Anyone remember Rudof Scharping? Not too long ago – about a year – Rudolf Scharping was German Defence Minister. But then he stumbled over accepting socks worth DM 35 a pair from PR manager Maurice Hunziger. Well, let’s be fair – it wasn’t the socks alone…
Archiv der Kategorie: German Politics
Cha, Cha, Cha, Changes.
Today, the German cabinet approved what the Chancellor called the most important reforms in the history of the German social security system (Bloomberg informs). He might well be right, but he certainly knows that a) it is not enough and b) the cabinet drafts are unlikely to see the light of the day as they are today.
Nontheless, let’s celebrate this achievement in silence for a minute before going back to critizing the effort in public for the rest of the summer.
A New Kind Of Democracy.
Look what I found on “ciao.com” while looking for credibilty ratings of an ebay pro-seller.
Now that’s what I call “political marketplace”. For those not literate in German, the image below is a screen capture from ciao.com, a website where people can leave their opinions on everything from white laces to, well, globalisation. The latter, of course, is only 68% recommended.
I wonder if it wouldn’t be a good idea to demographically profile the membership of these fora to see whether these opinions are anywhere close to “representative”. While I suppose that would be too hard to implement, especially because of privacy concerns I guess in ciao.com’s strategic business outlook they already see themselves as a real competitor in the traditional polling market.
Will be interesting to see.
Vive La France
We’ve come a long way. Honestly, this probably all there is to say when a German general heading the traditional French military parade on France’s national holiday not even makes a big news item in Germany.
Weiterlesen
The Schill Factor.
People living in Hamburg have to cope with a rather special political crop these days: Roland Schill, a former judge who founded his own party and in 2001 managed to gain enough votes among dissatisfied conservatives to become junior partner and senator responsible for police and internal affairs in a CDU led coalition. Knowing that only continued bullshitting can assure public attention, he now demands taking genetic fingerprints for fare evading… (via Spiegel Online).
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Spoke too soon.
I did indeed. Looks like this morning’s press reports have been wrong. Gerhard Schroeder is not going to do the Hanibal this summer, after all. Now he’s just staying at home in Hannover. Not quite the same, I have to say. Although the town does have beautiful corners here and there…
According to Spiegel Online, his Italian friend and host, the artist Bruno Bruni explained the chancellor’s decision with the words “There’s a limit to everything.” I doubt not going is any better than going in this situation. It’s too bad for Schroeder, but this bizarre discussion has turned his holidays into a public matter. I am pretty sure that Mr. Stefano will be politically punished for his publicity desire once Mr. Berlusconi no longer feels the need to prove something by not restraining him.
So instead of hosting the Chancellor this summer, the Italian province of Pesaro, is going to host a lawsuit. According to Spiegel Online, the regional government is going to sue Silvio Berlusconi’s central government for compensation for the economic damage done to the region’s tourism industry. The website quotes the region’s president, Palmiro Ucchielli, saying (my translation) –
“The stupidy of the people at the helm of government is of such an extent, they are doing great economic harm to the image of our region’s tourism industry.”
Did no one tell them about Mr Berlusconi’s record with respect to law suits?
Berlusconi apologizes. Or Not.
From the Guardian. Berlusconi apologized to Gerhard Schroeder (who was not exactly offended by him, but had demanded a formal apology).
“Italy’s billionaire prime minister Silvio Berlusconi last night expressed regret for his Nazi jibe against a German MEP, in a bid to end a serious diplomatic stand-off between the two countries just as Italy takes over the European Union presidency. The German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, who had demanded a full and formal apology, told a news conference in Berlin: “He expressed regret for the choice of this expression and comparison. I explained to him that as far as I am concerned this ends the affair.”
And regarding the Italian tv coverage of Wednesday’s incident:
“In Italy, state television’s evening news programme TG1 dubbed over the prime minister’s voice as he delivered his offending “joke”. “TG1 shuts its ears and hides European gaffe,” said the left-leaning daily Repubblica. The chiefs of the three state television channels, which are all indirectly controlled by Mr Berlusconi, were called for questioning next week by a parliamentary broadcasting commission.”
