ALLIANCE FO§ DEMOCRACY

The Union wears the trousers

It is 100 days since the black-red government has had the say. The first government that needed over 100 days in order to form a government continues, according to the ZDF political barometer to enjoy great and uninterrupted popularity. 67% of all those surveyed said that the Federal Government was doing its work well; 26% however thought that the government was wrong (7% had no opinion).
Although the SPD grasped such political hot potatoes as he receipt of a pension after 45 years in work, or the issue of the minimum wage, the CDU/CSU is wearing the trousers. A majority of all those surveyed (56%) believes that the CDU/CSU has more influence in the Federal Government than the SPD. Even most SPD supporters (60%) fear this. Is this due to the oppressive proportion of seats in the Bundestag, where the CDU/CSU has 504 seats, and the SPD only 127?
Although the perceived excess of responsibility lies with the CDU/CSU, the coalition partners are united when it comes to playing the game of “Deceive the people”. The barren national treasury allows nothing else. Small steps and compromises are therefore welcomed. It all looks as if everyone is afraid of doing something wrong, of standing out from the team. Agreement is purchased at the cost of compromise. Such as the care allowance, which no women apply for, or the minimum wage, which is impractical, dual nationality where dispute reigns, or the energy revolution, where hardly anything has been done so far in the struggle between consumers and energy suppliers. In the NSA affair, Foreign Minister Steinmeier has obviously been hamstrung by kow-towing, and the war in the Crimea is about to break out in earnest.
The madness of the Merkel government continues, but still continues to enjoy favourable survey results. The parties celebrate amongst themselves. 76% of CDU/CSU supporters voted for the minimum wage (with 21% against). Nevertheless, 40% of the 1,255 voters chosen at random, who had been interviewed by telephone over the period 25th to 27th March 2014 by the “Forschungsgruppe Wahlen”, believed that the introduction of a minimum wage would lead to major job losses in some areas; 58% do not expect any such effect. More than ¾ of those surveyed advocated a pension at the age of 63; they too also assumed that these measures would work greatly to the disadvantage of the younger generation. If an election had been held at the beginning of April 2014, the CDU/CSU would have won 41% of the votes, the SPD 25%, the Left 10% and the Greens also 10%, the FDP 3% and the AfD 5%. All the other parties would have to have been satisfied with the remaining 6% of the votes.
Yet the question still arises: how do these figures come about? The suspicion remains of falsification of the figures, or the Germans, misdirected and without resistance, will go down with the government. Something we have often done before.