European Politico-economics QA Mega-thread - Page 581

On November 14 2016 23:37 Mafe wrote:

I'm sure Steinmeier is a good politician and surely has been a good choice for international diplomacy. But I cant help the fact that just thinking of him makes me yawn. I think getting rid of him this way is not just a big win for the SPD over Merkel in the sense that they have chosen the new president, but also a chance for them to find a stronger identity for the upcoming general election.

On November 14 2016 23:45 LegalLord wrote:
Steinmeier's an interesting fellow; I've definitely heard a fair bit about him over the past few years both in English and Russian news sources - both in a good and bad light. Though it's hard to develop an opinion of someone when they are only relevant in the way they interact with your own country.

My question is this: is Merkel still committed to her refugee policy, consequences be damned? Or has she been looking for a way to back out from it? As far as I can tell she's been willing to watch the EU and internal German support erode for her leadership over time, but at the same time she still insists on pushing the pro-refugee policy. I'm not sure what to think there; I've looked for a good explanation but I haven't yet seen any convincing argument for why there is such a single-track focus on this issue against the will of quite a lot of the German/European population.

I have never seen a foreigner (except Viatnamese vegetable/flower sellers and Russians) in my life, now there are 5 brown dudes sitting in front of the supermarket talking in a language I don't understand. They must be there to rape the daughter of my friends brother.
Also I read on facebook that they are all terrorists and want to either blow up themselves during the next week or hide all our women under Burqas. Also they are all stealing our jobs. They are the reason why I am jobless. And how dare them to sit in front of the supermarket instead of working? [Let's ignore they are not allowed to work...].
And at last, it is obvious, they don't want to integrate. They want no contact to the true Germans like me. I would never talk to such a guy. They have to be ignored or thrown back into the Med.

On November 14 2016 23:51 Toadesstern wrote:

I don't think it's just Merkel though is it? Pretty much everyone outside of the AFD is more or less in line with the idea behind it.
Greens and Left are going to argue that more needs to be done if nothing else

On November 15 2016 02:46 Banaora wrote:

CSU is against it too. I don't know if you just forgot them or have a different opinion. We all don't know what is going on behind closed doors but I could imagine with close ties between Victor Orban and Seehofer and also ÖVP in Austria and CSU the closing of the Balkan route was something that Seehofer supported.

Here is a talk of Austria's foreign minister at CSU conference on 04.11.16 (in German):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxXZ7tjsqyE

On November 15 2016 02:49 LegalLord wrote:
That's still not good enough. Why import them, rather than deal with them in safe zones in the MidEast where it would be cheaper? Why take refugees from countries like Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Syria? And the explanation for that starts to become difficult to understand. It can't be purely humanitarian, there are other ways to deal with a humanitarian crisis that are more pragmatic. It could be demographic, both in terms of "we need a young labor force because locals aren't having children" and the less common but existent "we need to get rid of ethnic German populations through demographic death." It could be political, in trying to import a demographic more willing to vote to keep the more leftist groups in power. But none of that, nor a mix of it, gives anything that I could see would create such a consensus among the ruling class that differs greatly from the peasant class in opinion. So I'm still at a loss for understanding where this ruling consensus came from. Were there any mainstream West European parties that did take a hardline stance against refugees? Seems like no, as far as I can tell.

On November 15 2016 03:13 Toadesstern wrote:
To me it just sounds like a screwup. As in: undererstimation of the situation and the reaction to it, both when it comes to population here as well as to the statement that everyone is welcome who comes from Syria (read: everyone who has a Syrian passport or has no passport at all).
On top of that not realizing that since Turkey is the gatekeeper they can cherrypick who gets send through and then probably some thoughts about the labor force like you mentioned.

But getting more people in to vote left and "we need to get rid of ethnic German populations through demographic death." seems silly.

On November 15 2016 03:10 mahrgell wrote:
- trying to keep leftist groups in power. - Sure thing, considering that the CDU/CSU was the most rightwing party of relevance in Germanybefore the rise of the AfD. And they are in power for quite some time now. They surely care about "keep leftists groups in power"

On November 15 2016 03:26 Banaora wrote:

CSU and CDU are *different* parties. CSU is a full-blown conservative - I would say anti-immigration - party. CDU moved far to the left. Just think about cancellation of forced military conscription, exit of nuclear energy, immigration policies. All of these three were supported by CDU and now there is talk about a CDU/Green coalition.

These three topics would never have been supported by CDU under Helmut Kohl. So CDU became a centrist party. Leaving the right flank far open.

The main reason CSU is only present in Bavaria is that the moment they start to campaign in all other states CDU will start to campaign in Bavaria and CSU will most likely lose their absolute majority there.