Saar Voting Trends

 There's a state election coming up in the Saarland (far west of Germany, smaller state).  The Wahl-o-mat has been put up.

What is a Wahl-o-mat?  It is a list of questions to which you think about....saying pro, negative or neutral, and at the end....it says you ought to vote for this party to get what you desire.  So, onto the questions (I found these interesting.....considering the nature of the state):

1.  Should French be taught in all schools (in the Saarland)?

- Note: it's next to France, and probably half of all businesses have an occasional French customer.  French is typically not a language that schools offer unless it's a gymnasium or private school.

2. Should 30 kph be applied to all streets in the state?

- Trend thing....50 kph is now normal for urban areas, and 30 kph is only for residential areas.  So this is to rework the system and only be 30 kph.

3.  Expansion of wind-power should be stopped?

- Another trend thing....a number of states want to hinder or limit wind-generators be installed.  Federal policy is to continue adding them.

4.  Voting age reduced to 16?

- Trend thing....in various states, they allow 16 year olds the right to vote in district and state elections (yet to occur for federal elections).

5.  Shops open to 10 PM in Saarland?

- Trend thing, where in most states....grocery stores are allowed to stay open to 10 PM.

6.  Mandate for everyone to get vaxed-up against Covid.

7.  Approve more areas for residential housing?

- Some towns throughout Germany are 'finished' with new housing approval situations.  You can buy property and tear down old buildings....but they don't want to flip farm property into urban property.

8.  Parents should pay a bigger chunk of money for child-care?

- Typically, states pay a sum of money, and it might be almost half of what it costs for a kid to be in pre-school situations.

9.  Organic farming ought to be promoted by the government.....over regular farming.

10. All asylum seekers in the Saarland....should be limited to one single center, until their application is approved.

11.  Making a rule that when building new roads or renovating a road.....a bike path 'must' be built as well.

Trend item, lot of states are forcing more bike paths.....adding cost onto each road project.

12.  Make a rule that more hospitals in the Saarland be public hospitals.

- Don't know how you'd rig this up to occur.

13.  Continue offering religious classes in schools.

14.  Continue a road project between Merzig and Nonnweiler.

15. Political parties must offer men AND women on their lists for public offices.

Trend, a lot of peer pressure on parties to have more women in offices.  I would say this....in some cases....they've dug up women with zero knowledge on political topics (the dumb-blonde routine) and just ran them for a party 'win'.  

16.  An electrical power 'rule' would be created.....that if you didn't pay for your power within a reasonable period, it would be turned off.

I suspect there was for decades a rule like this existed and in the past decade.....it probably got dumped.

17.  Mandate all-day classes in Saarland schools.....not the normal 8 AM to 1:30 PM times.

Trend going on in Germany, that teachers aren't that happy about.

18.  Saarbrucken Airport to stay open.

It's a small airport, and in past years....there were maybe four flights over an entire day....all going up to Frankfurt.  Trend thing in Germany....if you aren't really pulling in business....why continue to operate a local airport?

19.  With a court-order, Saar police would have access to all encrypted emails.

Openly discussed and a lot of privacy folks are against this.  Some believe it can be totally enforced....I doubt that.

20.  More special needs schools need to be built.

21. Any state-paid museum in the Saarland....should be free-entry.

22. In the Saarland, no new permits to be issued for brothels.

That's an odd factor about the state.  They seem to have more than average number of brothels and it's suggested that a fair number of French guys come across the border to utilize their services.  Locals are fed up with new brothels getting easy approval to open.   

23.  Some forest areas in the Saar region would be designed as zero-management and left to be natural forests.

24. Saar cities would have a limit on services (the normal stuff like water, electricity, etc).  

25.  Teachers starting out, would all get the same scale of pay (wouldn't matter if they were grammar, chemistry, or math).

Trend, the math/science crowd expect higher starting pay.  It'd be harder to recruit for their positions if this were a state policy.

26.  Allow the Ostertalbahn railway to operate.

27.  Put more state effort into recruiting manpower from outside of Germany.

28.  Allow state agency to permit more water flow into closed mines.  

29. Establish a women's quota for positions....in state agencies.

30.  Allow the state to help support a massive battery commercial operation in the state.

31. Mandate that the state deport all failed asylum seekers.

Some states are marginally deporting failed asylum folks.  If you asked regionally, probably over half want a failed applicant to be sent back to his homeland. 

32.  Mandate a fair sum of public transportation money to be used only for rural locations.  

Blunt statement....the Saarland is a heavily rural area, and there's just limited bus support in a fair sum of villages.

33. All demonstrations should be broke up, if in violation of Covid regulations.

Delicate topic.  In this state, there might be half the population who aren't fully supportive of strict regulations.  Police hate being the ones to enforce this.

34. If you have a relative who is bad-off (health-wise) and you provide care....the state should pay you a subsidy.  (note, no one says the precise amount on this)

35. If building a new residence, solar panels would be mandated.

Lot of disagreement here.  The term is never qualified....you might be talking about two lousy panels (providing marginal power) or twenty panels (sufficient).  All of these have age limits, meaning after about 15 years, their production of power is marginal.  Lot of people would allow them to just go non-op and never replace them....to get around the rule. Just to have a bare minimum under this rule?  You'd be talking about 5,000 Euro minimum, and for a normal house with full solar....probably near 20,000 Euro to add onto the cost of the new house.  

36.  Mandate Saar colleges with commercial companies.

Lot of heartburn with professors over this....some don't want any commercial relationship.

37. State should provide more 'gift-money' to operations that want to remember the negatives of Nazis.

Some would say it's money well spent.  Others would argue that it's time to move on.

38. Bring on 5G comms ASAP.

Maybe, but using fed/state money to make this happen?  

So, as you can see....there are unique features of this regional/state election....which typically don't come up in other states.  Normally, the CDU would be the big winner in the state election (folks are generally conservative there).  Right now, the SPD (left-of-center) is bumping the CDU on polls.   

I like the region for it's rural scenery and local food.