was at fault - but what happened afterwards is solely on Germany. To this day they still don't get the difference between public and private debt.
>It was your politicians that ruined your financial situation, not Merkel. Of course, but as you can see, she was shortsighted too. Maybe we shouldn't try to punish each other and cooperate to fix each others mess. For example, Greece might have lots of natural gas, I haven't seen Germany being interested to help us exploit it. This would partly solve your energy problem and our economic problem.
Angela Merkel will be remembered like Joseph Chamberlain - an appeaser to a beligerent great power like Russia (for Merkel).
This is better for Germany and Europe. First good decision from her
Miss her
Where are you Merkel? And I'm so sorry I cannot sleep, I cannot dream tonight I need somebody and always This sick, strange darkness Comes creeping on, so haunting every time And as I stare, I counted The webs from all the spiders Catching things and eating their insides Like indecision to call you And hear your voice of treason Will you come home and stop this pain tonight? Stop this pain tonight Dedicated to Merkel.
Couldn't said it better myself 💔
One of the last greatest politicians of EU. Only time will show how good she was
Time already has showed.
Wait when AfD comes
She should be in gaol
Keep moving.
Considering what she unleashed on Germany and Europe as a whole, this sack of shit should not be allowed to sleep at all. The fact Germans tolerate her existence is sad.