gelbes_gilatier (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
gelbes_gilatier) wrote2012-02-20 04:01 pm
gelbes_gilatier) wrote2012-02-20 04:01 pm
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Not My President.
The office of German Bundespräsident (President) is not half as powerful as that of the American, French or Russian President. It's mostly a ceremonial office and laws have to be signed by the President to become valid. I have only ever heard of exactly one President who refused to sign a law until it was changed (Horst Köhler, if I remember it correctly. Input, anyone?) so that's mostly ceremonial, too.
The German President, though, has a big moral and ethical significance. President speeches here are usually regarded and discussed widely, since the President is supposed to be one President for all (if s/he's member of a political party, they have to "deactivate" their party membership for the duration of their stay in office). A very important speech made by Christian Wulff, the President that recently had to resign over a credit affair, was the one when he said that "Islam is a part of a Germany", which, IMO, is one of the most important phrases uttered by a German politician in the last 10 or maybe even 20 years.
However, as mentioned before, Wullf had to resign last week and we have to go looking for a new President. There's been some speculation on who was going to be next one and on Sunday, the four (currenty, hrrhrr) biggest political parties CDU/CSU, FDP, SPD and the Greens decided on Joachim Gauck as their candidate. Every time one of them talks about him, they describe him as a joint candidate and one of consense between all political parties. They conviniently forget to mention the fact that a political party that represents 5 million voters in Germany wasn't even invited to the talks, the LINKE. Strike one on the unacceptability side.
Gauck was the SPD/Greens candidate in 2010 when a new President had to be elected after Horst Köhler resigned, whereas Christian Wulff was the CDU/CSU/FDP candidate (Luc Jochimsen was the LINKE candidate, BTW). Wulff narrowly beat Gauck in the election(and everyone was beating up the LINKE because they exercised their democratic right to vote for the candidate they deemed best. Let's not dwell on that now, shall we?) and people were hoping that would be the end of it. It wasn't, though, and now we're getting new elections (not by the people but representatives, BTW. The German President election is nearly as complicated as the US election...). Yay.
The thing is: Joachim Gauck is a sanctimonious asshole who thought Thilo Sarrazin was "brave" with his scatterbrained theories about Germans and Muslims living in Germany, called Occupy and capitalism critisicm "silly", doesn't think telecommunications data retention is the beginning of a Big Brother state a la 1984, doesn't acknowledge the Oder-Neiße line between Germany and Poland (which basically means that he doesn't accept the sovereignity of the state of Poland) and claims he was persecuted by East German authorities before the Wall came down when he basically arranged himself with the system.
How is it, for example, that his two sons could move freely to West Germany and he could freely visit them whenever he wanted to despite living in East Germany? My parents were SED members. And they never even saw their West German relations before the Wall came down. Because they were not allowed to go, not even as party members. Someone like Gauck, who claims he was persecuted and actually lived quite well in East Germany, is an affront to everyone who was persecuted. Apparently, he also spent over an hour alone in the Stasi archives in Rostock before everyone else could and it's still not clear what exactly he did in there and if there were any deliberate changes made to his Stasi records by him. Quite honestly, that makes all his statements regarding his persecution quite doubtable.
Honestly, this guy is Not My President. He's a stupid vain old coot, a sanctimonious asshole who preaches water and drinks wine, a parson who'll preach and lecture us for five years, encompassed in the halo of the myth of a civil rights activist. I'm considering emmigration. Maybe to Canada with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
apinkpanthress. Or Bavaria (0_noctifer_0's idea). I really don't want to have to bear his unctuous jibberish.
If anyone of you who read German would like to have some further info, here are some link collections:
indymedia
piratenpad
And I really like this taz article:
Besser: Ein Stinkstiefel namens Gauck
The German President, though, has a big moral and ethical significance. President speeches here are usually regarded and discussed widely, since the President is supposed to be one President for all (if s/he's member of a political party, they have to "deactivate" their party membership for the duration of their stay in office). A very important speech made by Christian Wulff, the President that recently had to resign over a credit affair, was the one when he said that "Islam is a part of a Germany", which, IMO, is one of the most important phrases uttered by a German politician in the last 10 or maybe even 20 years.
However, as mentioned before, Wullf had to resign last week and we have to go looking for a new President. There's been some speculation on who was going to be next one and on Sunday, the four (currenty, hrrhrr) biggest political parties CDU/CSU, FDP, SPD and the Greens decided on Joachim Gauck as their candidate. Every time one of them talks about him, they describe him as a joint candidate and one of consense between all political parties. They conviniently forget to mention the fact that a political party that represents 5 million voters in Germany wasn't even invited to the talks, the LINKE. Strike one on the unacceptability side.
Gauck was the SPD/Greens candidate in 2010 when a new President had to be elected after Horst Köhler resigned, whereas Christian Wulff was the CDU/CSU/FDP candidate (Luc Jochimsen was the LINKE candidate, BTW). Wulff narrowly beat Gauck in the election
The thing is: Joachim Gauck is a sanctimonious asshole who thought Thilo Sarrazin was "brave" with his scatterbrained theories about Germans and Muslims living in Germany, called Occupy and capitalism critisicm "silly", doesn't think telecommunications data retention is the beginning of a Big Brother state a la 1984, doesn't acknowledge the Oder-Neiße line between Germany and Poland (which basically means that he doesn't accept the sovereignity of the state of Poland) and claims he was persecuted by East German authorities before the Wall came down when he basically arranged himself with the system.
How is it, for example, that his two sons could move freely to West Germany and he could freely visit them whenever he wanted to despite living in East Germany? My parents were SED members. And they never even saw their West German relations before the Wall came down. Because they were not allowed to go, not even as party members. Someone like Gauck, who claims he was persecuted and actually lived quite well in East Germany, is an affront to everyone who was persecuted. Apparently, he also spent over an hour alone in the Stasi archives in Rostock before everyone else could and it's still not clear what exactly he did in there and if there were any deliberate changes made to his Stasi records by him. Quite honestly, that makes all his statements regarding his persecution quite doubtable.
Honestly, this guy is Not My President. He's a stupid vain old coot, a sanctimonious asshole who preaches water and drinks wine, a parson who'll preach and lecture us for five years, encompassed in the halo of the myth of a civil rights activist. I'm considering emmigration. Maybe to Canada with
apinkpanthress. Or Bavaria (0_noctifer_0's idea). I really don't want to have to bear his unctuous jibberish.If anyone of you who read German would like to have some further info, here are some link collections:
indymedia
piratenpad
And I really like this taz article:
Besser: Ein Stinkstiefel namens Gauck