General Elections in Germany!

It's done! Our general elections took place yesterday, now I'm curious to hear what our German divas think, as well as if and how these elections were perceived internationally.

Here are the results (final results will take till Wednesday, but this is pretty reliable already) once more:

CDU/CSU (Christian Democratic Union, "the conservatives") 33,8
FDP ("the liberals") 14,6
SPD (Social Democrats) 23,0
Linke ("the Left") 11,9
Gruene (the Green Party) 10,7
(Other, small parties with no seats in parliament get about 6%)

What this means is that there will be a new coalition between the "conservatives" and the "liberals", and Angela Merkel of the "conservatives" will remain chancellor (due to the German election system, CDU/CSU and FDP have more than 50% of the seats in Parliament although they did not get more than 50% of the votes), while the Social Democrats suddenly find themselves in the opposition.

The Social Democrats lost about one third (!) of their voters, and also the conservatives have had losses in spite of "winning". The fact that their prospective partner in the coalition has such a relatively high percentage of votes will mean a lot of compromise. The smaller parties seem to be the real "winners".
What I feel personally is a kind of "reluctant relief" - relief because I have realized that many people in Germany feel the way I do, and reluctance because of the strong result of the liberals, which will give them a lot of influence in our future government. The liberals in Germany have a history of not being very reliant, so we'll have to wait and see.

However, these elections are mainly one thing - food for thought. Only 70% of Germans who have the vote went to the elections, meaning almost a third did not make use of their democratic right to vote, most of them claiming they didn't vote because of their general disappointment in politics.

I am not happy with the result. This will lead to more unemployment and longer hours for those who have jobs. The general age of retirement will be raised to something about 68 or 69, which basically will mean people will get lower pensions, as you will have to suffer substantial deductions if you have to retire before that age. Education will become a privilege for those who have money, attending university will be reserved for those who can pay for it instead of reserving it for those who have the talents.

The only good thing about the general election is that in four years the latest people will be asked to vote again.

Just a few thoughts on what you're writing. Let me say first that I am not a "Stammwähler", i.e. I have not "subscribed to" any party - I have voted in 4 general elections so far, and all in all I have voted for three different parties. I feel no party corresponds 100% to my ideas, voting, for me, is always compromise, and, yes, also sometimes "choosing the lesser evil" or "the devil you know".

I know that before the elections, the Green Party promised to lower the age of retirement to 63, which is basically a good idea, especially if you have a physically demanding job such as nurse or construction worker, or if you're unemployed because you'll never find a new job at age 63 --- but they didn't have any realistic concept of how to pay for that. It would have meant increasing the country's debts, at the expense of future generations.
The age of retirement has already been raised to 67, under a government that included the Social Democrats (which is basically cutting back on pensions by a different name). I think it is safe to say that the Social Democrats would never have supported lowering the age of retirement now, and since the Green Party would not have governed alone, nothing would have changed.
The sad fact is that the contract of generations that has financed old-age pensions so far is no longer working because fewer and fewer young employees have to finance more and more old-age pensioners. I have already got used to the fact that I won't be getting any pension I can live off, on the one hand because I studied at university and "lost" a lot of working time, on the other hand because by the time I reach that age, the whole system will have collapsed. It's not popular for the conservatives to say that our standard of living in old-age will largely depend on the measures we take privately, but I'm afraid it is still the truth, and a red-green government wouldn't be able to deny that either. There are merely two ways out of the pensions crisis --- one, create jobs and thus enable more people to pay into pensions, or two, change the whole system and finance pensions through taxes. No government in the past years has been able to do 1) or willing to attempt 2). Looking at the unemployment rates under the red-green government, I highly doubt they would have been able to create 4 million jobs out of nothing at all. The conservative party's programme explicitly takes into consideration possibility 2). It may not be the solution, but it would be a start.

Education. I work in education, so I'm definitely with you when it comes to improving education, investing into education, increasing the number of teachers, decreasing the number of students per class, and enabling everyone to benefit from higher education. However, I believe our education debacle is more complex than "a conservative government means education only for the rich, and a social democratic government means education for all". Even the FDP writes in their programme that it is their goal "to give everyone access to education, regardless of their wallet". Nobody believes them. When the SPD writes the same thing, everyone believes them. It's traditional. And truthfully, no politician, no matter of which party, gives a damn about education because they all, red and black alike, send their kids to independent schools and universities abroad!

Doing away with student fees (which are a social injustice, though one that exists in so many countries, and our fees are much lower than in England or the United States) won't mean that every child from a so-called "social hotspot" will come running to study at university.
The problems start at a very early age. A friend's sister is working at kindergarten. She is in charge of a group of 21 children coming from 18 different nations, most of them speaking little or no German. The German kids are often way behind the language development they are supposed to have because they are parked in front of the telly. I teach young adults of 18 or 19 years of age (most of them from a so-called "middle class background") who tell me they want to become English teachers and submit papers with as many as 20 spelling mistakes per page in spite of Microsoft Word, and are at a loss if you ask them who was the monarch of England when Shakespeare was alive.
When I look at things realistically, I have to say that education has always been a big topic in election campaigns and never one that has actually been considered important after the elections. It all comes down to empty promises because in Germany, education is "Ländersache", i.e. the different "states" have all the competence to say what happens in their schools and universities. The federal government has very little to say about that. Interestingly, the "states" that scored best in the PISA studies are Saxony and Bavaria, both of which have a central exam for the Abitur (and have conservative governments). I think we need standards, better qualified teachers, and better job prospects so our students know what they are studying for.

As for destroying jobs, that does not happen through politics. Politics cannot employ people, politics can only create circumstances that make it easier for companies to create jobs. That is what our old government used to try, and what the new one will continue, tax reliefs for companies, correcting "cold tax progression" so those who are working get more money out of their work (and have more money to spend, so companies make more money and can employ more people). But no one, regardless of the parties that sit in the government, can really force companies to create jobs. They might as well take all the advantages, keep the money and not create jobs. But I do not see how a red-green government would fare better than a black-yellow one in that respect.

I have no illusions about the conservative government. I believe they are going to raise the VAT, cut back on health care and renew the duration of nuclear power plants, none of which I'm crazy about. I'm not an enthusiastic conservative, no way --- but I'm a voter who has lost faith in social democracy, given an ex-chancellor who forced Germany into the Gazprom deal so he would have a job after leaving politics, given an Ypsilanti who turns to the extremist left, and an Ulla Schmidt who lets the country pay for her chauffeur's vacation in Spain from our tax money.