[kreuzberger]

Last Thursday, our direct rail service from Regensburg to Berlin had set out from Vienna and was held up, being subject to a random, full document check as it crossed the border in to this country. By the time we reached the capital, and after covering some 950 km, the train was running some twenty-five minutes late and the contingent was close to mutinous.

That's because the Broken Island and Germany have a different word for and definition of "acceptable". Punctuality is not considered a weird Prussian obsession; it is both standard-issue curtesy and, well, normal.

[The Weeping Angel]

Good on him.

[kreuzberger]

Hmm, Thüringen is looking is tricky. The onus is now on Söder and his CDU to grind the ambitions of this week's Nazis in to the margins in the much anticipated firebreak. He is a man of wafer thin integrity and I wouldn't trust him with a vase in his quest for power - Ming, Mießen or otherwise.

[kreuzberger]

This fucking Wagenknecht, with a crust of Putin's semen on her wafer thin lips, is trying to ease herself into coalition talks with the pre-condition that support for Ukraine be withdrawn. That looks pretty much nailed on in both states unless the SDU ditch all their promises and jump in with the AfD.

Of course, defence is not handled at Länder-level so that makes zero difference. However, the," they aren't listening!!1!!1", shtick would be handed to her on a plate. Farage in a C&A skirt with the same backers.

In the West and the Capital, where the powerful voter base resides, this will mean very little, but the press are sure to have a field day.

[Youngian]

I assume immigration and the economy is fuelling the AfD rise. Sure, have less immigration but more economic stagnation or have the AfD, Reform, Le Pen, Orban etc. got a plan to restructure economies? As depopulation has to be embraced eventually, I’m all ears. But no, they have fuck all to offer. Orban’s incentives for white women to pop out more kids has led to nowt.

[Tubby Isaacs]

You could increase demand. Germany probably has more genuine fiscal conservatives/inflation hawks than anywhere else in the world, but you don't have to stick one of them in the Treasury. I don't know what the Free Democrats are like now, but they certainly used to have some good policies on civil liberties. Put them in charge of that instead.

That election result in Thuringia is an absolute horrorshow of dumb populists. AfD, Die Linke and that Sahra thing got over 60%.

[Tubby Isaacs]

This fucking Wagenknecht, with a crust of Putin's semen on her wafer thin lips, is trying to ease herself into coalition talks with the pre-condition that support for Ukraine be withdrawn. That looks pretty much nailed on in both states unless the SDU ditch all their promises and jump in with the AfD.

Of course, defence is not handled at Länder-level so that makes zero difference. However, the," they aren't listening!!1!!1", shtick would be handed to her on a plate. Farage in a C&A skirt with the same backers.

In the West and the Capital, where the powerful voter base resides, this will mean very little, but the press are sure to have a field day.

Is German media like British and American media? What's the equivalent of the old man in Wetherspoons or an Ohio diner at lunchtime?

Actually on those numbers, you can probably go anywhere and find them.

[Youngian]

There’s the Swabian housewife who is a frugal small c conservative but I doubt she’s a target voter for populists.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Attentive ones? Probably not that many.

But easy for inattentive ones to think finances are out of control because immigration or whatever. Whatever things are wrong with Germany, out of control public finances isn't one of them.

[kreuzberger]

Is German media like British and American media? What's the equivalent of the old man in Wetherspoons or an Ohio diner at lunchtime?

Actually on those numbers, you can probably go anywhere and find them.

They send a rookie to a sausage stand or just make shit up. At 18:00, they knock off because the unions they hate fought for their work/life balance.

Bild is comfortably worse than anything Fleet Street has to offer and does its level best to petrify its (very slow) readers.

[mattomac]

Oh and off topic I love Currywurst since my visit

[kreuzberger]

So, there we have it, the AfD fell short in the NOT key state of Brandenburg which has more Soviet war memorials and wildboar that actual people. Even though the final tally was in by about 21:00, the BBC was breathlessly trailing knife-edge exit polls until late in to the night. They must have been gutted.

Still, at least BBC News have been able to spend the day reverting to a Plan B of slinging mud at Starmer's socks. Or something.

You need to be a bit daft to believe anything other than they are utterly toxic.

[Youngian]

Are AfD a free market neoliberal party?
Who are BSW on 11%?

[kreuzberger]

If "wogs ahhhht" is neoliberal, then so be it. (Clue; anything but.)

BSW is the "Sarah Wagenknecht Coalition", roughly translated. She led the left - Die Linke - until she went staunchly pro-Putin and had to break away in order to soak up, quite literally, the schapps-for-breakfast pensioners in the old East.

Incidentally, you want a farm house, almost limitless land, and an ensemble of out-buildings for a digitally-savvy, heavily subsidised jam business in a beautiful part of the world, right at the heart of Europe for little over 100,000 €? You've come to the right place.

[kreuzberger]

Scholz has booted his insufferable prick of a finance minister, Lindner (FDP), this evening, thereby as good as collapsing the coalition. It is probably the right course of action, even if there is never a good time for these things, especially right now.

This then points to a pre-Easter federal election which will, odds-on, be won by the CDU (Tories) but will probably need Scholz's SDP or a still highly unlikely pact with the AfD in order to form a viable government. The FDP are electoral toast anyway, and this doesn't bode well for the Greens, either. Only a fool would have a tenner on Scholz leading the SDP into these elections, too.

Zelenskyy has had a shit day which has just managed to get even worse, and must be pouring himself a stiff one.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Good riddance.

BERLIN, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Germany's coalition government reached a deal on Friday to narrow its 2025 budget deficit target from 17 billion euros ($19 billion) down to 12 billion euros, in a compromise aimed at salvaging the spending plan after the original proposals fell apart.
The cabinet approved its 2025 budget in July after months of wrangling but left open how to reduce the gap between projected spending and revenue. Finance Minister Christian Lindner said then that the government's intention was to reduce the shortfall to 9 billion euros

German GDP in 2023 was 4.456 trillion dollars. And this fool is worried about borrowing 10 billion Euros? With an actual war going on in Europe?

[kreuzberger]

Debt is unconstitutional in Germany. A nation of savers and a nation of objectors to Adolf-style rearmament are largely united on the so-called "debt-brake".

[Tubby Isaacs]

What's German for "Events, Dear Boy"?

Any chance of sneaking that past the constitutional court?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Kreuz, is Boris Pistorius any good?

[kreuzberger]

A safe pair of hands at Defence, neither a grandstander nor a gaffe waiting to livestream it on Insta.

His role might be seen as more organisational, rather than strategic because Scholz is nominally in the box-seat, especially regarding Ukraine and while doing everything to avoid making a decision. Scholz was a titan during Covid. These days, much less so.