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Angela Merkel steps down as party leader, won’t seek re-election
[link=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-29/merkel-is-said-to-give-up-cdu-party-leadership-in-dramatic-move?srnd=premium]https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-29/merkel-is-said-to-give-up-cdu-party-leadership-in-dramatic-move?srnd=premium[/link]
Angela Merkel steps down as party leader, won’t seek re-election
Germanys Angela Merkel will quit as head of her Christian Democratic party and wont run for another term as chancellor, taking personal responsibility for the decline in support for the governing coalition.
The image presented by the government is unacceptable, Merkel said at a press conference in Berlin, a day after her party suffered its latest setback in a regional election. With this decision, I am trying to do my part to allow the federal government to function well again.
After nearly 13 years in power, 64-year-old Merkels authority has been severely tested since a disappointing result in last years federal election. It took her six months to piece together a coalition which has been riven by infighting and suffered losses in regional ballots in Bavaria and, on Sunday, Hesse.
The shock decision signals the beginning of the end for a chancellor who put her stamp on Europe and beyond defending moderation and liberal values that have increasingly come under attack. As she prepares to leave the stage, Jair Bolsonaro is set to take office in Brazil, the latest in a series of nationalists gaining power around the world.[/QUOTE]
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9 Replies
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Lame duck till 2021?
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However it is good she will be around till 2021 with the right wing gaining influence in Europe and Brexit still unraveling. Hopefully Europe and the world will become a bit saner by 2021 than it is now, and that specifically includes America.
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Glad she is accepting responsibility for her role in the decline of the country. Too bad she wants to hang on to power for another 3 years.
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We’ll see. It’s a long time to wait around. I wouldn’t be surprised to see her ousted before that.
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leaders without kids? worst leaders
women leaders without kids? as bad as it gets-
Germanys Conservatives Face Possible Election Rout
This is Germanys first general election without Angela Merkel running for chancellor since 2002. For her conservative bloc, it is shaping up as a debacle, the Wall Street Journal reports.
A gaffe-prone new candidate, the popular chancellors almost complete absence from the campaign, and voter fatigue after 16 years of conservative rule could converge to deliver the blocs worst national electoral result ever, according to pollsters and analysts.
Less than two weeks before election day, opinion polls show Ms. Merkels group, an alliance of conservative parties known collectively as the Union, with 20% of the vote, down 15 points since January and some five points behind its center-left Social Democratic rival.
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[link=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germans-vote-close-election-decide-merkel-successor-2021-09-25/]https://www.reuters.com/w…-successor-2021-09-25/[/link]
[h1][b]German SPD edges ahead of conservatives in vote to decide Merkel successor[/b][/h1]
Germany’s Social Democrats came first by a narrow margin in Sunday’s [link=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/germanys-election-polls-facts-figures-2021-09-26/]national election[/link], projected results showed, putting them in pole position to lead a government for the first time since 2005 and to end 16 years of conservative-led rule under [link=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/not-gone-yet-merkel-hang-active-caretaker-2021-09-16/]Angela Merkel[/link].
The centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) were on track for 25.5% of the vote, ahead of 24.5% for Merkel’s CDU/CSU [link=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/german-cdus-laschet-vows-try-build-conservative-led-government-2021-09-26/]conservative bloc[/link], projections for broadcaster ARD showed, but both groups [link=https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/how-politicians-reacted-after-exit-polls-germanys-election-2021-09-26/]believed[/link] they could lead the next government.
The tight result, which saw the CDU/CSU slump to a post-war low for a federal election, means lengthy coalition talks will follow before a new government takes office, likely involving the Greens and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP).
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Germany has been there before in 1997 after Kohl retired. After 3 years of socialist utopia, they saw that it wasn’t sustainable and the conservatives returned to power.
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Then there’s the risk of the opposite utopia now without Merkel, the stasis utopia where conservative careful, cautious, adverse fear of change just stops everything moving. Or worse, like the US, the utopia offered by the likes of the conservative AfD.
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