What are the big issues? The usual ones: high unemployment (about 20% in Germany), high taxes, a generally faltering economy, and immigration issues. No real surprises, as these are election issues in many countries around the globe.
The main candidates for German chancellor are Gerhard Schroeder, the incumbent, who is pitted against Angela Merkel, the challenger. Schroeder called for an early election (they have that option in Germany); most analysts contend that it was primarily a political strategy, as Schroeder is hoping to get elected to another 4 years before his approval rating drops any further. Apparently, he is an outstanding campaigner and can often make up ground when he is behind. At least that is the thinking.
Merkel, on the other hand, became the darling of the media and surged ahead in the polls early on. As best I can tell (remember, my primary source for news is the International Herald Tribune, which is not the bastion for political commentary), Merkel does not appear to be advocating too many radical or different positions than the incumbent. In fact, many of her positions are in the same vein and/or even go a little further than Schroeder’s. It seems that Germans are just tired and are ready to try “something new”, even if that person’s ideas are not altogether new. Unfortunately, a series of political gaffes and miss-steps have not served her well, and the race has tightened. Her most recent one involved using The Rolling Stone’s song Angie as her campaign song... without their permission. That pesky copyright infringement thing again… hope she has a better command of other international laws (smile).
As Buddy and I ran our Saturday morning errands, we noticed that the CDU, CSU, and SPD (political parties in Germany) had set up campaign booths manned by volunteers supposedly prepared to hand out brochures and talk “election” turkey. Either the limited foot traffic at 10 AM was a result of the fact that people can’t talk politics that early in the morning, or Germany has the same level of voter apathy we have in the US. As Buddy and I walked past the booths donned in party colors, we waited for a campaign volunteer to approach us to talk about their candidate or party platform. No one stepped forward…no one even tried. Volunteers just talked amongst themselves and sipped their coffee. I thought the idea was for the campaign worker to approach the pedestrian, not the other way around? There was not too much action going on at any of the booths, until some volunteers at the CDU booth showed up with freebies. Once they started handing out free t-shirts, the foot traffic increased at their booth.
Got it…people like the free stuff….
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