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CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL’S party is braced for a backlash at key state polls today over the German leader’s liberal refugee policy.
The right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) is prepared to scoop up the protest vote from angry voters.
More than 12 million voters are due to go to the ballot box to elect three new regional parliaments in the southwestern states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, as well as eastern Saxony-Anhalt in the so-called Super Sunday polls.
The elections are the biggest since Germany registered a record influx of refugees, and are largely regarded as a referendum on Merkel’s decision to open the country’s doors to people fleeing war.
“These elections are very important… as they will serve as a litmus test for the government’s disputed policy” on refugees, Duesseldorf University political scientist Jens Walther told AFP.
Surveys in the run-up to the vote showed that support for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its junior coalition partner Social Democratic Party (SPD) dropping while the populist AfD was steadily gaining momentum and expected to record a surge in backing in all three states.
The CDU was bracing for one of its poorest showings in years, particularly in its traditional stronghold of Baden-Wuerttemberg, with a poll published on Thursday by ZDF public television showing support plummeting by 10 percentage points to 29% — putting it for the first time behind the Greens — while the AfD snatched 11%.
Guido Wolf, the CDU’s leading candidate in the southwest, has described it as the “most difficult election campaign” the party has had to run.
In Rhineland-Palatinate, where the fortunes of the CDU had been rising with the latest poll giving it 35%, the party is seen struggling to defeat the Social Democratic Party, scoring 36%.
The AfD meanwhile is hoping to crack the 10% mark.
In Saxony-Anhalt, where the CDU still commands a large lead with 32%, AfD has 18%, at the heels of the second-placed Left Party, at 21%.
‘A lot to lose’
Merkel has been under intense pressure to change course and shut Germany’s doors after 1.1 million refugees — many of them Syrians — arrived in Europe’s biggest economy last year alone.
But she has resolutely refused to impose a cap on arrivals, insisting instead on common European action that includes distributing refugees among the EU’s 28 member states.
As dissent grew over her stance, AfD has capitalised on the darkening mood.
Founded in 2013 as an anti-euro party, AfD has since morphed into one that sparked a storm in January after suggesting police may have to shoot at migrants at the borders.
Although the upstart party has seats in five regional parliaments and is represented in the European Parliament, it has so far made its biggest gains in former communist eastern states that still lag western Germany in jobs and prosperity.
But its inroads into western states have sparked alarm in a Germany mindful of its Nazi past.
Ingeborg Klumpp, a 74-year-old pensioner, went to vote in Stuttgart in the hope that “with my little cross on the ballot paper, I will contribute to the fact that people won’t vote for the AfD”.
“The campaign of hatred they ran these last weeks was horrible,” she said.
On the eve of the vote, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere joined calls from both the political mainstream as well as civic and religious groups, urging the electorate to shun AfD.
“AfD has no political programme and no capacity to resolve problems,” he told Die Welt newspaper yesterday. “We must make it clear — this party hurts our country.”
Merkel herself described AfD as a “party that does not bring cohesion in society and offers no appropriate solutions to problems, but only stokes prejudices and divisions”.
She has also shrugged them off as a temporary diversion saying that once her government’s policies show results on reducing migrant numbers, “I’m convinced that from there, the support that AfD is enjoying right now will drop off.”
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The USA is a mess under Trumps watch.
@Teddy: This is a lot more than just police brutality, there is a massive devide between rich and poor over there and its getting larger and larger by the year. the one percent are hoovering up more and more of the wealth and it’s a pouder keg waiting to blow. The virus and now this have lit the fuse, it would not surprise me if this gets really ugly because millions have had enough of the toxic system over there.
@Teddy: it was a mess long before Trump came along.
@Eric Gaffney: Affordable healthcare is one the biggest issues at present, something which Trump quite directly rolled back on compared to Obama’s progress.
@Peter Hughes: That’s it in a nutshell, the rich have never been richer and there are masses of people struggling to survive when an honest decent living shouldn’t be out of reach for them. Something has to give eventually.
@Teddy: So there were no riots and looting until Trump arrived? Really?
@Daniel Dunne: There were and always will be. Trump has just handled them badly and blames everyone else. He never acts like a president and seems to love being more and more divisive. He does nothing for the US. Nothing!
@Fenston Barcley Redmond: Trump simply is a racist. Walks like s chicken, squawks like a chicken..,
@Rochelle: In fairness, paying $400 a month on Obama’s Healthcare system in a low-paying job wasn’t exactly progress.
@Kate Colbert: I was
Paying $600 as month ; told my wife it was going to cost the Democrats the election
@Wayne Connor: There’s a big disconnect in how Obamacare is viewed and displayed by the Irish media and people and how people living in the US actually felt about it. Crippling!
@Kate Colbert: Ugh, wish I could edit my own comments on this site after posting them!
@Teddy:
@Kate Colbert: and yet according to polls its more popular than ever now with 55% support.
@Kate Colbert: indeed. Just had the same conversation very recently with a friend who emigrated to US a few years ago with his family. He can’t believe how utterly uniformed the media here is in regard to that issue.
@Daniel Dunne: White rioting has been going on awhile in fairness.
