In the past month or two....my wife (German in nature) has been in the company of various people that I'd term 'working-class' Germans, where the topic of the election has come up.
Curiously, there hasn't been a single person putting forth a idea of support for the SPD, the CDU, the Linke Party, or the Greens.
Their frustration? It lines up as they'd like to vote all of them out...to 'send' a message.
What their anger is about? It's not one topic.
There's Covid. There's the economic situation given to them by Covid. There's still lingering anger over the past winter shutdown and curfew business. There's the hype of increased taxation coming (either sooner, or later). There's frustration with migration and integration. There's negativity about the recession....the cost of living, and increasing fuel prices. There's disapproval over the speed limit chatter, and push to bring about no in-country flights.
In some ways, this election has developed into a 2016-like US election....where a message is being sent.
Do I think that the polls in Germany are off? No. But I do think there's a freefall situation going on with both the CDU and Greens.....they both may lose another point or two over the remaining days. The FDP might gain another point or two in the meantime.
Are journalists grasping this general view of the working-class? Unknown. I'm not even sure if the polls reflect their feeling.
2 comments:
> Are journalists grasping this general view of the working-class?
They sure as L aren't here in the States. Most are looked on as "Presstitues" for the Left and are ridiculed or ignored. Politically and financially, there's a widespread "Last days of the Roman Empire" feeling.
As to that last, I also follow https://www.reddit.com/r/Wallstreetsilver/ a precious metals/silver-oriented site that has commenters from around the world. A few from Germany, as well as some articles, report that Germans are increasing their gold purchases due to the lingering memories/legends of the Weimar inflation. Hard to believe as it was so long ago, but I wondered if you have heard anything along the line of people stocking up "just in case".
On gold/silver private purchases...the one trend that you see in Germany is that 'legit' storefronts exist in most of the major cities now (type that you didn't see in the 1980s/1990s), and if you travel (via Dubai)....you see opportunities to buy gold/silver coins.
Average German is still skeptical of this being a wise investment choice. It's like E-currency, very few are willing to sit and discuss that as an option.
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