Germans of Lemmy, how is the situation in the country in the context of the February election?
Asking because I've seen it mention a few times recently and haven't really followed the German news.
What is the general situation? Are the polls giving any party favorite? Is it a topic widely discussed around you?
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The general situation is that the far right fascists of the AfD are polling stable second strongest, despite their rethoric having become very unhinged over the past year(s).
The CDU/CSU, which used to be conservatives are now fully on far right policies and populism, with elements of fascism. The general secretary of the CDU suggested there should be a register of all people with mental illnesses. Note that the Nazis started making these registers and a few years later started the holocaust no only on Jews, but also "Gipsys", "Communists", "Gays", and "mentally ill" people, or who they declared as such.
The neoliberal right to far right FDP who crashed the last government will likely not make it again as there is a 5% minimum result to make it to parliament. They are Musk style far right, so immigration visas for doctors and engineers to exploit as well as smoking weed and bitcoins, but fuck the poor and pit them against each other along ethnic divides.
The SPD, social democrats under chancellor Scholz have practically no profile and are willing to commit to any right/far-right policies they deem necessary to get power/maintain power. They have prided themselves in replacing the infamous "Hartz IV" system, which used a bunch of unconstitutional methods to persecute unemployed people, rather than help them find a sustainable new employment. Now the replacement system is using more and more of these methods again, basically just being a rebrand. On immigration the SPD also moved far-right, with Scholz coining the infamous "We have to deport in grand style" quote. Also a week after a conspiratorial meeting of the AfD and CDU with Neonazis to discuss mass deportations, the SPD led coalition passed a new law to revoke civil rights of people designated for deportation and generally to make the process easier and the access to legal representation harder.
The Green party became mostly neoconservative with some tokens to LGBT issues and still talking about climate change. However they also discuss moving to a sustainable economy in terms of "sustainable capitalism and economic growth", as their target audience are mostly upper middle class people these days. They also supported the deportation laws in the coalition.
Finally the Left party is in shambles from internal dispute and the seperation of the BSW under Wagenknecht, who is strongly pro Putin and the favorite of German Talk Shows often being presented as the voice of the Left party, despite holding no function in the party passed her position as MEP.
To top it all, except for BSW, who are against Israel for geopolitical reasons all the other partys support Israels war crimes and mostly support sending more weapons to Israel, possibly facilitating a new genocide with German participation. In September the CDU, AfD, SPD, FDP and Greens passed a resolution "to combat antisemitism" where they demand that cultural and educational spaces like Universitys, Art Gallerys and Theaters should have a regular contact with the internal intelligence to review if any person they employ or work together with might not be "without a doubt not antisemitic" in other words being completely uncritical of Israels actions. The resolution also aims at shifting blame for antisemitism and the German holocaust on Arabs. For instance a Neonazi terrorist attack on a Synagogue in Halle was not given as an example of Antisemitism in that resolution, while a Jewish movie director calling Israel an Apartheid state was given as an example for Antisemitism.
To conclude: German politics have moved strongly to the right and far right in the past years. Instead of understanding and working through German history and the historical guilt, politicians from across the spectrum work together to shift the blame on Arabs and justify fascist policies by claiming them to be to protect Jews, even if they are actually used to persecute Jews who are not in line with the German "raison d'êtat". Unless there is a strong shift in the next few years through outside forces, Germany is on the best track to develop into a fully fascist hellhole in the coming 5-10 years.
The replacement system for Hartz4 the Bürgergeld has significantly less of the punishment systems. The current situation agreed on the law in summer, but the law was never voted on in parliament. So nowadays the SPD still wants to push them through, but the Greens seem to hold it up. So any sort of new law would have to be passed by the new Bundestag. I believe a lot of people have not realized that, but then again that would be the Greens doing something good, which the press tends to not report on, as the Greens are generally speaking too far to the left for them.
Bürgergeld has significantly less of the punishment systems
Yesterday, I watched the CCC presentation »38C3 - Eat the Rich! Die Menschen wollen soziale Sicherheit, aber kriegen „Deutschland den Deutsche"«. It doesn't paint a very good light on Bürgergeld either.
Its still better than the old system it may still be shit, but its at least an improvement.
When they wanted social justice they could... vote for it. But they fucking don't.
It‘s true that the latest sanctions against welfare recipients aren‘t through parliament yet, still it is an astonishing 180 turn by a cabinet that promised to treat the weak more fairly.
Yet, in what is news to me, I stumbled over it when researching the aforementioned sanctions, in March 2024 the Haushaltfinanzierungsgesetz already designed new sanctions, allowing job centres to cut welfare by 100% for 2 months if any type of work is being rejected. I don‘t know how they got away with that, without the constitutional court rejecting it, but here we are.
Of course it‘s not much of a surprise after the media wrongfully claimed that welfare had a major increase while it was only adjusted for inflation, which is required by law.
In the end all trust in the parties that claimed to offer a more humane way of dealing with the most needy is gone and many people like me consider themselves politically homeless.
Pretty accurate analysis, if i might say. My only remark is on the term of "shift the blame on arabs" you used. I'd say there is a rising ressentiment in the media and populace against arabs/muslim/islamism, partially due to media reporting on violence/threats against jews in germany originating from people that have a deeper empathy for Gaza/Palestine due to their ethnic roots. Displaying these people this way as barbaric/evil kind of works as a justification to treat them in a inhuman way as well. So you see peaceful protests in germany against israels war being forcefully disbanded, with the police sometimes being cruel and brutal.
Man, seeing it all summarised like that is really painful
What a shitshow. There's no sane place left in the world?