Update: Silvio Berlusconie today not only stole my “Hogan’s Heroes” joke and used it in a press conference, he also stated that he did in fact not apologize to Gerhard Schroeder. I guess this is like when the US and China had to find a word that meant “apology” in Chinese and “regret” in English after that US spy-plane had to land in China following a collision with a chinese fighter aircraft sent to intercept the reconaissance operation, back in 2001. C’mon people, you just have to love diplomats for their never ending efforts to build bridges so politicians can have their cake, and eat it, too.
Way To Go: Germany On The Move
Sure, one has to be extremely careful when citing a sitting chancellor’s opinion that things are going well. But when Gerhard Schroeder opened today’s Bundestag debate by saying that “Germany is willing to change [economically], Germany is on the move” he is right.
It wasn’t his reform “Agenda 2010” in the sense that people think it contains the only possible measures to economically get this country back on track. They don’t know. And let’s face it, the government itself isn’t too sure about the specificities either.
What changed is the climate, the feeling that “this time, it’s for real”.
Suddenly, as I said about a month a ago, Germans seem to be willing to accept that the future is essentially unpredictable and that the governmentally created illusion that it were predictable was wrong all the time. Suddenly, the Jürgen Peters of this country are finding themselves on the wrong side of public opinion.
I don’t really know what caused the change in public opinion just now. But I am grateful that it finally did change.
Italian Press Review.
The Guardian has compiled and translated a nice collection of commentary from today’s Italian newspapers regarding Berlusconi’s loosing his cool. It’s quite interesting to see the constrasting perception of reality – compare yourself (the Guardian has more quotes):
La Repubblica (left-leaning) Editorial
“As Silvio Berlusconi drifts tragically further each day, yesterday he crashed into Europe, propelled by his lack of culture, his bravura that is so popular in Italy, flexing his muscles, for lack of competence, and incapable of responding to accusations over his howling conflict of interests. … Yesterday can be considered the official date of the beginning of the decline of Il Cavaliere. But also, the result is extremely bitter for our country, which is paying an unjust and disproportionate price for Berlusconi’s errors and personality.”
La Stampa(centre) Editorial
“A joke can ruin everything. He should not have opened the way for endless poisonous polemics with a joke that was so twisted in its irony that it was incomprehensible.”
And now, the Berlusconi Press…
Il Giornale (owned by Berlusconi family) Editorial
“Berlusconi did well to react to the insolent man who insulted him, the Italian government, its ministers, and all of us. He did excellently, in his own way, with his own style and in his own time.”
Libero (owned by former editor of Il Giornale) Editorial
“Berlusconi should not give in to the pressures that will surely come in the coming hours. Maybe Schulz is not a Kapo (concentration camp guard), but he is a villain. And villains deserve not only irony but contempt.”
From Bad To Worse?
In a press conference after yesterday’s Parliamentary session, MEP Martin Schulz told the press that he had been told that Mr Berlusconi had allegedly instructed his television channels to ignore his insulting remarks.
I don’t if that is true, I haven’t heard any other source in relation to this matter. Personally, I doubt it. I doubt that someone with Berlusconi’s tactical abilities would be as stupid as not too understand that instructing his channels not to report about his Nazi slur would make a bad situation much, much worse.
But then again, history is full of ill-fated arrogance.
PS.: Among all the outrage about Berlusconi, The Independent mentions how Martin Schulz is likely going to benefit from his fifteen minuted of worldwide fame –
“For Martin Schulz, the MEP who drew the wrath of the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, yesterday was a political coup beyond his wildest dreams. For months Mr Schulz, a loyal supporter of Gerhard Schröder, the German Chancellor, has been campaigning unofficially to become the leader of the socialist group of MEPs after the next European elections (he is now vice-president). Little could stand him in better stead than to be attacked so publicly and crudely by Mr Berlusconi.”