European Politics

in the U.S that happens often. Ron Paul ran in the Republican primaries even though he is a libertarian, Trump ran Republican even though he's an idiot and Bernie Sanders ran Democrat even though he's an independent.
 
Yes, but this is the Norwegian Labour Party and they have close ties to the unions. Plus the parties in Norway don't have primaries like the US presidential election. The leader is elected by the party congress after being nominated by their electoral committee, and approved by the congress (unless another candidate chooses to challenge and gets more votes). Also, the current leader (Jonas Gahr Støre) was Minister of Foreign Affairs and later led the Ministry of Healthcare under the Stoltenberg government (2005-2013), so he wasn't an outsider when he became leader.

Anyway, the election results in the Norwegian general election are now ready. Prime Minister Erna Solberg (Conservative party) stays in office, the Labour Party did their worst election after World War 2, but the remaining opposition parties are strengthened.
 
jazz from hell said:
Agree with that: My new theory is that Weidel's extremely interested in bringing in her economic ideas, because economy is where she probably is brilliant in. In the AfD, she can very much shape the party's position in that subject, which in a traditional party she couldn't do that at all. Like that she hopes to have more influence on general national economic politics. And for that she's prepared to take the other bullshit.
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I agree with your assessment that she sees AfD as an opportunity to shape a political party towards her ideas, but I disagree with the rest. She is an economist, but she has not attracted much attention as an economic politician. She has no unique ideas, and all her statements are the same as the party's. She may have played a part in shaping the party's economic ideas, I don't know - but she is not aiming to be elected as an economist. The topics she has been most prolific with in her statements are the usual populist banter of the party - anti-Islam, anti-refugee, anti-media. There is nothing unique about her political stance. I think she's been chosen as the face of her party because she is homosexual and aggressive, two excellent ways for AfD to gain and retain attention. A party that has no substance but anger and no platform but protest can only survive through attention and controversy.
 
Merkel is pretty good at keeping the country together, despite some unpopular actions. She listens to her opponents. Makes policy out of opposition. She's a stable factor, which is important for Europe's most important nation.
 
Forostar said:
Merkel is pretty good at keeping the country together, despite some unpopular actions. She listens to her opponents. Makes policy out of opposition. She's a stable factor, which is important for Europe's most important nation.
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That's a highly idealistic view. I oppose the idea of focussing on one single person on the top. We have a parliament, ministers, a supreme court, not to mention countless institutions on the various federal levels. This is a democracy, not a monarchy, ffs. It's not just Merkel, Merkel, Merkel. People aren't voting for the chancellor, they are voting for the parliament, no matter how much the electoral campaign tries to make it look otherwise. It's not the US. Moreover, this is the first time in the history of the Federal Republic that a far-right wing party will enter parliament, who have condoned acts of terrorism and put the crimes of the Nazis in relation, and it's precisely under the aegis of Merkel that this happened. This is not what I call 'keeping the country together'.
 
Perun said:
I oppose the idea of focussing on one single person on the top. We have a parliament, ministers, a supreme court, not to mention countless institutions on the various federal levels. This is a democracy, not a monarchy, ffs.
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Nicely put and probably applies to most places .. certainly does here
 
Perun said:
That's a highly idealistic view. I oppose the idea of focussing on one single person on the top. We have a parliament, ministers, a supreme court, not to mention countless institutions on the various federal levels. This is a democracy, not a monarchy, ffs. It's not just Merkel, Merkel, Merkel. People aren't voting for the chancellor, they are voting for the parliament, no matter how much the electoral campaign tries to make it look otherwise. It's not the US. Moreover, this is the first time in the history of the Federal Republic that a far-right wing party will enter parliament, who have condoned acts of terrorism and put the crimes of the Nazis in relation, and it's precisely under the aegis of Merkel that this happened. This is not what I call 'keeping the country together'.
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I am also looking at Merkel's role in the EU. I find most things she does pretty wise compared to other leaders in European nations.
 
That's legit. But personally, I am looking more at things domestically right now.
 
How do you think she, or her party if you prefer, influences domestic factors (causes, responds to), the ones you mentioned?
 
Perun said:
That's a highly idealistic view. I oppose the idea of focussing on one single person on the top. We have a parliament, ministers, a supreme court, not to mention countless institutions on the various federal levels. This is a democracy, not a monarchy, ffs. It's not just Merkel, Merkel, Merkel. People aren't voting for the chancellor, they are voting for the parliament, no matter how much the electoral campaign tries to make it look otherwise. It's not the US.
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Isn't this why Europe is generally looked upon as civil society? Belgium didn't have a functioning government for ages. Even my country, which is at the very EU bottom of progress, managed to function normally without cabinet and a PM for almost a year. Not only managed to function - people were starting to ask questions why the hell do we pay these people so much ;)
 
Forostar said:
How do you think she, or her party if you prefer, influences domestic factors (causes, responds to), the ones you mentioned?
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I'm not sure what domestic factors you mean... I mean, a government is always first of all responsible for domestic politics, no?
 
Perun said:
Moreover, this is the first time in the history of the Federal Republic that a far-right wing party will enter parliament, who have condoned acts of terrorism and put the crimes of the Nazis in relation, and it's precisely under the aegis of Merkel that this happened. This is not what I call 'keeping the country together'.
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Is it really fair to blame Merkel for this though? Far-right is rising across Europe as a reaction to the migrant crisis, what could she do to make sure Germany steered clear of such a reaction?
 
I'm certainly not putting all the blame on Merkel, but I am blaming the responsible governments and parties for failing to communicate their policies and strategies adequately to people who feel marginalised by them. This is not something Merkel and her party did alone - almost all parties have high-ranking officials who made grave errors in communication. This became a problem when critics of these policies became loud and rude, most prominently in the shape of Pegida and AfD, and instead of trying to reconnect to them, the concerning politicians further antagonised these critics by calling them Nazis, scum and the like. This, as I said, is not what I understand under the idea of keeping a country or its society together.
 
The Flash said:
Is it really fair to blame Merkel for this though? Far-right is rising across Europe as a reaction to the migrant crisis, what could she do to make sure Germany steered clear of such a reaction?
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Is it? I think that rise has been stalled with the loss of Le Pen and incapacity of the far right to take rule of any significant European economy. Ex. Warsaw Pact countries have strong right (logical) but you can't trend whole EU by several idiots in Hungary and Poland.

Edit for clarity; I think migrant crisis is down from its peak and so are cheap points that right/far right politicians could farm throughout affected European countries.
 
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