The Handelsblatt (the German version of the Wall Street Journal) came out with an interesting piece...the emphasis of this circled around negativity in the government, and the CDU-SPD political apparatus having to change their tunes and focus on things that they would prefer to avoid.
In the midst of the article....you come to this comment about a recent German poll....71-percent of German public ACTIVELY distrust their government. Seventy-percent say they have no real faith in the new they get via public-TV and print-media. Eight out of ten Germans don't trust their political parties.
Then you come to this odd stance in the polls....almost sixty-percent of the public believe that solutions can't be invented anymore to solve problems.
All of this accomplished.....while Merkel is Chancellor.
From the 1960s to recently, the two chief parties alternated every four years over pension-reform and tax-reform. Each had a different program and hyped that as their political stance.
The thing is....as each program came.....people started to think about what they really got. If someone said tax-reform was coming....it typically meant that you got from 20 to 30 Euro a month back into your pocket. Taking into consideration inflation....it didn't amount to much of a deal. If someone talked about pension-reform....it typically meant that you got 25 to 35 Euro a month on top of the previous amount.
In recent years, with the internet available....people compared the programs and realized the marginal impact to their lives.
Around fifteen years ago....the SPD hyped up some massive welfare-reform program (Hartz-IV). People jumped onboard with this and the social budget took a pretty good cut. Beyond that.....for most folks....it had zero affect on their lives.
The past decade with the various Merkel coalitions? No scandals for the most part. No sure fire solutions for taxation or pensions noted. The only cure for increased crime? More cops (10,000 to be hired). No limits on migrants....but she's using the EU vehicle to say this incoming number are their 'fair-share'....pretending since they said it....it's fine.
In a way, the German public are progressing to a point where some French-like political guy like Macron....could stand up a political party in a fairly short period of time in Germany, and likely get 30-percent of the vote because of the discontent growing with the public. It doesn't mean anything gets fixed (as we now see with Macron).....just that the act of faking people seems to work well.
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