End Of A Era

 My German wife is a consumed shopper....who at the end of a 'trip'....must take the paper-receipt, and walking to the car....is analyzing the paper receipt for mistakes.  About every forty-odd trips to the grocery....she'll note that Huns-the-clerk double-swiped the can of soup or bag of chips.  This halts the path to the car....while she grabs me and the cart....dragging us back into the grocery to resolve the 'problem'.

This AM....I noted a German law being drafted. At some point in 2028....the receipt-crap will go digital.

What this means for a German?  You will have a choice as you pay and leave....with NO print-out....the grocery-store will allow you to e-mail the receipt to your personal account, or allow you to scan a QR-code to your cellphone.

NO more paper receipts.  

I haven't brought this up to the wife.....I'm pretty sure she'll get hyped-up.  

24 Sep 2026: Germany: 4 Stories

 1.  Coach Klopp (new national soccer coach for Germany) has three rules added....no wives on team trips, you need to get your haircut business done prior to practice (or afterwards), and no cellphones at practice.  

2.  Several key SPD Party figures are saying that they'd rather not join a Linke Party-led coalition in Berlin (city).  Talk centers on some radical lefty positions of the Linke Party.

3.  Police in Berlin did a raid....finding a stash of weapons and some Nazi symbol BS.  

4.  Drone alert at BER (Berlin's Airport)....shut down the airport for 45 minutes.

Oktoberfest New Drink

 Espresso Martini?

Sells for 16.50 Euro per glass.

Heavy espresso drink....served in a glass, with vodka and a bit of sugar added.  .2-liter.

Polling for Next Year's State Election in NRW (NW State of Germany)

Eight months away:

AfD leads with 24-percent....CDU at 22-percent.

Greens, 18-percent.  SPD, 14-percent.  Linke Party at 12-percent.

Bad sign for CDU?  Yeah.  

Have to also say....there is no campaigning underway.....roughly one out of four voters going with AfD message/brand. Also....odd factor....NRW has larger population of migrant/non-Germans....than most German states.

How Much Of Merz And The CDU's Problems are Economic In Nature?

I'm of the belief that if jobs were stable, taxes were cut, and Germany's economic issues were marginalized.....a lot of the discontent with Merz would dissolve.

Germany’s economy in the fall of 2026 is in a fragile, modest recovery after years of stagnation and recession. 

Since 2019?  It's a noticeable problem.  But you can go back to the early 1990s....when unification occurred, and point at various issues that started.

Forecasts for 2026 GDP growth range from about half-a-percent....to 1.3-percent....depending on the institute talking. 

Issues?  There's energy shock (over prices)....there's an aging and shrinking working-age population, increasing labor costs, bloated bureaucracy, weak private investment, and lost competitiveness in manufacturing versus China. 

Reform chatter?  Lot of it....but the Merz coalition have marginally delivered....with public support lessening each month.

Merz was voted in because he was mini-Trump-like in character....with expectations that he'd help to focus the country on changes necessary.  So far....it has not worked.  

23 Sep 2026: Germany: 5 Stories

 1.  Curious Sweden election problem.  Dalarna (center of the country....fairly rural.

So fraud investigation has opened up now three weeks after the election.  There was some guy from Somalia....who got Swedish citizenship 7 months ago....who was elected to parliament for the Left.  It's come out that 'some' folks (how many is never detailed)....were given cash in some way, and they had pre-filled ballots.  

The talk goes that a fresh new election might be required.  AI suggests in the range of 200,000 folks in the district would be 'called-upon' to vote again....if authorities agree.

2.  Maischberger public forum show from last night.  Odd situation....chatter over the Linke Party win in Berlin.  Guests from Greens and CDU....openly agreed....lot of the promises made by the Linke Party....are NOT achievable.  

Linke Party needs both the SPD and Greens to build a coalition.  

One odd promise.....less homework, and NO grades on classes up to the 10th grade.  Other promises....fewer police and more street-workers.

3.  ZDF (public TV, Channel 2) ran a 45 minute analysis of the Chancellor (Merz) and the CDU Party.  Fair assessment.

What they noted....the party is 'sick'....unable to really get voters engaged and peppy.  They aren't blaming just Merz....the whole top level is this way. 

Oddly, they ran this in prime-time (8:15 PM).

4.  Mercedes is having a public discussion.....production costs is now a problem.  Two plants in jeopardy of closing.

5.   Saxony-Anhalt coalition status?  BSW and AfD are working up an agreement.  Looks pretty sure now.

Why Germans Get 'Leave-Germany-Chatty' These Days?

 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s......you never heard Germans consumed to leave or exit Germany....if such-and-such political extreme won.  In the past ten years....between the Greens, the Linke and the AfD....I'd say around five to seven percent of Germans will get hyped-up and chatty....indicating they may 'HAVE' to leave Germany.  

My German wife occasionally gets this way....she works with people who talk like this.