@Rochelle: Progress?
@Peter Hughes: It’s definitely not about the perceived injustice felt by a single man.
@Dave O’Keeffe: You’d think folks would question the accuracy of polls after the presidential election of 2016…
@Peter Hughes: toooo General,way tooo general,theres more than the 1% hovering up everything,a schoolfriend of mine is there 40 years,worked like a dog and is well secured now,wife and two daughters on the front line fighting Covid,and he sees it every day,cant get workers ,too lazy to scratch their arses,but come rioting time,they never let the side down.
@Teddy: as his enemies would have wanted, possibly planned!?
@Wayne Connor: please give one example where he has said or done anything racist?
Antifa thugs and their fellow travellers are physically attacking journalists, but don’t forget to ensure half the article reporting on this thuggish behaviour is focused on entirely unrelated comments made by Trump about the US press corps.
@Gordon Comstock: The police need to calm down too, they look like an invading force: https://streamable.com/u2jzoo
@David Jordan: is that not the national guard rather than the police? Anyway that’s part of a way bigger problem. US military production is way too high, and they produce all this military hardware that their own military don’t need and they don’t necessarily want to sell to anyone abroad. A lot of this kit ends up being sold to domestic police forces for next to nothing (e.g. I think they can pick up one of those armoured vehicles from your link for $200). If police forces have the toys they’ll use them when they can, boys will be boys and all that. It’s the weirdest and most awful consequence of what is essentially a form of corporate welfare for armaments producers.
@Gordon Comstock: US Police/National Guard are shooting at residents even when the residents are legally on their own property following curfew rules that specifically state they can be on their own property (including porch).
But hey, try blame black people rather then Trump and the hatred he’s spent years creating
@Barry: am I blaming black people or are you making things up because you can’t view any issue through anything other than a racial lens? Cos you’re so opposed to racism of course, that’s why you obsess so much about race. If you’re going to project your racism on to others you really must try to be less obvious. Or you could always try and view people as individuals and abandon your racist views entirely, but that might take a bit more work.
@Gordon Comstock: The American’s enforce laws with the threat of violence. Actual violence though not the sort you claimed was used to enforce laws in this country the other day. See the difference?
@NotMyIreland: no, all laws everywhere are enforced with violence. It’s hilarious that you’re still struggling to understand such a simple concept.
@Gordon Comstock: When the law enforcers break the law themselves first, they’ve lost legitimacy.
@Gordon Comstock: so antifa arrested the CNN team in Minneapolis? Shoot rubber bullets in Louisville? I’m no supporter of Antifa but the attitude of the Trump administrationto to even the legitimate protests is more than questionable… I didn’t hear him offer the national guard services to Michigan when the state capitol building was invaded by M16 toting militia men earlier this month.
@Gordon Comstock: following 3 and followed by 1.. Good day…
@Gordon Comstock: You don’t shoot and attack identifiable journalists if you are police , your attempt to conflate representatives of the state with a fringe element is straight out of the the Trump playbook, and glaringly obvious. No mention of the nazi agitators also formenting trouble?
@DJ François: because the nazi agitators line is absolute nonsense that you would have to be functionally moronic to believe. Do you believe there are Nazi agitators fomenting trouble? Haha.
@DJ François: he also left out the bit where the peaceful protesters formed a human shield to protect White House police last night
@DJ François: you’re wasting your breath DJ. This guy thinks Trump is doing a bang up job . It’s actually jarring, the lack of leadership right now. We’re used to seeing a country’s leader address the nation during a crisis such as this and right now we’re getting nothing. “When the looting starts the shooting starts” “dogs and ominous weapons” really ?? Hiding behind Twitter and fanning the flames
@Gordon Comstock: let’s talk truth here, Trump is an evil POS and anyone with a brain can see it. Far from making America great he is fomenting division, spewing hatred and lies and ultimately destroying the country.
@JGD: well said, there’s no time to mince words anymore
@Gordon Comstock: Antifa(scists) are Nazis now!?
@DJ François: How very dare you to even suggest that that there would be nazi agitators fermenting trouble. Also, How on earth could they even manage to do that from their caves? it’s not as if they’ve got internet connections down there :O
ps i am praying that the Antifa organisations HQ isn’t raided #worried
@Gordon Comstock: Some laws some places are enforced with violence. I was stopped having broken the law from speeding – they didn’t take me out and beat me. The pleasant enough Garda told me I was speeding, I said sorry, paid the fine, and did less speeding. No anger, no fear, no real stress and an effective deterrent.
This is not going to get better anytime soon. The wealth disparity in this country is definitely a huge driving factor, coupled with systemic
racism and the far right leanings of the current administration. There’s been no leadership for 3 1/2 years now , just a push farther to the right. The establishment have signaled their intent ; rather than build bridges they’re just going to beef up their armory at local levels because they’re anticipating more incidents such as these. I mean why do local police departments need MRAPs ffs??? Let’s not forget this pandemic has still to play out. 105,000 dead , 40 million unemployed. The natives are getting restless. America is great now ???
