Pollsters determine a right-wing conservative majority in Germany. However, the rulers don’t care. They don’t talk to those they don’t vote for. The speechlessness makes you angry.
“Are we staying dry, brittle, if necessary boring, bourgeois reason and its virtues? Or shall we board the colorfully decorated Ship of Fools Utopia, in which a Green and two Reds would then take on the role of the carnival commanders?” This is what the icon of right-wing conservatives in Germany, Franz-Josef Strauss, called out to a raging crowd almost three decades ago and now the recording of this speech is circulating on social media channels. It gets thousands of clicks and is shared in many ways. “Man with foresight” is the title of the CSU politician’s video snippet.
Clearly: there is a longing for such tones, or at least for the attitude behind them. The latest political opinion polls provide impressive evidence of this: This week, Yougov’s election prophets identified a right-wing conservative-liberal majority in Germany: 27 percent of German citizens entitled to vote said they would vote for the CDU/CSU if the general election was next Sunday.
The FDP achieved eight percent, and the right-wing and in parts right-wing AfD increased by two percentage points to 16 percent. Makes 51 percent together and would even be an absolute majority. At the opinion research institute Ipso, 49 percent would come together for this combination, which is still a clear relative majority compared to the more left-wing parties SPD, Greens and Left, which come to 43 percent in the survey.
The whole thing is theoretical values, not only because there is no election, but also because there are no signs so far that any of the other parties would be willing to work together with the AfD. But it shows how most Germans really tick: conservative. And if in doubt, rather a bit to the right. And it explains a lot.
It explains why 500 journalists are currently reporting on the “last battle of Lützerath” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). They do this because they believe that there is a front line between a loud minority that is at least helping to determine the course of the “Ship of Fools Utopia” and whose goal in this case is the immediate abandonment of coal. And, if need be, a boring majority of bourgeois reason who sees that today it is not possible without coal. No journalist wants to miss that.
It also explains why, two weeks after the Berlin New Year’s Eve riots, the events are still an issue. The comparatively high number of people with a migration background involved in the unrest shows that people who despise their host country also came to Germany. Brittle bourgeois reason calls for a counter-reaction that is perhaps not all that brittle. The “boat of fools Utopia”, on the other hand, tries to circumnavigate such shoals.
And last but not least, it explains why top German politicians drop out, like that of Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who pledged support to Ukraine last year, “regardless of what my German voters think.” Ultimately, it doesn’t have to matter, because a majority might not is in line with the Green Foreign Minister.
Is it all bad? no It’s called parliamentary democracy and consists of striving to find the best possible policy for a country and its people. One of the rules is that those elected can do almost anything they want for a legislative period. And it’s not even particularly unusual for a majority in the country to think differently than those in power. On the contrary: what distinguishes the Germans is that they don’t allow themselves to be blindly seduced. Not even from the left.
The only bad thing is when those in government are too narrow-minded to listen to the governed. Then what happens on the government bench and should serve the common good looks more like self-realization. And that is certainly not a virtue
The article “Germany ticks differently than the climate riots of Lützerath” comes from WirtschaftsKurier.
