President resigns

[BeBMan]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/europe/10198036.stm

[Asher]

To be clear, I've done no such thing.

[BeBMan]

Worse, you changed sides to the monarchists

[OzzyKP]

Hmm a person in a ceremonial position with no power resigned over some comment. *yawn*

[DanS]

The gist of what he said was that sometimes Germany should deploy troops to protect its economic interests? That's controversial?

[Heraclitus]

The gist of what he said was that sometimes Germany should deploy troops to protect its economic interests? That's controversial?

Its perfectly ok for almost any normal country. But we all know the dirty Huns can't be trusted.

[BeBMan]

Debate about topics of national security can be kinda hysteric here; "Imperialism" or "Gunboat-Diplomacy" are some of the knee jerk reactions. Of course, it doesn't change the fact that he is basically right, but since missions like those in Afghanistan are quite unpopular amongst voters lotsa politicians want to uphold the notion that any deployment of the Bundeswehr would be mostly humanitarian in nature. It's nonsense, but hard to get around.

[Al B. Sure!]

I guess the thinking is that it goes from protecting economic interests to lebensraum...

[Al B. Sure!]

To be fair, I don't recall American politicians saying we go to war for economic reasons or to protect our economic interests... I mean Bush didn't come out and say, we're invading Iraq because we want oil. Going to war and losing lives for mere economics doesn't seem very righteous.

[BeBMan]

Well, something like using military for keeping world trade alive (a la the anti-piracy mission off Somalia) is economic interest as well, and as such not controversial here.

It just seemed that in this case he was particularly misinterpreted, and now I read there were also long-term issues between him and others in the German political elite. It looks like he was kinda fed up overall and took this option to get out. Not quite the reaction I expect from someone at his position, but fits to the current confusion in German politics...

[Frozzy]

How much of an effect will this have on the coalition over there? Not been a happy few weeks for them from what I've read.

[Proteus_MST]

Well, the real reason why he resigned of course is,
that the current government thinks about giving Stefan Raab the Federal Cross of Merit (for managing the ESC stuff)
and Köhler doesn´t like Raab and doesn´t want to have to be the person who awards it to him

[BeBMan]

How much of an effect will this have on the coalition over there? Not been a happy few weeks for them from what I've read.

Indeed. This adds another problem that needs to be solved in relatively short time - the constitution says a new pres has to be found in max. 30 days.

However, the biggest difficulty for the coalition in the coming days/weeks will be to present a new budget to adress debt problems while not saving the economy to death. Most commentators here think the coalition could fall over this if they don't find a solution that both sides can live with.

[Frozzy]

Indeed. This adds another problem that needs to be solved in relatively short time - the constitution says a new pres has to be found in max. 30 days.

However, the biggest difficulty for the coalition in the coming days/weeks will be to present a new budget to adress debt problems while not saving the economy to death. Most commentators here think the coalition could fall over this if they don't find a solution that both sides can live with.

Surely it is in the mutual interests of both parties to come to an agreement though given the recent polls, especially the FDP who seem to have lost all their support?

Looking at this Angus Reid poll it looks like there will be a struggle for any coalition to form after the next election... any chance of the CDU forming any coalition or will the SDP have the best chance with the Left and the Greens?

I'm not sure if that's a reflective poll however...

Sorry for the questions, but I'm not fluent in German so it's hard for me to get a good understanding of what's going on in a very interesting political arena.

[BeBMan]

Surely it is in the mutual interests of both parties to come to an agreement though given the recent polls, especially the FDP who seem to have lost all their support?


Looking at this Angus Reid poll it looks like there will be a struggle for any coalition to form after the next election... any chance of the CDU forming any coalition or will the SDP have the best chance with the Left and the Greens?

I'm not sure if that's a reflective poll however...

Sorry for the questions, but I'm not fluent in German so it's hard for me to get a good understanding of what's going on in a very interesting political arena.

They certainly will try to reach an agreement, but they have their 'red lines' and esp. in a situation of heavy budget worries it will be difficult (albeit not impossible) to find a good compromise.

The FDP campaigned very hard for tax cuts during the election time last year, but right now basically everyone except their core supporters thinks there's no room for this. So they are in a dilemma: giving up that goal means that they lose their single most important issue (in fact with the now weak FDP the CDU already ruled out tax cuts).

Otoh, in the last election they won 14% and many of those don't see tax cuts as main issue but wanted the FDP as part of a center-right coalition to avoid a left-wing coalition. However, the new coalition never got really going since last year. So far there is mostly conflict between CDU/CSU and FDP while not much has actually been done in real governmental work, which is the reason for the loss of much support for the FDP (since many blame them primarily), but partly also for the CDU.

Most people would probably say that the former grand coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD simply worked better, for example to handle the first wave of the financial crisis, while the current coalition looks rather indecisive in face of the euro crisis, debt problems etc.

As for chances in new elections, that's really hard to say, the SPD right now profits from the center-right weakness, but has lots of problem as well. Right now a coalition of Left+Green+SPD seems not so probable to me, since there are a lot of unsolved problems between the Left and the SPD.