US police trained by the IDF, what outcome do you expect when they engage unarmed civilians, ask any Palestinian.
Will Ireland be next.
@Dave Nomates: if it were to be, which it will not. You will have the families of 1916 to contend with.
@Dave Nomates: Ireland most certainly will not be next, you need to step back, take off the tinfoil hat and get some rest.
@Dave Nomates: Israel has nothing to do wirh this, and cooperation between the IDF and police in the USA is basically non-existent for the simple fact the IDF is an army not a police force.
But someone has to always drag Israel into this, even if no relation is shown.
Coincidently it’s also the only Jewish state on the planet, but yeah… no antisemitism for sure.
@Dave Nomates: we don’t riot as a rule but we await our returned democracy.
@Manuel Moreira:
Sorry to burst your bubble, but Amnesty has a report here outlining how a number of US Police depts have been trained not just in Israel but in the Occupied Territories by Israeli Security Forces too.
Different ball game being trained by police forces involved in and implementing one-sided oversight in inter-ethnic conflicts.Which in Israel’s case in the West Bank involves land seizures, a two-tiered justice system (Israeli Civil Law for Israeli settlers, and Military Law/Internment for Palestinians). Not to mention shootings of unarmed civilians in the thousands by Israeli security forces, ofren whitewashed by Israeli courts.
Thus, it is natural that decent people will be at least concerned about any police department being trained in that extreme environment by such a controversial entity such as the Israeli Security Forces.
@Geoff Dolan: indeed, Amnesty never once did a wrong report at all.
Oh well, modern blood libel by antisemites
“Yesterday morning, a Fox News journalist who was reporting from a position in front of the White House was pummeled and chased by demonstrators until police intervened.” Terrible to think this could happen to a bona fide journalist even one reporting for Faux News. But then that media broadcaster does gleefully cheer Numpty Trumpty when he berates journalists in front of his riled up audiences. A President’s words are powerful, too bad this president is limited in intellect and can’t appreciate that.
@Martello Mulligan: I find it more worrying that the police who are supposed to uphold the law have so far arrested, pepper sprayed and shot at journalists who were not breaking and laws and who were clearly identified as press.
I think we can all agree that law enforcement should be held to a much, much higher standard to anybody else.
A random person walking down the street can steal or hit somebody, but we don’t expect police to do the same.
@Barry: 100% agree , when the police abuse their power, it undermines the law and the state. The punishment should be severe.
@Martello Mulligan: but rarely is
@Martello Mulligan: he himself said the media is the enemy of the people.
@Martello Mulligan: journalists are hypocrites as they support the tv licence scam and laws restricting our right to own a tv
Capitalism is causing a massive rift between old and young as the youth see the elderly hovering up the money and have a good lifestyle to people that are just getting by from day to day.only 1 in 4 young Americans support capitalism.the youth see the rich Americans suppressing them by using police force.
@tuco: and would you like to provide any examples from the several attempts at an alternative??
@tuco:
Nonsense. Race riots are nothing new in the US unfortunately. Blaming capitalism is silly. Check US history and you will see this happening 50 years ago as well.
@Doug: Emmet Till’s death outraged many because there was an open casket for everyone to see what had been done. Rodney King’s beating was caught on camera and people were outraged. Philando Castile, Alton Sterling, Tamir Rice, Daniel Shaver, Oscar Grant, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, Clifford Glover, Rekia Boyd, Freddie Gray, Stephon Clark. The list is endless but nothing changes.
@tuco: right on Comrade..
@tuco: the rich arenopressing the youth with the police force??? Omg…this is the most ridiculous comment I have ever read. Jealousy of people that worker harder than you and therefore had more money than you. And you relate this to the police? Get a grip
@Clarissa: The US is and always has been an Oligarchy that is a country run by and for the wealthy industrialists oil barons gun lobbyists all of whom contribute vast sums to their preferred candidates who will support their agendas . The idea of the “little man or woman “ casting their votes to make a difference is nonsense when the candidates themselves even when voted into office owe more allegiance to those industrialists who footed the bill for their campaigns than American voters . And who now want payback in the form indicated. Wealth in this situation will always gravitate towards the already wealthy . This is a law of economics. The rich in an unbridled Oligarchial State will always get richer while the poor get poorer. Toss in Trumps racism and you got USA.
If this was happening in a country that had oil the yanks would invade to stop the injustice and because they have weapons of mass destruction. Like WTF
What a car crash of a country right now.
The Twitter account of Linda Tirado is quite an inspiration. I can’t recommend enough to take a look at this to witness her courage and spirit.
@8-Bit-Relic: truly inspirational
@8-Bit-Relic: stunning and brave
America is falling apart and the worst is yet to come.
@JGD: the reckoning is here. The people have spoken. They will dump the trump to the rump of history, bigly
@JGD: No it’s not. You lot sound like a bunch ghouls wishful thinking.
What these real and pseudo-journalists don’t get is they also need to disperse when told and bias reporting for maximum profit has created a lit of the issues America faces now.
Only the abolition by the conscious action of American workers and people of US imperialism will save the day for humanity
Unfortunately this has been coming in the US for a long time. Sad scenes
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