The breaking up of political orthodoxy is a good thing for us. So I was interested to read that a new German party, the Alternative for Germany, has been formed. The party is challenging the status quo by calling for the abolition of the euro and for changes to the immigration system.
At the moment the party is only polling at around three per cent which is unfortunate as you need at least five per cent to get seats under the German system. However, what's interesting is that the founders of the party are very highly educated people. Six of the original ten founders hold doctorates, giving it the nickname of the "professors' party". It's a good thing to see shifts in thinking amongst this class of the population even if it doesn't go as far as we would like.
The Germans are an astute race with a strong sense of national identity and a disciplined work ethic. Germany is also an ethnically homogeneous country. (The Turkish immigrant population is not integrated). And German nationality has been based upon ancestry. (In Europe holding a 10 year passport gives a citizenship but not nationality)
ReplyDeleteGermany is therefore very different from the Anglo-saxon countries and it is the latter countries which are at the greatest risk of Third Worldisation.
The leader of the party "Bernd Lucke" told the media that the polling institutes are not really reflecting the possible outcome, as they try to downplay the popularity of the party by using statistical tricks. In my opinion, he is quite right, as there are a surprising number of people I know who will vote for this party. I think everything between 3 and 10 percent is possible, with my estimate being around 6 percent. But even the polling institutes have recently admitted that there is a potential for a surprise. Right now, the polls are around 4 percent. If there would be bad news about the Euro crisis in the next 2 weeks, they will definitely make it. However, the EU tries to postpone any major decision regarding the financing of the southern European states until the election has taken place.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDelete"The leader of the party "Bernd Lucke" told the media that the polling institutes are not really reflecting the possible outcome, as they try to downplay the popularity of the party by using statistical tricks."
We've just seen the same thing in the Australian election with minor parties getting way more votes than the opinion polls suggested they would. These days people are (quite reasonably) afraid to admit that they don't support the liberal-leftist orthodoxies, but when it comes to election day they can and will vote for minor parties that are opposed to those orthodoxies.