Part of this....I blame on public TV with their forums, and 'voices-given-hard-left or hard-right activists'.

Some of this is left-over crap from the 1930s/1940s.....where people fear repeating the past.  Just watching Babylon Berlin....got my wife hyped-up.

A phobia-like stage?  I'm inclined to believe that.

Key problem?  It's mostly the next question....sure....go ahead and leave....where to?  That's typically where reality starts to fall into place, and the crowd can't identify anyplace that fits weather-wise, or economically.

Where this is leading onto?  I'm wondering by 2030....if we double the number of German-leave-folks.

Why Can't The CDU-CSU Build A Coalition With The AfD?

 Around seven years ago, I started to ponder this.  It's not a simple suggestion.

Presently?  If you count nationally.....between the CDU-CSU and AfD....they probably have around 60-percent of votes.  Of the sixteen states.....in some...they might have around 35-percent.  I'd say from about eight states....it's closer to 60-to-65 percent.  

The Merkel 'rule' not to hand-shake 'hands' with the 'far-right-extreme-right'?  Generally, she pressed hard that you as a CDU-CSU member....could never build partnerships with the AfD.  

Some of this 'design' was a Merkel effort to build the CDU after Kohl....into a center-center political organization....NOT a right-of-center organization. Some of this helped to persuade SPD-voters who were leaning slight toward the 'center'....to find voting trends/patterns with the CDU (rather than the SPD).

This way of thinking stuck around....from 2013 when migration started up and continuing up even to today.  

The personal pick of Merkel to replace her?  Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (AKK)....had this thought process and leaned the same way.  The Merkel-path for AKK?  It lasted about 18 months, then dissolved.  Fair number of CDU executive members....weren't that supportive of Merkel hand-picking AKK.

The 2nd 'pick'?  Armin Laschet, Premier-President of NRW.....goofed around and lost the 2021 election....bringing the Merkel ownership of the party to an end.

Olaf Scholz (the SPD Chancellor, up to 2025), and Merz?  They both kept the migration path in place from the Merkel era.

Yeah....they both talked about fixing the migration problem, or limiting entry, or adding more police powers/manpower. 

Why AfD's 'vision' can't find CDU support?  

I put this into four categories.

First, in individual states....there's probably 30 to 50 percent of CDU/CSU voters that would like to hear the coalition talks between the two.  The national leadership has to 'correct' this behavior on occasion.

Second, there's this perception of Nazi-crap.  Oddly, if you lined up the top ten players of the AfD....at least two of them use 1930s era quotes, and run campaigns that seem slightly hyped-up over past Nazi promises.  The bulk of CDU voters have a bitter 'taste' of this era and don't want to partner because of that.

Third, as much as AfD promises to deport 'problem-migrants' (there's upwards to 250,000 presently on a national deport-list (either because of failed asylum applications, crime, bad-boy behavior, etc). How this AfD deport effort would be fixed/resolved over the present program?  Unknown. 

Several countries on this bulk deport list...don't want the bad-boys back.  AfD can't answer how this would be fixed.  Some suggest just dumping them into Africa (after you pay them some bribe to accept them).

Some CDU-voters see a coalition effort as questionable because you can't clearly present a solution.

Fourth, and final....because of a crappy birth-rate....there's a national shortage of workers.  So the CDU-CSU (and SPD) folks....see a need to have migration.  Presently, the gov't says around 300,000-plus migrants with 'green-cards' are employed for retirement-homes, clinics, and hospitals.  

I can walk around Mainz and Wiesbaden....noting a couple of thousand non-Germans hired and paying taxes while working.  If I were on a humble guess....75-percent of migrants are fitting in and part of the German economy.  I went to the drink-shop yesterday....both the clerk and stock-guy....were migrants.  Couple of months ago...I stopped at a Burger King regionally....noting seven Sri Lankan ladies...manning the entire flipper-force.  

An odd part of this discussion?  I noted about a year ago in some German state election....the news crew had analyzed new incoming voter trends for the AfD.  There were x-number from the Greens, SPD, CDU and even Linke Party.  They weren't clear conservative types....they were just fed-up over crime, the lack of deportation, and the appearance of no one in charge of resolving bad-boy migrant issues. They'd like to fire someone, or some party....but can't seem to ID such a person or group.

Where things are going?

At some point....the economic stumbling will reach a stage where blame will be dished out, and neither the SPD or CDU-CSU folks can present themselves.  The AfD?  Well....if they were smart and grasped the evolving mess....they'd evolve their migration 'promise', and get into a Trump-like state of mind....fixing the economy, and stabilizing jobs. The key here?  You need the Ukraine-war ended....Russian natural gas to be turned-on, and the energy costs to be cut drastically.  

There is no simple fix, and the AfD is not the perfect coalition-partner to 'dance' with....but so far (up to the fall of 2026)....this 'dance-contest' and music has been a two-string banjo experience.